Journal ArticleDOI
On the Theory of Optimal Diets
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Using techniques of stochastic theory, a new aproach to predicting optimal diets is developed for a mobile predator feeding on stationary prey, predicting that an animal feeding according to the dictates of the optimal diet should show no partial preferences.Abstract:
Using techniques of stochastic theory, I develop a new aproach to predicting optimal diets. The models developed are for a mobile predator feeding on stationary prey; however, the models can easily be extended to include mobile prey. Parameters used in the models are caloric content, time to pursue and density of each prey type, and the speed of the predator. Both clumped and random prey distribution are considered. The models predict the optimal diet of a predator faced with a variety of potential prey types. The optimal diet is predicted as the set of successive prey choices which maximizes the rate of caloric intake or, alternatively, minimizes the time required to find a food ration. Also predicted are the criteria for specialization and switching from a specialist diet to a generalist diet. The criteria for specialization and for switching are independent of the density of the alternate prey type. Also, a predator feeding so as to maximize the rate of caloric intake should take a prey on every encoun...read more
Citations
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Optimal foraging, the marginal value theorem.
TL;DR: This paper will develop a model for the use of a “patchy habitat” by an optimal predator and depresses the availability of food to itself so that the amount of food gained for time spent in a patch of type i is hi(T), where the function rises to an asymptote.
Journal ArticleDOI
Optimal foraging: A selective review of theory and tests
TL;DR: The general conclusion is that the simple models so far formulated are supported are supported reasonably well by available data and that the author is optimistic about the value both now and in the future of optimal foraging theory.
Citation classic - optimal foraging - a selective review of theory and tests
TL;DR: A review of the literature on optimal foraging can be found in this article, with a focus on the theoretical developments and the data that permit tests of the predictions, and the authors conclude that the simple models so far formulated are supported by available data and that they are optimistic about the value both now and in the future.
Journal ArticleDOI
Hippocampus, space, and memory
TL;DR: It is proposed that the hippocampus is selectively involved in behaviors that require working memory, irrespective of the type of material (spatial or nonspatial) that is to be processed by that memory.
Journal ArticleDOI
Optimal Foraging Theory: A Critical Review
TL;DR: It follows that the proportion of individuals in a population foraging in ways that enhance their fitness will tend to increase over time, and the average foraging behavior will increasingly come to be characterized by those characteristics that enhance individual fitness.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
The Role of Time and Energy in Food Preference
TL;DR: A model which relates optimal food preference relationships and caloric yield per unit time of potential food sources is derived and the terms pegmatype and pegmatypic mating are introduced to describe such mating preferences and such a mating system.
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Switching in General Predators: Experiments on Predator Specificity and Stability of Prey Populations
TL;DR: From a number of experiments it was concluded that in the weak—preference case no switch would occur in nature except where there is an opportunity for predators to become trained to the abundant species, and a patchy distribution of the abundant prey could provide this opportunity.
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Life history consequences of natural selection: Coles result revisited'
TL;DR: Some general results are proved to prove some general results on life-history strategies to give at least one answer to why there should be perennials.
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Models of Optimal Size for Solitary Predators
TL;DR: Models are presented which predict an optimal size, defined as that size which takes the least amount of time to satisfy its energy requirements, for several types of predators: I-predators which expend no time or energy in food search alone and which pursue their prey over varying distances; II-predation which expend time and energy while searching for items but none in pursuit; IIa and IIb-predator which expendTime and energy both in search and pursuit.