Optimal Foraging Theory (OFT) is a well-established ecological model that describes how organisms make decisions about their foraging behaviour in order to maximize their net energy intake (Mangel & Clark, 1988). It has been used to explain a variety of animal behaviour ranging from the decision-making of bees foraging for nectar to that of primates foraging for food in the wild.
The basic tenet of OFT is that animals will adjust their foraging behaviour in order to maximize their energy gain while minimizing their energy expenditure. To do this, animals must take into account both the nutritional value of food items as well as the cost of obtaining them. The cost of obtaining food can include physical costs such as energy expended to search for food, or cognitive costs such as time taken to learn about a food item’s location and composition (Stephens & Krebs, 1986).
OFT has been successfully applied to a wide range of animal species and foraging contexts, including species such as hummingbirds (Stiles, 1983), rodents (Krebs & Davies, 1993), and primates (Janson & van Schaik, 1993). The theory has also been used to explain the behaviour of hunters and gatherers in human societies (Kaplan et al., 2000).
OFT has been used to explain the evolution of specialised foraging behaviours such as tool use (Biro et al., 2008), as well as the evolution of certain cognitive abilities such as memory (Shettleworth, 2009). In addition, the theory has been used to explain the formation of food webs in different ecosystems (Mangel & Clark, 1988).
Overall, OFT is a powerful tool for understanding the foraging behaviour of a variety of animal species and provides insights into the evolutionary pressures that have shaped their behaviour.
References
Biro, D., Saby, N. P. A., & Dacke, M. (2008). Tool use in honey bees: Optimal foraging in a complex environment. Animal Behaviour, 76(1), 61–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.02.015
Janson, C. H., & van Schaik, C. P. (1993). Ecological risk aversion in juvenile primates: Slow and steady wins the race. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 33(2), 151–163. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00169440
Kaplan, H., Hill, K., Lancaster, J., & Hurtado, A. M. (2000). A theory of human life history evolution: Diet, intelligence, and longevity. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 9(4), 156–185. https://doi.org/10.1002/1520-6505(2000)9:43.3.CO;2-6
Krebs, J. R., & Davies, N. B. (1993). An introduction to behavioural ecology. London: Blackwell Scientific Publications.
Mangel, M., & Clark, C. W. (1988). Dynamic modeling in behavioral ecology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Shettleworth, S. J. (2009). Cognition, evolution, and behavior. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Stephens, D. W., & Krebs, J. R. (1986). Foraging theory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Stiles, G. E. (1983). Optimal foraging by hummingbirds. Ecology, 64(3), 644–651. https://doi.org/10.2307/1936950