两种相似的海洋顶级捕食者的规模依赖的食行为和息地协会

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.

Simulating Foraging with Artificial Habitats and Prey
ExpandNOTE: The foragers will hunt for prey represented by pinto beans in four buckets of rice with varying prey densities. Without knowing what these densities are, foragers must obtain as many prey items as possible in as little time as possible.
HYPOTHESES: In this experiment, the experimental hypothesis could be that foragers will catch the most prey in the higher prey density bucket and also spend the most time foraging there. The...

Optimal Foraging
Organisms must acquire and use resources in their environment to survive. While food is one of the primary resources organisms must search for, individuals also need to seek habitats, shelter, and mates. This process of searching for resources is known as foraging, which involves a series of costs and benefits. More specifically, acquiring a resource provides the organism with a benefit, however, searching and capturing the resource requires expenditure of time and energy.

Setting up the Foraging Habitat Patches
ExpandPrint a student data collection sheet for each student to record data. NOTE: Students will work in groups of three for this activity. For any given round, one student will forage, one student will record data and another student will run the stopwatch.
Choose a location for the foraging activity to take place. An open field is ideal for this activity but a hallway will suffice provided another location is not available.
Label four five-gallon...

Habitat fragmentation describes the division of a more extensive, continuous habitat into smaller, discontinuous areas. Human activities such as land conversion, as well as slower geological processes leading to changes in the physical environment, are the two leading causes of habitat fragmentation. The fragmentation process typically follows the same steps: perforation, dissection, fragmentation, shrinkage, and attrition.

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.