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Behavioural Ecology > Foraging > Flashcards

Foraging Flashcards

1
Q

What is foraging?

A

The process of obtaining food

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2
Q

What are the 4 stages involved in foraging in predators?
Clue - SACH

A
  1. Search
  2. Assessment
  3. Capture
  4. Handling
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3
Q

What is patch cycle foraging?
Give an example.

A
  • Foraging on aggregations/clusters of prey/food
  • E.g. birds feeding on berries
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4
Q

What are the 3 steps involved in patch cycle foraging?
Clue - SAE

A
  1. Search
  2. Assessment
  3. Exploitation
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5
Q

What is central place foraging?
Give an example.

A
  • Movement between foraging site & fixed place to which the animal returns with food
  • E.g. bird nest
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6
Q

What are the 4 steps involved in central place foraging?
Clue - SLRU

A
  1. Search
  2. Loading
  3. Return
  4. Unloading
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7
Q

What are foraging bout cycles?

A
  • Foraging that occurs in discrete periods interspersed with periods of other activities
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8
Q

What are the 4 steps involved in foraging bout cycles?
Clue - SEPO

A
  1. Search
  2. Eat
  3. Processing of food - digestion/assimilation
  4. Other activities - may overlap with digestion/assimilation
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9
Q

What does the optimal foraging theory state?

A

Animals can maximise their fitness by foraging in ways that increase the net rate of energy gain and decrease energy costs.

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10
Q

What are 4 benefits of optimal foraging?

A
  1. Less time foraging, I.e. less chance of predation
  2. More energy for other activities/processes
  3. Fitter (better immune system, ability to escape predators etc)
  4. Derive benefit from fewer resources when in short supply
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11
Q

What does diet width describe?

A
  • The range of foods consumed by an animal
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12
Q

What are generalists?

A
  • Animals that consume a large proportion of available prey/food it comes across
  • E.g. Red fox
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13
Q

Give 1 advantage & 1 disadvantage of generalists.

A

Advantage:
- Spend little time searching for food

Disadvantage:
- May eat items of low nutritional value so energy intake is often low

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14
Q

What are specialists?

A
  • Selective animals
  • Spend more time searching for specific food
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15
Q

Give 1 advantage and 1 disadvantage of specialists.

A

Advantage:
- Energy intake is often high

Disadvantage:
- Spend more time searching

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16
Q

What 3 predictions arise from optimal foraging theory?

A
  1. If handling times are short & search times are long = predator should be a generalist
  2. If handling times are long & search times are short = predator should be a specialist
  3. If environment is unproductive or unpredictable = predator should be a generalist
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17
Q

What is optimality modelling?

A
  • A tool for analysing foraging strategies or decisions’ of animals in terms of costs:benefits
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18
Q

What does the slope of the line on optimality models show?

A
  • Rate of energy intake
  • If slope is greater = more profitable
  • If slope is shallower = less profitable
19
Q

As search time for profitable prey increases, what happens to net intake & slope of line?

A

Decreases

20
Q

Give an example of a generalist.

A
  • Shore crabs
  • Larger mussels take too long to open & smaller ones have too little meat to be worthwhile
  • Usually eat a range of sizes around optimum
21
Q

What is the marginal value theorem?

A
  • Developed by Charnov (1973).
  • Describes the foraging behaviour of animals in patches.
  • Must decide when to leave a patch to start searching for a fresh one.
22
Q

What is a model?

A

A numerical or graphical representation of a hypothesis designed to predict a relationship

23
Q

Give an example of optimality modelling.

A
  • Prey choice model
  • Predator faced with 2 sizes of prey
  • 1 is more profitable than the other
  • Prey 1 is large with energy (E1) + handling time h1
  • Prey 2 is small with energy (E2) + handling time h2
24
Q

Describe a herbivore diet (3 points)

A
  • Low protein
  • Large quantities of indigestible material
  • Low nutrients
25
Q

What type of stomach do ruminants have?

A

Multi-chambered stomachs

26
Q

What are foregut fermenters?

A
  • Animals that digest food in foregut
  • Multi-chambered stomachs
27
Q

What is rumination?

A

The process of regurgitating food to breakdown plant matter further & stimulate digestion

28
Q

What are hindgut fermenters?

A
  • Animals that digest food in hindgut (colon)
  • Single-chambered stomachs
29
Q

Where is the main site for bacterial digestion in most large herbivores (e.g. a horse)?

A

Colon

30
Q

Where is the main site for bacterial digestion in smaller hindgut fermenters (e.g. a rabbit)?

A

Caecum

31
Q

What is coprophagy?

A

Where an animal reingests its own excreted faeces

32
Q

What is a disadvantage of being a hindgut fermenter rather than a foregut fermenter?

A
  • By the time food reaches caecum & colon, it has passed small intestine so less absorption of products of digestion is possible
  • Large numbers of dead microbes also cannot be digested, as they can in ruminants, where they pass from the rumen into the small intestine with the remainder of the partly digested food.
33
Q

Do small herbivores have a high or low mass-specific metabolic rate?

A

High

34
Q

What does the Jarman-Bell principle suggest?

A

Large-bodied mammalian herbivores can subsist on lower quality diets because of their lower metabolic requirement/gut capacity ratio

35
Q

Why do ruminants keep large fibre particles in the rumen until reduced to about 1mm?

A

To allow for more extensive microbial digestion but delays passage of food through gut

36
Q

Why are hindgut fermenters able to obtain more energy from an abundant food compared to ruminants?

A
  • They have higher passage rates of food through gut
  • Allows them to eat more, outweighing reduction in digestion efficiency
37
Q

If tall & shorter vegetation have similar digestibility, which is preferred?

A

Taller vegetation

38
Q

If taller vegetation has lower digestibility compared to shorter vegetation, which is preferred?

A

Shorter vegetation

39
Q

Give 3 mechanical/structural defences of plants.

A
  1. Thorns, spines & trichomes (fine hairs that may contain irritants)
  2. Resin or waxy coatings
  3. Armour (e.g. nuts)
40
Q

What are post-ingestion defences?

A
  • Digestion inhibitors & make plant cell walls indigestible to animals
  • The more ingested, the less nutrition the herbivore can gain from eating the plant
41
Q

Give 3 potential benefits to an animal that optimally forages?

A
  1. Predation risk decreases
  2. More energy for other activities
  3. ‘Fitter’
42
Q

Where is the main site for bacterial digestion in cows?

A

Rumen

43
Q

Give an example of a species that has a physical adaptation to optimally forage.

A
  • Egrets (heron)
  • Yellow feet on black legs
  • Used to hunt small fish as the feet either attract of disturb prey
  • Makes them easier to catch
  • By wading through water, egred can assess the density of prey.

Behavioural Ecology (10 decks)

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