Abstract
Organisms such as starlings and honeybees appear to forage based on the marginal value theorem. This experiment tested whether humans could forage in like manner. An equal number of students took long and short routes to the foraging patch and collected simulated food items in a way that simulated diminishing marginal returns. Data on travel time, foraging time, and number of food items collected were collected. The data differed significantly from the calculated optimal values. This may be a result of low number of trips between the foraging patch and the simulated dwelling.
Introduction
When animals forage, many factors become involved. They include the location of the food, its distance from the animals’ dwelling, and the quantity to be returned, among other things. Economic models, such as the marginal value theorem, can be used to predict the outcomes of many of these factors.
According to the marginal value theorem (Fig. 1), the food intake rate of the forager decreases with the time spent in the foraging patch (Charnov 1974).
Fig. 1. A graph of the marginal value theorem from Krebs (1993). The asymptotic curve represents food intake. The optimal number of food items to take is found by drawing a line from the travel time to the patch to the steepest point possible on the curve.
This model can be applied to a wide range of situations based on the factor to be maximized. Honeybees apparently maximize energetic efficiency, but other factors are possible (Schmid-Hempel et al. 1985). For example, the starling (Sturnus vulgaris) apparently maximizes feeding rate according to the marginal value theorem (Kacelnik 1984).
Our objective was to determine whether humans would optimize foraging behavio...
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...ee. Those numbers match ours more closely. However, Schmid-Hempel et al. found that honeybees maximize energy efficiency rather than number of food items per run. Repeating our experiment with a factor other then number of M & Ms to maximize may yield more interesting data about the ways in which the student sample would forage.
Works Cited
Charnov, E. L. 1974. Optimal Foraging, the Marginal Value Theorem. Theoretical Population Biology, 9, 129-136.
Kacelnik, A. 1984. Central Place Foraging in Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). I. Patch Residence Time. Journal of Animal Ecology. 53, 283-299.
Krebs, J. R. & Davies, N. B. 1993. An Introduction to Behaviourial Ecology. Oxford: Blackwell.
Schmid-Hempel, P., Kacelnik, A., & Houston, A. I. 1985. Honeybees Maximize Efficiency by Not Filling Their Crop. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 17, 61-66.
...l; Retired, formerly apiculturist, U.S. Department of Agriculture. BEEKEEPING IN THE UNITED STATES; AGRICULTURE HANDBOOK NUMBER 335 Revised October 1980; Pages 2 – 9
Pollan, M. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York. Random. 2006. Print
Gardner, Christopher. Notes from the Doc Talks. Stanford University. Web. April 10, 2014. Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York:
Predators called prudent predators select prey of the highest quality and will switch prey when other foods become more profitable. Prudent predators show preference for the prey they consume, in order to maximise net energy gain per unit time. An important factor in predation-prey interactions is the rate at which individual predators can capture individual prey items. The response of the predator consumption rate to increases in prey density is called the functional response
Thomas, Pat. "Give Bees a Chance." Ecologist (London, England) Vol. 37, No. 5. June 2007: 30-35. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 03 Apr. 2014.
Loder, Natasha, Elizabeth Finkel, Craig Meisner, and Pamela Ronald. “The Problem of What to Eat.” Conservation Magazine. The Society for Conservative Biology, July-Sept. 2008. Web. 16 Dec. 2009.
Taste Aversion has offered theoretical insight, which have practical applications (Walker 1995). For instance, the idea of taste aversion has been utilized by attempting to control the predatory habits of coyotes in the United States. It was found that after feeding the coyotes with the flesh of a lamb treated with lithium chloride, coyotes then were less likely to attack lambs (Walker 1995).
...nt”. So it is clear that catastrophic scenarios could very well ensue if CCD is not reversed to save the honeybee. The environment suffering greatly and collapsing will have a direct impact on our daily lives and forever change the way we eat.
Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York: The Penguin Press, 2006. Print.
This type of writing is not meant for leisurely reading; it is meant to translate and share scientific findings amongst agriculturalists. Therefore, scientific writing is not always entertaining to read, sometimes, it can be difficult to understand and challenging to digest the material in its entirety. Even more so, articles, written academically, will possess visual literacy, mathematical literacy, data, and technical vocabulary; these variables will display the information in a different presentational form. In the article, Seasonal comparison of daily activity budgets of gray squirrels in an urban area, the authors choose to present the reader with tables, mathematical literacy, and charts representing the given data of the daily activity budgets of squirrels. Gonzales, Nilon, and Parker decided to use tables and graphs to help the reader better understand the written information with a visual representation of the data; sometimes it is easier to visually see data than to read
while never exceeding a max of 6 miles from the nearest water source while grazing. At
The Optimal Foraging Theory Abstract. Ý The theory of optimal foraging and its relation to central foraging was examined by using the beaver as a modelÝ (summarizes the Introduction). Beaver food choice was examined by noting the species of woody vegetation, status (chewed vs. not-chewed), distance from the water, and circumference of trees near a beaver pond in North Carolina (summarizes the Methods).Ý Beavers avoided certain species of trees and preferred trees that were close to the water. Ý
Lebel, François, et al. "Influence Of Habitat Features And Hunter Behavior On White-Tailed Deer Harvest." Journal Of Wildlife Management 76.7 (2012): 1431-1440. Environment Complete. Web. 22 Apr. 2014.
Honey bees look for a new nest site when a colony grows too large for their present nest. During this process, some of the colony stays, and the others leave to establish a new colony. Half of the workers in the colony along with the mother queen bee leave the nest to find a new one, while the rest of the workers and one of the daughter queen bees remains in the nest to continue the colony. The bees leave the nest in a swarm, and group at a nearby site, where some bees then go their separate ways and search for a new nest site. This process was originally studied by Martin Lindeur (1955).
But there is always bad news: gathering an insect meal from your garden to make a decent lunch is just too difficult. You would need too many of them to make up your calorie intake. Our colder climate produces very few bugs compared to hotter countries like Thailand and China. You are probably more likely to burn more calories hunting and digesting your lunch than you would get in return form eating it. But will we really need to hunt our own food?