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Uncertainty drives deviations in normative foraging decision strategies

Nearly all animals forage to acquire energy for survival through efficient search and resource harvesting. Patch exploitation is a canonical foraging behaviour, but there is a need for more tractable and understandable mathematical models describing how foragers deal with uncertainty. To provide suc...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kilpatrick, Zachary P., Davidson, Jacob D., El Hady, Ahmed
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8277480/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34255987
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2021.0337
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author Kilpatrick, Zachary P.
Davidson, Jacob D.
El Hady, Ahmed
author_facet Kilpatrick, Zachary P.
Davidson, Jacob D.
El Hady, Ahmed
author_sort Kilpatrick, Zachary P.
collection PubMed
description Nearly all animals forage to acquire energy for survival through efficient search and resource harvesting. Patch exploitation is a canonical foraging behaviour, but there is a need for more tractable and understandable mathematical models describing how foragers deal with uncertainty. To provide such a treatment, we develop a normative theory of patch foraging decisions, proposing mechanisms by which foraging behaviours emerge in the face of uncertainty. Our model foragers statistically and sequentially infer patch resource yields using Bayesian updating based on their resource encounter history. A decision to leave a patch is triggered when the certainty of the patch type or the estimated yield of the patch falls below a threshold. The time scale over which uncertainty in resource availability persists strongly impacts behavioural variables like patch residence times and decision rules determining patch departures. When patch depletion is slow, as in habitat selection, departures are characterized by a reduction of uncertainty, suggesting that the forager resides in a low-yielding patch. Uncertainty leads patch-exploiting foragers to overharvest (underharvest) patches with initially low (high) resource yields in comparison with predictions of the marginal value theorem. These results extend optimal foraging theory and motivate a variety of behavioural experiments investigating patch foraging behaviour.
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spelling pubmed-82774802021-07-20 Uncertainty drives deviations in normative foraging decision strategies Kilpatrick, Zachary P. Davidson, Jacob D. El Hady, Ahmed J R Soc Interface Life Sciences–Mathematics interface Nearly all animals forage to acquire energy for survival through efficient search and resource harvesting. Patch exploitation is a canonical foraging behaviour, but there is a need for more tractable and understandable mathematical models describing how foragers deal with uncertainty. To provide such a treatment, we develop a normative theory of patch foraging decisions, proposing mechanisms by which foraging behaviours emerge in the face of uncertainty. Our model foragers statistically and sequentially infer patch resource yields using Bayesian updating based on their resource encounter history. A decision to leave a patch is triggered when the certainty of the patch type or the estimated yield of the patch falls below a threshold. The time scale over which uncertainty in resource availability persists strongly impacts behavioural variables like patch residence times and decision rules determining patch departures. When patch depletion is slow, as in habitat selection, departures are characterized by a reduction of uncertainty, suggesting that the forager resides in a low-yielding patch. Uncertainty leads patch-exploiting foragers to overharvest (underharvest) patches with initially low (high) resource yields in comparison with predictions of the marginal value theorem. These results extend optimal foraging theory and motivate a variety of behavioural experiments investigating patch foraging behaviour. The Royal Society 2021-07-14 /pmc/articles/PMC8277480/ /pubmed/34255987 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2021.0337 Text en © 2021 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Life Sciences–Mathematics interface
Kilpatrick, Zachary P.
Davidson, Jacob D.
El Hady, Ahmed
Uncertainty drives deviations in normative foraging decision strategies
title Uncertainty drives deviations in normative foraging decision strategies
title_full Uncertainty drives deviations in normative foraging decision strategies
title_fullStr Uncertainty drives deviations in normative foraging decision strategies
title_full_unstemmed Uncertainty drives deviations in normative foraging decision strategies
title_short Uncertainty drives deviations in normative foraging decision strategies
title_sort uncertainty drives deviations in normative foraging decision strategies
topic Life Sciences–Mathematics interface
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8277480/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34255987
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2021.0337
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