Meeting Abstract
Organisms make a variety of decisions while foraging, each with different costs and benefits. For example, predator behaviour during foraging can fall on a continuous spectrum between hunting and scavenging. In this study, we examine the behaviour of a group of foragers that can actively hunt for prey, or scavenge from the foils of a fixed pool of predators, either by eating leftovers (passive scavenging) or by stealing from a predator (active scavenging). To do this, we employ stochastic dynamic programming which enables us to construct a deterministic matrix of decisions and associated fitness values for a set of potential behaviours (Clark and Mangel., 2000). This approach is centred around finding consumer behaviours that maximise fitness. Our results suggest that there are well-defined parameter regimes where each foraging strategy maximises fitness, and that risky behaviour (active scavenging) becomes a viable choice when costs associated with hunting and scavenging are comparable, or when the mortality associated with active scavenging is low enough. We also see that the parameter space that allows for active scavenging is considerably smaller than that of both hunting and passive scavenging, as one would expect. We then generalise this model in terms of organismal body mass so that it can be applied to real-life systems to determine the relationship between body-size classes and different predatory behaviours, and to better understand trade-offs in decision-making associated with body-size limitations.
