Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Optimal Foraging

Optimal Foraging

How animals obtain and eat their food is called foraging behavior. Foraging can include searching for plants and hunting for prey and depends on the species and environment.

Energy Budgets and Reproductive Strategies

Energy Budgets and Reproductive Strategies

Organisms must balance energy intake with the energy required for growth, maintenance, and reproduction. These trade-offs result in a variety of survivorship and reproductive strategies, including semelparity and iteroparity. Semelparous species reproduce only once in their lifetime, often investing most available resources into that single reproductive event. Iteroparous species, by contrast, reproduce multiple times over their lifetimes, typically allocating fewer resources to any single...

Self-Discrepancy Theory

Self-Discrepancy Theory

One influential perspective on what motivates people's behavior is detailed in Tory Higgin's self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987). He proposed that people hold disagreeing internal representations of themselves that lead to different emotional states.

Predator-Prey Interactions

Predator-Prey Interactions

Predators consume prey for energy. Predators that acquire prey and prey that avoid predation both increase their chances of survival and reproduction (i.e., fitness). Routine predator-prey interactions elicit mutual adaptations that improve predator offenses, such as claws, teeth, and speed, as well as prey defenses, including crypsis, aposematism, and mimicry. Thus, predator-prey interactions resemble an evolutionary arms race.Although predation is commonly associated with carnivory, for...

Ecological Niches

Ecological Niches

All organisms have a position within an ecosystem. The complete set of living and nonliving factors—including food resources, climate, and terrain—that define the position of a given organism are collectively referred to as the organism’s ecological niche.Multiple species cannot occupy the exact same niche within their habitat. If the niches of two or more species overlap to a large extent, the competitive exclusion principle dictates that one species will outcompete the other, forcing it to...

What is Behavior?

What is Behavior?

Behaviors are actions that an organism engages in—they can be related to finding food, reproducing, defending against threats, and many other possible actions. Behaviors include activities related to the environment around the animal—such as migration—as well as social interactions within a species or population. Many behaviors involve motor output—that is, muscle movements—while others involve less visible actions, such as learning.

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Corrigendum to: "Task syndromes: linking personality and task allocation in social animal groups" by J. C. Loftus, A. Perez, and A. Sih. 32:1-17.

Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology·2021

Same author

Task syndromes: linking personality and task allocation in social animal groups.

Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology·2021

Same author

Authorship removal correction for 'Behavioural hypervolumes of spider communities predict community performance and disbandment'.

Proceedings. Biological sciences·2020

Same author

Stream drift, size-specific predation, and the evolution of ovum size in an amphibian.

Oecologia·2017

Same author

Parasitism, personality and cognition in fish.

Behavioural processes·2016

Same author

The relationship between handling time and cortisol release rates changes as a function of brain parasite densities in California killifish Fundulus parvipinnis.

Journal of fish biology·2016

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jul 12, 2026

Foraging Path-length Protocol for Drosophila melanogaster Larvae

Foraging Path-length Protocol for Drosophila melanogaster Larvae

Published on: April 23, 2016

Optimal behavior: can foragers balance two conflicting demands?

Science (New York, N.Y.)

|November 28, 1980

Summary

Organisms must balance feeding efficiency with predator avoidance. The backswimmer (Notonecta hoffmanni) adaptively balanced these conflicting demands in experimental settings, aligning with theoretical predictions.

Area of Science:

Ecology
Behavioral Ecology
Evolutionary Biology

Background:

Organisms face a fundamental trade-off between acquiring resources for survival and reproduction, and avoiding predation.
Current ecological and evolutionary theories predict that organisms should optimize foraging strategies to balance these conflicting demands.

Purpose of the Study:

To experimentally evaluate the fitness consequences of different behavioral choices in a conflict situation.
To compare observed behaviors with predictions derived from fitness considerations in the backswimmer (Notonecta hoffmanni).

Main Methods:

Created an experimental conflict situation to simulate predator-prey interactions during feeding.
Quantified the relative fitness associated with different behavioral strategies.

More Related Videos

Tracking Sugar-Elicited Local Searching Behavior in Drosophila

Tracking Sugar-Elicited Local Searching Behavior in Drosophila

Published on: November 17, 2023

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jul 12, 2026

Foraging Path-length Protocol for Drosophila melanogaster Larvae

Foraging Path-length Protocol for Drosophila melanogaster Larvae

Published on: April 23, 2016

Tracking Sugar-Elicited Local Searching Behavior in Drosophila

Tracking Sugar-Elicited Local Searching Behavior in Drosophila

Published on: November 17, 2023

Observed and analyzed the foraging and anti-predator behaviors of Notonecta hoffmanni.

Main Results:

Notonecta hoffmanni demonstrated an ability to balance the conflicting demands of efficient feeding and predator avoidance.
Observed behaviors were consistent with predictions derived from fitness-based models.
The study successfully evaluated the relative fitnesses of available choices in a controlled environment.

Conclusions:

The backswimmer, Notonecta hoffmanni, exhibits adaptive behavioral plasticity in managing the trade-off between foraging and predation risk.
Experimental validation supports theoretical models predicting optimal balancing of conflicting ecological demands.
This research provides empirical evidence for adaptive decision-making in response to simultaneous ecological pressures.