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Patch choice as a function of procurement cost and encounter rate

G Collier¹, D F Johnson, J Berman

¹Department of Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903, USA. gcollier@rci.rutgers.edu

Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

|February 18, 1998

Summary

Rats foraging in a lab setting surprisingly did not increase their use of high-cost patches when low-cost patches were rare. This led to increased foraging costs, which rats managed by reducing meal frequency and increasing meal size.

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Area of Science:

Behavioral Ecology
Foraging Theory

Background:

Patch choice and meal patterns are critical components of foraging behavior.
Understanding how encounter rates influence these decisions is key to ecological models.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the impact of patch encounter rate on patch choice and meal patterns in rats.
To determine if rats adjust their foraging strategy when the availability of low-cost patches decreases.

Main Methods:

Rats foraged in a laboratory environment with two patch types (differing in cost).
Patch encounter rates were manipulated (equal vs. high-cost more frequent).
Patch choice, meal size, and meal frequency were recorded.

Main Results:

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Rats consistently exploited the low-cost patch.

Exploitation of the high-cost patch was inversely proportional to its cost.

When low-cost patches were rare, rats did not increase high-cost patch use, leading to higher search costs.

Rats adjusted by reducing meal frequency and increasing meal size to manage costs.

Conclusions:

Patch encounter rate significantly influences foraging decisions, but not always adaptively.
Rats exhibit a cost-minimization strategy by adjusting meal patterns when faced with increased foraging costs.
The study highlights the complexity of foraging decisions beyond simple cost-benefit analyses.