Ebook: Behavioural Mechanisms of Food Selection

Behavioural Mechanisms of Food Selection examines animals belonging to diverse trophic groups, from carnivores, herbivores, micro-algal grazers, to filter-feeders and detritus-feeders. In the past Optimal Foraging Theory has been applied to all these groups, but in different ways and in disci plines that rarely overlap. Here concepts and developments hitherto scattered in the literature are drawn together. This uniquely broad synthesis captures the state of the art in the study of diet selection and prescribes new objectives in theoretical development and research.

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Content:
Front Matter....Pages I-XII
Predator Switching and the Interpretation of Animal Choice Behavior: The Case for Constrained Optimization....Pages 1-21
Foraging in the Context of Life-History : General Principles and Specific Models....Pages 23-38
The Starvation-Predation Trade-Off And Some Behavioural and Ecological Consequences....Pages 39-59
Timing Mechanisms in Optimal Foraging: Some Applications of Scalar Expectancy Theory....Pages 61-82
On Evaluation of Foraging Strategies Through Estimates of Reproductive Success....Pages 83-94
Active Diet Selection or Passive Reflection of Changing Food Availability: The Underwater Foraging Behaviour of Canvasback Ducks....Pages 95-109
Territorial Salamanders Evaluate Size and Chitinous Content of Arthropod Prey....Pages 111-126
Are Rules of Thumb Sufficient for the Starling’s Choice of Food According to Gain in Energy?....Pages 127-142
Prey Selection and Processing in a Stomatopod Crustacean....Pages 143-164
Time Scale and Diet Choice Decisions....Pages 165-185
Food Requirement and Risk-Sensitive Foraging in Shortfall Minimizers....Pages 187-213
The Combined Effects of Learning and Hunger in the Feeding Behaviour of the Fifteen-Spined Stickleback (Spinachia Spinachia L.)....Pages 215-234
The Role of Behaviour and Morphology in the Selection of Prey by Pike....Pages 235-254
How Important are Nutrient Constraints in Optimal Foraging Models or are Spatial/Temporal Factors More Important?....Pages 255-280
Predicting Ontogenetic Niche Shifts in the Field: What can be Gained by Foraging Theory?....Pages 281-302
The Impact of Different Growth Pattern on the Utilization of Tree Species by a Generalist Herbivore, the Moose Alces Alces: Implications of Optimal Foraging Theory....Pages 303-321
Rules and Cues Used by Sheep Foraging in Monocultures....Pages 323-341
Constraints on Diet Selection and Foraging Behaviour in Mammalian Herbivores....Pages 343-367
Diet Selection by Generalist Herbivores: A Test of the Linear Programming Model....Pages 369-393
A Reply To Hobbs....Pages 395-414
Applicability of Five Diet-Selection Models to Various Foraging Challenges Ruminants Encounter....Pages 415-422
The Characteristics of Algae in Relation to their Vulnerability to Grazing Snails....Pages 423-460
Comparative Foraging Behavior of Tropical and Boreal Sea Urchins....Pages 461-478
Effects of Food Value of Artificial and Natural Sediments on Functional Response and Net Rate of Energy Gain by a Deposit-Feeding Polychaete....Pages 479-514
Supply-Side Optimization: Maximizing Absorptive Rates....Pages 515-529
Foraging Strategy of a Deposit Feeding Crab....Pages 531-556
Retention Efficiency, Perceptual Bias, and Active Choice as Mechanisms of Food Selection by Suspension-Feeding Zooplankton....Pages 557-568
Concentration-Variable Interactions Between Calanoid Copepods and Particles of Different Food Quality: Observations and Hypotheses....Pages 569-594
Water Processing in Filter-Feeding Bivalves....Pages 595-613
Behavioural Plasticity in the Suspension Feeding of Benthic Animals....Pages 615-636
How Trail Laying and Trail Following Can Solve Foraging Problems for Ant Colonies....Pages 637-660
Foraging in the Black-Headed Gull: Compensatory site selection by immatures....Pages 661-678
Information Overload and Food Selection....Pages 679-706
Diet Selection Under the Risk of Predation....Pages 707-720
Interacting Effects of Predator and Prey Behavior in Determining Diets....Pages 721-737
Hunting by the Hunted: Optimal Prey Selection by Foragers under Predation Hazard....Pages 739-770
On the Role of Ecological Experimentation in Resource Management: Managing Fisheries Through Mechanistic Understanding of Predator Feeding Behaviour....Pages 771-796
The Role of the Optimal Diet Predator in Multispecies Fishery Assessment....Pages 797-819
Can there be a general theory of diet selection?....Pages 821-846
The role and importance of optimal foraging theory in ecology....Pages 847-862
Back Matter....Pages 863-864
....Pages 865-866