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PSYC 3280 Foraging Lecture

Chapter 11 discusses foraging behaviors in animals, emphasizing the importance of finding food for survival and reproduction. It introduces Optimal Foraging Theory, which predicts animal decisions based on maximizing benefits and minimizing costs, and outlines various models such as prey and patch models. Additionally, it explores the benefits of group foraging, the role of the brain in foraging abilities, and the concept of social learning among foragers.

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75 views34 pages

PSYC 3280 Foraging Lecture

Chapter 11 discusses foraging behaviors in animals, emphasizing the importance of finding food for survival and reproduction. It introduces Optimal Foraging Theory, which predicts animal decisions based on maximizing benefits and minimizing costs, and outlines various models such as prey and patch models. Additionally, it explores the benefits of group foraging, the role of the brain in foraging abilities, and the concept of social learning among foragers.

Uploaded by

rexxitout
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chapter 11

Foraging

Ezekiel Gading
TAs: Nicky Sztohrynec & Zacchary Nabaee-
Tabriz
Housekeeping
• Questions about kinship?
Cooperation?
• Exam next week, MC 60-65 items
⚬ Can be done in 90 minutes but
you get full class time
⚬ Bring ID
⚬ No use of tech during exam.
⚬ Whatever we talked about in
class! No picky questions fom
texbook!
Foraging

Recall the definition of animals!


• They eat other organisms
Eating is necessary for survival. If
you don’t survive long enough to
reproduce, how bad is your
fitness?
Outline

• Finding food
• Optimal Foraging Theory
⚬ Deciding what to eat
(Prey Models)
⚬ Deciding where to eat
(Marginal Value
Theorem)
• Eating with others
Finding
Food
Finding Food
Great to see some examples of
foraging behaviours
Trials of life: Finding Food
Optimality
Models
Optimal Foraging Theory
Remember: Behaviour persists in a
population if:
B>C
When animals decide what or where to eat,
their decisions must maximise benefits and
minimise costs.

Optimal foraging theory- turns this


statement into calculable models.
• Allows us to predict what an ‘optimal’
Optimal Foraging
Theory
Three Typical Components
of Optimality Models
1) Animals must make a
decision or choose a
strategy (out of a range of
possible options or behaviours).
• Not a conscious decision.
Optimal Foraging
Theory
Three Typical Components
of Optimality Models
2) Currency must be specified
• What are the animals
optimising?
• Energy? Time?
• Unlike previous topics we’re
not directly measuring
Optimal Foraging
Theory
Three Typical Components
of Optimality Models
3) Constraints on the animals
exist
• Limits to what an animal can
do
• or limits in the environment
(e.g., rate nectar is replenished
2 Kinds of Optimality
Models
Prey Patch
models
• Diet selection •models
Based on
• Based on how long a
what an forager
animal should stay
should eat in a place
What to eat: Prey
Models
something to eat (either another
animal or plant)
Decis Curre Constr
ion ncy aint
Handling
Caloric
eat a time
intake
prey (catching/
(rate of
item or subduing
energy
not prey,
intake
What to eat: Prey
Models
When choosing between the two
items:
Energy Energy
derived VS derived
from item from item
Search
1 or Search
2 or
handling handling
time for time for
item 1 item 2
What to eat: Prey
Models
Choose the more profitable
item when you’re likely to
encounter it.
⚬ Ignore less profitable
items when more
profitable items are
relatively more likely to
Prey Models
NOTE:
Animals are
NOT
There areperfectly
other currencies: minimising
search time, minimising toxin intake
etc.
Prey Models: Other
Constraints
• Animals need to sample the
environment to learn what’s out
there.
⚬ e.g., encounter rate
• Some animals need to learn what
prey looks like.
• Some have evolved to find certain
prey easily
Figure 1 reproduced from Bond, A. B., & Kamil, A.
C. (1998). Adaptive specialization in the evolution
of shape recognition. Nature, 395(6704), 594–596.
https://doi.org/10.1038/26961
Where to eat: Patch
Food is notModels
evenly distributed.
It could be clumpy or patchy
Do you
stay in
an
area or
do you
go to a
Where to eat: Patch
Models
Charnov’s Marginal
Value Theorem (1976)
Decis Curre Constr
ion ncy aint
Do you Rate of • travel
stay in a energy time
patch or intake • How
do you much
go find a food is
Where to eat: Patch
Charnov’sModels
Marginal Value
Theorem (1976)
Decision: Stay in a patch until
you can do better elsewhere
including time costs
• Animals are not perfectly
optimal
⚬ They don’t have all the
info about patch density
Other Models
All based on optimality

Central
Foragers
• Some animals collect food and carry
food home
• Models account for distance from
home, how much food they can
carry, time in patch.
• Rats, bees in hives, nesting birds
Other Models
All based on optimality
Risk Sensitive
• Considers risk in variability of food
Foraging
availaibilty
⚬ like gambling
• Do you choose a stable patch with
consistent food availability or a variable
patch with 50% chance of no food and 50%
chance of 2x the amount of food?
• Some species are risk averse and some
Other Models

• Group foraging- need to


account for competitors (e.g.,
gorillas)
• Foraging and predator
presence- vigilance for
predators in many species as
they forage.
Other Models
• Specific nutritional
constraints-
⚬ Need to collect a
certain quantity of
particular nutrient
⚬ hunger for sodium
in moose.
⚬ Choosy pandas and
Foraging In
Groups
Benefits: Sharing
Information
Benefits: Reduced Vigilance
For Predators
Remember the
meerkats?
Some individuals
can watch whilst
others forage
Benefits: Divide Tasks

Ants, bees, lions


Mechanisms
Foraging and The Brain
• Hippocampal Volume and
Foraging
⚬ Food storing birds have
bigger hippocampal volume
than non-food storing birds
⚬ What is the hippocampus
for?
⚬ London taxi drivers
Foraging and The Brain
• Forebrain and Foraging
⚬ Better at foraging
innovations
⚬ What is the forebrain for?
⚬ Crows
⚬ Primates
Ability to Plan For The
Future
• Useful strategy for foragers
⚬ Western scrub jays (food
cachers)
⚬ Will cache more food the
night before in cages
where they consistently
did not get breakfast.
Social Learning

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