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Foraging
Foraging is searching for wild food resources. It affects an animal's fitness because it plays an important role in an animal's ability to survive and reproduce. Foraging theory is a branch of behavioral ecology that studies the foraging behavior of animals in response to the environment where the animal lives. Behavioral ecologists use economic models and categories to understand foraging; many of these models are a type of optimal model. Thus foraging theory is discussed in terms of optimizing a payoff from a foraging decision. The payoff for many of these models is the amount of energy an animal receives per unit time, more specifically, the highest ratio of energetic gain to cost while foraging. Foraging theory predicts that the decisions that maximize energy per unit time and thus deliver the highest payoff will be selected for and persist. Key words used to describe foraging behavior include ''resources'', the elements necessary for survival and reproduction which have a l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Optimal Foraging Theory
Optimal foraging theory (OFT) is a behavioral ecology model that helps predict how an animal behaves when searching for food. Although obtaining food provides the animal with energy, searching for and capturing the food require both energy and time. To maximize fitness, an animal adopts a foraging strategy that provides the most benefit (energy) for the lowest cost, maximizing the net energy gained. OFT helps predict the best strategy that an animal can use to achieve this goal. OFT is an ecological application of the optimality model. This theory assumes that the most economically advantageous foraging pattern will be selected for in a species through natural selection. When using OFT to model foraging behavior, organisms are said to be maximizing a variable known as the currency, such as the most food per unit time. In addition, the constraints of the environment are other variables that must be considered. Constraints are defined as factors that can limit the forager's ability ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marginal Value Theorem
The marginal value theorem (MVT) is an optimality model that usually describes the behavior of an optimally foraging individual in a system where resources (often food) are located in discrete patches separated by areas with no resources. Due to the resource-free space, animals must spend time traveling between patches. The MVT can also be applied to other situations in which organisms face diminishing returns. The MVT was first proposed by Eric Charnov in 1976. In his original formulation: "The predator should leave the patch it is presently in when the marginal capture rate in the patch drops to the average capture rate for the habitat." Charnov, E. L. 1976. Optimal foraging: the marginal value theorem. Theoretical Population Biology 9:129–136 Definition All animals must forage for food in order to meet their energetic needs, but doing so is energetically costly. It is assumed that evolution by natural selection results in animals utilizing the most economic and efficient str ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tool Use By Animals
Tool use by non-humans is a phenomenon in which a non-human animal uses any kind of tool in order to achieve a goal such as acquiring food and water, Personal grooming, grooming, combat, defence, Animal communication, communication, Play (activity), recreation or animal architecture, construction. Originally thought to be a skill possessed only by humans, some tool use requires a sophisticated level of cognition. There is considerable discussion about the definition of what constitutes a tool and therefore which behaviours can be considered true examples of tool use. A wide range of animals, including mammals, birds, fish, cephalopods, and insects, are considered to use tools. Primates are well known for using tools for hunting or gathering food and water, cover for rain, and self-defence. Chimpanzees have often been the object of study in regard to their usage of tools, most famously by Jane Goodall, since these animals are frequently kept in captivity and are closely related t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Predation
Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common List of feeding behaviours, feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill the Host (biology), host) and parasitoidism (which always does, eventually). It is distinct from Scavenger, scavenging on dead prey, though many predators also scavenge; it overlaps with Herbivore, herbivory, as Seed predation, seed predators and destructive frugivores are predators. Predation behavior varies significantly depending on the organism. Many predators, especially carnivores, have evolved distinct hunting strategy, hunting strategies. Pursuit predation involves the active search for and pursuit of prey, whilst ambush predation, ambush predators instead wait for prey to present an opportunity for capture, and often use stealth or aggressive mimicry. Other predators are opportunism, opportunistic or om ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trigona Fulviventris
''Trigona fulviventris'', known by the common names ''culo-de-vaca'', ''culo-de-señora'', ''mu'ul-kab'', ''culo-de-buey'', and ''culo-de-vieja'', is a species of stingless bee found in Mexico and neotropical regions of Central and South America. It is one of the largest and most widespread bees of its genus. They exhibit complex foraging behaviors by integrating spatio-temporal learning and flower scents. ''T. fulviventris'' has traditionally been observed to abstain from aggressive behavior with other species; however, more recent analyses have shown that ''T. fulviventris'' emit pheromones that act as attack signals particularly when related individuals are captured by predators. Taxonomy and phylogeny ''Trigona fulviventris'' was first described by Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville in 1845. It is a member of the order Hymenoptera, which includes ants, bees, wasps, and sawflies and part of the family Apidae, which includes other bees such as bumble bees, honey bees, and orc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Behavioral Ecology
Behavioral ecology, also spelled behavioural ecology, is the study of the evolutionary basis for ethology, animal behavior due to ecology, ecological pressures. Behavioral ecology emerged from ethology after Niko Tinbergen outlined Tinbergen's four questions, four questions to address when studying animal behaviors: what are the proximate causes, ontogeny, Adaption, survival value, and phylogeny of a behavior? If an organism has a trait that provides a selective advantage (i.e., has adaptive significance) in its environment, then natural selection favors it. Adaptive significance refers to the expression of a trait that affects fitness, measured by an individual's reproductive success. Adaptive traits are those that produce more copies of the individual's genes in future generations. Maladaptive traits are those that leave fewer. For example, if a bird that can call more loudly attracts more mates, then a loud call is an adaptive trait for that species because a louder bird mates ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Goss-Custard
John D. Goss-Custard is a British behavioural ecologist; he was one of the first scientists to carry out field work on foraging behaviour making use of optimising models, specifically the optimal diet model. After completing a BSc degree in Zoology at the University of Bristol, he moved to the University of Aberdeen to carry out research for a PhD degree, which he was awarded in 1966. The University of Aberdeen awarded him its DSc degree in 1987. Goss-Custard's PhD was based on the study of foraging in the Common Redshank. Subsequently, he worked at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology's Furzebrook Research Station at Wareham, Dorset, leading an extensive project on the foraging of overwintering Eurasian Oystercatchers on the estuary of the River Exe. This project led to one of the first uses of agent-based modelling to predict ecological relationships in an extended landscape; the model, developed for the Exe estuary, was subsequently tested successfully on the Wash. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Primates
Primates is an order of mammals, which is further divided into the strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and lorisids; and the haplorhines, which include tarsiers and simians ( monkeys and apes). Primates arose 74–63 million years ago first from small terrestrial mammals, which adapted for life in tropical forests: many primate characteristics represent adaptations to the challenging environment among tree tops, including large brain sizes, binocular vision, color vision, vocalizations, shoulder girdles allowing a large degree of movement in the upper limbs, and opposable thumbs (in most but not all) that enable better grasping and dexterity. Primates range in size from Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, which weighs , to the eastern gorilla, weighing over . There are 376–524 species of living primates, depending on which classification is used. New primate species continue to be discovered: over 25 species were described in the 2000s, 36 in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apoica Flavissima
''Apoica flavissima'' is a paper wasp found primarily in South America. The species is distinguishable by its light coloring, unique single comb nests, and nocturnal nature. A notable feature of this species is the size dimorphism between queens and workers. Unlike most Vespidae wasps, ''Apocia flavissima'' queens are smaller than their worker counterparts which results in unique intraspecies relationships. Taxonomy and phylogeny Originally, ''Apoica flavissima'' was thought to be a variety of '' Apoica pallens'' because of similar color and physical characteristics. It was not until 1972 that J. Van Der Vecht identified that three distinct species were mistakenly being categorized as one. Today, ''A. pallens'', ''A. flavissima'', and ''A. gelida'' are identified by differences in male genitalia. In addition, distinction can be made through slight color differences. While ''A. flavissima'' are entirely pale yellow, ''A. pallens'' are mostly yellow but have brown legs. Phylogeneti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric Charnov
Eric Lee Charnov (born October 29, 1947) is an American evolutionary ecologist. He is best known for his work on foraging, especially the marginal value theorem, and life history theory, especially sex allocation and scaling/allometric rules. He is a MacArthur Fellow and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Two of his papers are Science Citation Classics. Charnov gained his B.S. in 1969 from the University of Michigan and his PhD in evolutionary ecology from the University of Washington in 1973. He is a Distinguished Professor (Emeritus) of Biology at the University of New Mexico and the University of Utah. His research interests are: metabolic ecology (temperature and body size in the determination of biological times and rates) and evolutionary ecology: population genetics, evolutionary game theory, and optimization models to understand the evolution of life histories, sex allocation, sexual selection Sexual selection is a mechanism of evolution i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Krebs
John Richard Krebs, Baron Krebs, FRS (born 11 April 1945) is an English zoologist researching in the field of behavioural ecology of birds. He was the principal of Jesus College, Oxford, from 2005 until 2015. Lord Krebs was President of the British Science Association from 2012 to 2013. Early life and education John Krebs is the son of Sir Hans Adolf Krebs, the German biochemist who described the uptake and release of energy in cells (the Krebs cycle). He was educated at the City of Oxford High School, and Pembroke College, Oxford, where he obtained a BA degree in 1966, upgraded to an MA degree in 1970, and received a DPhil degree in 1970. Career He held posts at the University of British Columbia and the University College of North Wales, before returning to Oxford as a University Lecturer in Zoology, with a fellowship at Wolfson College, Oxford, then Pembroke. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1984. From 1988 to 2005, he held a Royal Society Research Pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dolphins
A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the cetacean clade Odontoceti (toothed whale). Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the brackish dolphins), and possibly extinct Lipotidae (baiji or Chinese river dolphin). There are 40 extant species named as dolphins. Dolphins range in size from the and Maui's dolphin to the and orca. Various species of dolphins exhibit sexual dimorphism where the males are larger than females. They have streamlined bodies and two limbs that are modified into flippers. Though not quite as flexible as Pinniped, seals, they are faster; some dolphins can briefly travel at speeds of or leap about . Dolphins use their conical teeth to capture fast-moving Predation, prey. They have well-developed hearing which is adapted for both air and water; it is so well developed that some can survive even if they are blind. Some species are w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
