Resources

Question 1

Food Quality

Answer 1

High quality food, such as fruit, is rare and spread out. Low quality foods, foliage, is everywhere are easily acquired.

Question 2

Patch Variability

Answer 2

Fruits and flowers are highly seasonal, whereas foliage is constantly renewed.

Question 3

Scramble Competition

Answer 3

No other individual is stopping one from entering or feeding in a food patch but is there more advantage to going elsewhere? On average everyone does as well as each other.

Question 4

Contest Competition

Answer 4

High quality patches are being defended so does the risk of fighting worth the benefit of gaining access to the patch. If one is excluded from all patches they must risk predation to find food.

Question 5

Harper 1982. Ideal Free Ducks

Answer 5

In area 1 there is more food but also more ducks. Area 2 there are less ducks but also less food. How should they be distributed?

Question 6

Ideal Despotic Distribution Theory

Answer 6

This predicts that the quality of a habitat controlled by territorial animals should vary depending on their competitive ability and the availability of resources. It makes more sense to to travel to many low quality patches than to control a low quality patch since the high quality patches will be controlled by ruling males.

Question 7

Benefits and Costs of Defence

Answer 7

Cost worthy to control a large area with not much food init as one would spend more calories patrolling then on what they gain from the food in the area. whereas if theres lots of food a balance of defence, patrolling and feeding that needs to work out to make it worth it.

Question 8

Energy rich foods

Answer 8

Fruit, seeds, flowers and gum. CHO lipids means they have lots of energy as well as vitamins, minerals and water.

Question 9

Protein rich foods

Answer 9

Leaves: energy from cellulose but young vs old, changes in fibre:protein ratio.

Question 10

Kay’s Threshold (1984)

Answer 10

Larger primates eat leaves whereas smaller ones on average, eat insects. Although there are many expectations, such as mouse lemurs eat fruit.

Question 11

Plant’s Perseptive

Answer 11

If an animal eats your leaves it hinders your ability to make food for yourself, therefore they have defences such as hairs on leaves, strings or bark. Tannins are indigestible and alkaloids are toxins. Therefore, plants want their fruit to be eaten as it benefits the by getting their seeds to disperse.

Question 12

Primate response to plant defences

Answer 12

• Teeth, jaws, digestion and tool use.
• Dietary Switching
• Geophagy (soul eating)
• Selectivity

Question 13

Fallback Foods

Answer 13

Foods to be eaten just to get by when all other food is gone.

Question 14

Ranging behaviour : Day range

Answer 14

Distance traveled per day (measured in metres)

Question 15

Ranging behaviour : Home range

Answer 15

Area encompassed by all day ranges (measured in hectares)

Question 16

Social Foraging

Answer 16

Vast amounts of primates live in stable groups and eat together too. Repeated interactions, dominant- subordinate interactions.

Question 17

Food Distribution: Low quality

Answer 17

Low quality, even distribution

• Little reward in any one item
• But food is everywhere

Question 18

Food Distribution: High quality, Small patches

Answer 18

High quality, small patches

• Little reward in each patch
• Quickly depleted
• Food for 1

Question 19

Food Distribution: High quality, Medium patches

Answer 19

• Sizeable reward in each patch
• More slowly depleted
• Food for some but not for all

Question 20

Food Distribution: High quality, Large patches

Answer 20

• High reward
• Very slow depletion
• Food for all

Question 21

Within group contest

Answer 21

• Food distribution defendable and worth defendable (medium-sized patches)
• Dominant individuals monopolise resources (eg. via aggression and avoidance)
• Subordinates excluded from a resource, or may have to go to less profitable areas.

Question 22

Within group competition consequences

Answer 22

• More aggressive/dominant = higher feeding success

- Decrease in energy gain with lower dominance rank

Question 23

Between group contest

Answer 23

• Large food patches defended against other groups
• Dominant groups displace subordinate groups
• Subordinate groups feed in less profitable areas/resources

Question 24

Between Group Contest Consequence

Answer 24

• Exclusion of subordinate (usually smaller) groups high quality resources
• Increase in energy gain with group size

Question 25

Within Group Scramble

Answer 25

First come, first serve

• Common when food is not monopolizable
• Evenly distributed or in very large patches (turn around and find more)
• Very small, quickly depleted patches
• Or when food is not worth monopolizing (low quality)

Question 26

Within group scramble consequence

Answer 26

• Decrease in energy gain with group size

- Increase in travel effort for larger groups at the expense of resting, sleeping and social time.

Question 27

Within Group scramble position

Answer 27

It is better to be in the middle of the group better to be in the front-centre. Those at the front risk predation and those at the back risk missing out on all the food as it may be gone from the patch.

Question 28

Between group scramble

Answer 28

• First come- first serve at the group level
• Faster removal of food with increase in population density
• Negative correlation between population density and individual food intake.