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Sensory perception plays a larger role in foraging efficiency than heavy-tailed movement strategies

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  • LaScala-Gruenewald, Diana E.
  • Mehta, Rohan S.
  • Liu, Yu
  • Denny, Mark W.

Abstract

Animals must balance their rates of energetic intake and expenditure while foraging. Several mathematical models have been put forward as energetically optimal foraging strategies when the food environment is sparse (i.e., the distance between food patches in the environment is much larger than the distance from which the forager can perceive food). In particular, Lévy walks with a power law exponent approaching 1 are considered optimal for destructive foragers. However, these models have yet to explore the role of sensory perception in foraging success as the distance between food patches approaches the distance from which the forager can perceive food. Here, we used an agent-based modeling approach to address this question. Our results concur that lower values of the power law exponent (i.e. values approaching 1) result in the most food found, but in contrast to previous studies, we note that, in many cases, lower exponents are not optimal when we consider food found per unit distance traveled. For example, higher values of the exponent resulted in comparable or higher foraging success relative to lower values when the forager's range of sensory perception was restricted to an angle ± 30° from its current heading. In addition, we find that sensory perception has a larger effect on foraging success than the power law exponent. These results suggest that a deeper examination of how animals perceive food sources from a distance may affect longstanding assumptions regarding the optimality of Lévy walk foraging patterns, and lend support to the developing theoretical shift towards models that place increasing emphasis on how organisms interact with their environments.

Suggested Citation

  • LaScala-Gruenewald, Diana E. & Mehta, Rohan S. & Liu, Yu & Denny, Mark W., 2019. "Sensory perception plays a larger role in foraging efficiency than heavy-tailed movement strategies," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 404(C), pages 69-82.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:404:y:2019:i:c:p:69-82
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2019.02.015
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. G. M. Viswanathan & Sergey V. Buldyrev & Shlomo Havlin & M. G. E. da Luz & E. P. Raposo & H. Eugene Stanley, 1999. "Optimizing the success of random searches," Nature, Nature, vol. 401(6756), pages 911-914, October.
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    4. Reynolds, A.M., 2009. "Adaptive Lévy walks can outperform composite Brownian walks in non-destructive random searching scenarios," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 388(5), pages 561-564.
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    Cited by:

    1. Wood, Kevin A. & Hilton, Geoff M. & Newth, Julia L. & Rees, Eileen C., 2019. "Seasonal variation in energy gain explains patterns of resource use by avian herbivores in an agricultural landscape: Insights from a mechanistic model," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 409(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Gibbs, Richard & Landi, Pietro & Hui, Cang, 2024. "Heterogeneity in the resource landscape encourages increased cognitive and perceptive capabilities in foragers," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 492(C).

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