Ecology CH 14- Behavioral ecology

Trade offs in behavior

If you are doing one thing (ex foraging) you can’t do another thing (resting, mating, antipredator behavior)

Time budgets

Time spent on each activity throughout the day

Foraging behavior

act of gaining energy by eating

Optimal Foraging Theory (definition and equation)

Animals will maximize energy gain per unit feeding time (cost); P=E/cost

Optimal Foraging Theory depends on ____

Energetic value of item (or patch)

Cost of handling item

The time of finding the food

Profitability for the consumer depends on ____ plus ____

Energetic value; searching and handling time

Marginal Value Theorum

Energy in a patch decreases as foraging continues, diminishing return on foraging investment

An animal will leave a patch when ___

Energy gain equals average of the environment; it is no longer profitable to feed in that patch

Leaving also depends on ___

Travel time between patches; capture time

Trade offs made to forage may depend on _____

the value of food to the individual (ex a poor condition individual, a pregnant individual)

Antipredator behaviors

changes in behavior with the direct purpose of reducing the risk of being killed.

Strategies to reduce detection by predators

Hiding/refuge use

Freezing behaviors

Temporal changes in activity

Strategies to reduce attack from predators

vigilance

stotting/tail flagging

push-ups

These show that the prey item would be too energetically expensive to pursue

Strategies to reduce capture from predators

Unique adaptations to escape capture

Some animals attack predator

Mating systems

number of mating partners and amount of parental care provided by either sex

Monogamy

one male one female

Polygyny

One male many females

Polyandry

one female many males

Promiscuity

multiple partner systems

Advantages of group living

Increased access to high quality mates

Increased help with parental care (alloparenting)

Increased protection from predators (physical protection and increased detection)

Many eyes hypothesis (more likely to spot a predator)

Dilution effect (each individual is less likely to die the more there are)

increased foraging success (carnivores)

Disadvantages to group living

Increased competition for mates

Reduced ability to breed if not dominant

Increased detection by predators

Increased competition for food (non-carnivores)

Dom sub lmao

Alters access to food, ability to reproduce, safety within a group

comes with many specific behaviors (appeasement/grooming of dom lol)