PSY352H5 Chapter 6: Chapter 6 notes
Document Summary
Chapter 6: foraging behaviour: finding, choosing & and processing food. The specific principles of foraging are common to all animal species, even if the actual behaviour exhibited may be very diverse. Behaviours that seem at first to disadvantage a forager, like sharing, can often actually increase an individual"s success. However, interference and factors such as predation risk can limit foraging opportunities. A range of alternative strategies can be used to maximize either the quality or quantity of food available to an animal. It"s possible to describe the likely behaviour of an animal using a mathematical model, this can help us focus our investigations of behaviour. At a far larger sale the relationships might involve the complicated webs of predators and prey that may link, for example simple planktonic plants to a top predator like the great white shark. The various modes of foraging employed by the animals into herbivores, carnivores and omnivores.
