BI308 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Behavioral Ecology, Tandem Running, Diminishing Returns
Document Summary
Bi 308 chapter 3 notes economic decisions and the individual. Starlings make up to 400 round trips from its nest to feeding sites everyday, ferrying loads of food to its nestlings. Size of the load has a critical effect on the parent"s overall rate of delivering food to the nest which in turn determines whether or not the chicks survive. Problem of load size is determined via a graph. Travelling time = fly to feeding site and fly home (x axis) Loading curve = first couple of prey are found easily and once the beak is full, its harder to get more. Best option for starlings is to maximize net rate of food delivery to the chicks. When the travel time to the patch is shorter, the maximum load is smaller. Always bigger loads from longer travel times because they must meet the net energy maximum experimentally tested by alex kacelnik (1984)
