"This book should prove to be an extremely important and most welcome contribution to the field. The text collects and clearly conveys the most significant results obtained in foraging theory over the past ten years. The authors make the arguments accessible and very useful both to beginning graduate students and to professionals working in the field."
-Thomas Caraco, State University of New York at Albany
This account of the current state of foraging theory is also a valuable description of the use of optimality theory in behavioral ecology in general. Organizing and introducing the main research themes in economic analyses of animal feeding behavior, the authors analyze the empirical evidence bearing on foraging models and answer criticisms of optimality modeling. They explain the rationale for applying optimality models to the strategies and mechanics of foraging and present the basic "average-rate maximizing" models and their extensions. The work discusses new directions in foraging research: incorporating incomplete information and risk-sensitive behavior in foraging models; analyzing trade-offs, such as nutrient requirements and the threat of being eaten while foraging; formulating dynamic models; and building constrained optimization models that assume that foragers can use only simple "rules of thumb." As an analysis of these and earlier research developments and as a contribution to debates about the role of theory in evolutionary biology, Foraging Theory will appeal to a wide range of readers, from students to research professionals, in behavioral ecology, population and community ecology, animal behavior, and animal psychology, and especially to those planning empirical tests of foraging models.
Author(s): David W. Stephens, John R. Krebs
Series: Monographs in Behavior and Ecology
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Year: 1986
Language: English
Pages: 259
Tags: ecology, foraging behavior, decision theory, evolution, statistics, dynamic programming, Markov decision process, average-rate maximizing, optimality, marginal value theorem, bumblebees, explore vs exploit, reinforcement learning, constraints, risk aversion, prey model, patch model, diminishing marginal returns, Value of Information, zero-one rule, subjective Bayesian statistics, utility, Bayesian search, game theory, linear programming, tracking model, opportunity cost, optimal stopping rules,
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
1. "Foraging Economics: The Logic of Formal Modeling"
1.1. Introduction
1.2 The Elements of Foraging Models
1.3 Decision Assumptions
1.4 Currency Assumptions
1.5 Constraint Assumptions
1.6 Lost Opportunity
1.7 Summary
2 Average-Rate Maximizing: The Prey and Patch Models
2.1 Some General Comments
2.2 The Prey Model: Search or Eat?
2.3 The Patch Model: How Long to Stay?
2.4 Combining the Prey and Patch Models
2.5 Limitations
2.6 More Decisions for the Average-Rate Maximizer
2.7 Summary
3. "Average-Rate Maximizing Again: Changed Constraints"
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Sequential versus Simultaneous Encounter
3.3 Exclusivity of Search and Handling
3.4 Prey Choice with Sequential Dependence
3.5 Travel Restrictions and Central-Place Foraging
3.6 Nutrients and Toxins as Constraints
3.7 Recognition Constraints
3.8 Conclusion
3.9 Summary
4. "Incomplete Information"
4.1 Introduction
4.2 The Value of Recognition
4.3 Tracking a Changing Environment
4.4 Patch Sampling
4.5 How Are These Problems Related?
4.6 Summary
5. "The Economics of Choice: Trade-offs and Herbivory"
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Economics of Consumer Choice
5.3 Economic Choice and Animal Psychology
5.4 Studies of Trade-offs: Birds are Tame in Winter
5.5 Nutrients and Diet Choice by Herbivores
5.6 Summary
6. "Risk-Sensitive Foraging"
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Risk and Utility
6.3 Risk-Sensitive Feeding Behavior
6.4 Shortfall Models of Risk Taking: The Z-Score Model
6.5 A Descriptive Model of Risk Taking
6.6 Impulsiveness, Hunger, and Time Discounting
6.7 Summary
7. "Dynamic Optimization: The Logic of Multi-Stage Decision Making"
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Solving for Decision Functions: The PMP
7.3 Trade-offs and Dynamic Optimization
7.4 Conclusions
7.5 Summary
8 "More on Constraints: Rules of Thumb and Satisficing"
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Behavioral Constraints: Rules of Thumb
8.3 The Performance of Rules of Thumb
8.4 Rules of Thumb: Experimental Evidence
8.5 Rules for Switching on Concurrent Schedules
8.6 Satisficing and Constraints
8.7 Concluding Remarks: Constraint versus Design
8.8 Summary
9. "Testing Foraging Models"
9.1 Foraging Models and Data
9.2 Testing Foraging Models
9.3 How Well Does Foraging Theory Do?
9.4 Pitfalls in Testing Foraging Models
9.5 Sufficient Tests?
9.6 Summary
1O. "Optimization Models in Behavioral Ecology: The Spandrel Meets Its Arch-Rival"
10.1 Introduction
10.2 What Is Wrong with Optimization Models?
10.3 Optimization and Newton's Second Coming
10.4 Alternatives to Optimization?
10.5 Summary
- References and Index of Citations
- Subject Index
