Deck 8: Foraging Behavior

Question 1

Which of the following is NOT true about the work conducted by Kulahci, Dornhaus, and Papaj (2008) on bees and Piep and colleagues' (2008) work on the foraging behavior of mouse lemurs?

A) Both studied foraging by individuals.
B) Both studied the use of multiple sensory cues by manipulating light levels.
C) Both used a simple choice test procedure.
D) Both found that feeding efficiency was enhanced by using multiple sensory cues.
E) Both found that the use of visual cues enhanced individuals' ability to find food.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Which of the following is involved in the evolutionary arms race between predator and prey and involves the search image concept?

A) Missed opportunity costs
B) Diminishing returns
C) Giving-up densities
D) Cryptic coloration
E) Quitting harvest rates

Answer 2

D

Question 3

A researcher examines the hunting success of a visual predator as it searches for cryptic prey. She finds that a forager's hunting success increases over time. Which of the following can explain this observation?

A) A change in the rate of diminishing returns
B) An increase in missed opportunity costs
C) A decrease in the quitting harvest rate
D) An increase in neuromasts over time
E) The formation of a search image

Answer 3

E

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT true of optimal foraging theory (OFT)?

A) It assumes that natural selection has favored feeding behaviors that maximize fitness.
B) It assumes that animals are optimal while feeding.
C) Many OFT models assume fitness is a positive function of energy intake rate.
D) The behavior predicted by OFT models is called the optimal behavior.
E) One example of an OFT model is the marginal value theorem.

Question 5

Which of the following is NOT true of the optimal diet model and the optimal patch-use model?

A) Both assume that there is no risk of predation.
B) Both predict the behavior that maximizes fitness.
C) Both assume that fitness is a function of energy intake rate.
D) Both assume that there are no competitors in the environment.
E) Both assume that all food patches contain the same food type.

Question 6

Which of the following is an important assumption of the optimal diet model?

A) Food patches contain identical food items.
B) The population contains both specialists and generalists.
C) Food items are encountered one at a time.
D) The travel time between patches is constant.
E) The hunger level of a forager affects its behavior.

Question 7

Using the information below, which item has the highest profitability?
$\begin{array}{|c|c|c|}\hline \text { Food Type } & \text { Energy (j) } & \text { Handling Time (s) } \\\hline \text { A } & 30 & 60 \\\hline \text { B } & 20 & 80 \\\hline \text { C } & 10 & 20 \\\hline \text { D } & 5 & 5 \\\hline \text { E } & 3 & 4 \\\hline\end{array}$

A) A
B) B
C) C
D) D
E) E

Question 8

Using the information below, which item do you predict will be included in the diet of both generalist and specialist foragers?
$\begin{array}{|c|c|c|}\hline \text { Food Type } & \text { Energy (j) } & \text { Handling Time (s) } \\\hline \text { A } & 30 & 60 \\\hline \text { B } & 20 & 80 \\\hline \text { C } & 10 & 20 \\\hline \text { D } & 5 & 5 \\\hline \text { E } & 3 & 4 \\\hline\end{array}$

A) B
B) C
C) D
D) E

Question 9

What is the zero-one rule?

A) A prediction of the optimal diet model that says that a food type is either always eaten or always rejected
B) A prediction of the optimal patch model that says that a patch should either be completely exploited or ignored
C) A prediction of OFT models that says that GUDs should always be zero or one
D) An assumption of the optimal diet model that says that diminishing returns begin at one and decline to zero
E) An assumption of OFT models that says that energy intake rate is either zero or one

Question 10

What assumption did Richardson and Verbeek (1986) make when testing the prediction of the optimal diet model in northwestern crows?

A) Clams of different sizes represented different food types
B) Individuals have different optimal diets
C) All clams have the same handling time
D) All clams have the same energy value
E) Crows need to learn how to feed on clams

Question 11

What data allowed Kaspari, Chang, and Weaver (2010) to conclude that ant foraging behavior is affected by nutrient limitation?

A) Recruitment to NaCl was highest where environmental NaCl was highest
B) Recruitment to NaCl was highest where environmental NaCl was lowest
C) Recruitment to sucrose was highest where environmental sucrose was lowest
D) Recruitment to sucrose was lowest where environmental sucrose was highest
E) Recruitment to NaCl was highest where environmental sucrose was lowest

Question 12

Which of the following is NOT an assumption of the optimal patch-use model?

A) Travel time between patches is constant
B) Individuals attempt to maximize their energy intake rate
C) All patches contain the same kind and amount of food
D) Food items differ in their profitability
E) Individuals experience diminishing returns in each patch

Question 13

What prediction of the optimal patch model did Tome (1988) test on ruddy ducks?

A) As travel time increases, individuals should spend more time in and harvest more items from a patch
B) Quitting harvest rates will be higher in rich compared to poor patches
C) Giving-up densities should vary with food patch quality
D) The marginal benefit of feeding should equal the missed opportunity costs of exploiting a patch
E) The cumulative gain curve should get steeper as more time is spent in a patch

Question 14

According to Brown's (1988) patch-use model, what can you predict when an individual exploits two identical patches that are side by side but differ in their initial amount of food?

A) A forager should harvest the rich patch to a higher quitting harvest rate
B) A forager should harvest the rich patch to a lower GUD
C) A forager should harvest the poor patch to a lower GUD
D) A forager should harvest both patches to the same giving-up density (GUD)
E) Brown's model cannot make a prediction in this case

Question 15

Consider three food patches that have the same predation risk and energetic costs but differ in their missed opportunity costs: patch A has the highest missed opportunity cost, while patch C has the lowest missed opportunity cost. What prediction does Brown's (1988) patch-use model make about how a forager will exploit these patches?

A) Patch A will have the highest GUD
B) Patch B will have the highest GUD
C) Patch C will have the highest GUD
D) All patches will have the same GUD

Question 16

You collect giving-up density data from three identical patches that are spaced 5 m apart in the environment at locations A, B, and C. Patch A is harvested to the lowest GUD, while patches B and C are harvested to the same higher GUD. What can you conclude from these data?

A) Foraging costs are lowest at location A
B) Foraging costs are highest at location A
C) Foraging costs are highest at location B
D) Foraging costs are highest at location C
E) Foraging costs are the same at all locations

Question 17

Bayesian estimation involves which of the following?

A) A combination of prior and sample information
B) The use of the marginal value theorem
C) Application of the concept of diminishing returns
D) The use of missed opportunity costs
E) Modification of food patch variance to test it

Question 18

What prediction did Biernaske, Walker, and Gegear (2009) test to investigate Bayesian estimation in foraging bees?

A) Bees trained on different environments will have different marginal benefits of feeding
B) Bees trained on different environments will exhibit different GUDs
C) Variation in behavior will match environmental variation
D) Bees trained in a high-variance environment will exhibit high variation in behavior
E) Bees trained on different environments will exhibit different patch-leaving behaviors

Question 19

Which of the following is a prediction of the producer-scrounger model.

A) The fitness of a scrounger is higher than a producer
B) The fitness of a producer is higher than a scrounger
C) The fitness of a producer equals that of a scrounger
D) The fitness of scroungers increases as they become more common
E) The fitness of producers increases as they become more common

Question 20

Which of the following was NOT used by Pohlmann and colleagues to conclude that catfish rely on their lateral line system to follow and capture prey?

A) Variation in light level affected capture success
B) Infrared videos revealed that catfish tended to follow the same movement path as their prey
C) Most fish with a nonfunctioning lateral line system attacked prey head-on
D) Control and gestation-ablated fish had similar high prey capture success rates
E) Fish with nonfunctioning lateral lines and ablated external taste receptors had different capture rates

Question 21

Explain why the fitness of the scrounger strategy declines as their frequency increases in a group.

Question 22

What two sources of information are used by a Bayesian forager? Describe an example.

Question 23

Explain how Herman and Valone (2000) used giving up densities in food patches to understand the perceived predation risk of a forager feeding at a patch.

Question 24

Describe the four assumption of the optimal patch-use model.

Question 25

Consider a bumblebee feeding on nectar in a patch of flowers. Draw a graph that illustrates the concept of diminishing returns in such a food patch. Be sure to label both axes.