Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T05:22:01.876Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Recent advances in our understanding of risk-sensitive foraging preferences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2007

Melissa Bateson
Melissa Bateson
Affiliation:
Evolution and Behaviour Research Group, School of Biology, University of Newcastle, Henry Wellcome Building for Neuroecology, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Many experiments have shown that foraging animals are sensitive to the riskiness, or variance, associated with alternative food sources. For example, when offered a choice of a constant feeding option that always offers three seeds, and a risky option that offers either no seeds or six seeds with equal probability, most animals tested will be either risk-averse or risk-prone, preferring either the fixed or variable option respectively. Whether animals are risk-averse or risk-prone appears to depend on a range of factors, including the energetic status of the forager, the type of variance associated with the feeding options and even the number of feeding options between which the animal is choosing. These behavioural phenomena have attracted much theoretical interest, and a range of different explanations have been suggested, some based on a consideration of the psychological mechanisms involved in decision making, and others on a consideration of the Darwinian fitness consequences of risk-averse or risk-prone behaviour for the forager. A brief review of the recent literature on risk-sensitive foraging will be presented, focusing on results from the two experimental systems with which I have been involved: wild rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus) foraging on artificial flowers; European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) foraging in operant boxes in the laboratory. It will be argued that to understand the foraging decisions of animals account needs to be taken of both the psychological mechanisms underlying decision-making and the fitness consequences of different decisions for the forager.

Keywords

Risk-sensitive foragingEnergy-budget ruleRisk-averseRisk-prone
Type
Meeting Report
Information
Proceedings of the Nutrition Society , Volume 61 , Issue 4 , November 2002 , pp. 509 - 516
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 2002

References

Bateson, M (2002) Context-dependent foraging preferences in risk sensitive starlings. Animal Behaviour (In the Press).Google Scholar
Bateson, M, Healy, SD & Hurly, TA (2002) Irrational choices in hummingbird foraging behaviour. Animal Behaviour 63, 587–596.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bateson, M & Kacelnik, A (1995) Preferences for fixed and variable food sources: variability in amount and delay. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behaviour 63, 313–329.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bateson, M & Kacelnik, A (1996) Rate currencies and the foraging starling: the fallacy of the averages revisited. Behavioral Ecology 7, 341–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bateson, M & Kacelnik, A (1997) Starlings' preferences for predictable and unpredictable delays to food. Animal Behaviour 53, 1129–1142.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bateson, M & Kacelnik, A (1998) Risk-sensitive foraging: decision making in variable environments. In Cognitive Ecology, pp. 297–341 [Dukas, R, editor]. Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Brito-e-Abreu, F & Kacelnik, A (1999) Energy budgets and risk-sensitive foraging in starlings. Behavioral Ecology 10, 338–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caraco, T, Blanckenhorn, WU, Gregory, GM, Newman, JA, Recer, GM & Zwicker, SM (1990) Risk-sensitivity: ambient temperature affects foraging choice. Animal Behaviour 39, 338–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caraco, T, Kacelnik, A, Mesnik, N & Smulewitz, M (1992) Short-term rate maximization when rewards and delays covary. Animal Behaviour 44, 441–447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charnov, EL (1976a) Optimal foraging: attack strategy of a mantid. American Naturalist 110, 141–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charnov, EL (1976b) Optimal foraging: the marginal value theorem. Theoretical Population Biology 9, 129–136.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harder, L & Real, LA (1987) Why are bumble bees risk-averse? Ecology 68, 1104–1108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huber, J, Payne, JW & Puto, C (1982) Adding asymmetrically dominated alternatives: violations of regularity and the similarity hypothesis. Journal of Consumer Research 9, 89–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hurly, TA & Oseen, MD (1999) Context-dependent, risk-senstive foraging preferences in wild rufous hummingbirds. Animal Behaviour 58, 59–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kacelnik, A (1984) Central place foraging in starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) I. Patch residence time. Journal of Animal Ecology 53, 283–299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kacelnik, A & Bateson, M (1996) Risky theories - the effects of variance on foraging decisions. American Zoologist 36, 402–434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kacelnik, A & Bateson, M (1997) Risk sensitivity: cross-roads for theories of decision-making. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 1, 304–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNamara, JM & Houston, AI (1992) Risk-sensitive foraging: a review of the theory. Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 54, 355–378.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNamara, J, Merad, S & Houston, AI (1991) A model of risk-sensitive foraging for a reproducing animal. Animal Behaviour 41, 787–792.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Possingham, HP, Houston, AI & McNamara, JM (1990) Risk-averse foraging in bees: a comment on the model of Harder and Real. Ecology 71, 1622–1624.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Real, LA (1981) Uncertainty and pollinator-plant interactions: the foraging behavior of bees and wasps on artificial flowers. Ecology 62, 20–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Real, LA, Ott, J & Silverfine, E (1982) On the tradeoff between mean and variance in foraging: an experimental analysis with bumblebees. Ecology 63, 1617–1623.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reboreda, JC & Kacelnik, A (1991) Risk sensitivity in starlings: variability in food amount and food delay. Behavioral Ecology 2, 301–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shafir, S (1994) Intransitivity of preferences in honey bees: support for ‘comparative’ evaluation of foraging options. Animal Behaviour 48, 55–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shafir, S, Waite, TA & Smith, BH (2002) Context-dependent violations of rational choice in honeybees (Apis mellifera) and gray jays (Perisoreus canadensis). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 51, 180–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephens, DW (1981) The logic of risk-sensitive foraging preferences. Animal Behaviour 29, 628–629.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stephens, DW & Krebs, JR (1986) Foraging Theory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Tversky, A & Simonson, I (1993) Context-dependent preferences. Management Science 39, 1179–1189.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waddington, KD (1995) Bumblebees do not respond to variance in nectar concentration. Ethology 101, 33–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waddington, KD, Allen, T & Heinrich, B (1981) Floral preferences of bumblebees (Bombus edwardsii) in relation to intermittent versus continuous rewards. Animal Behaviour 29, 779–784.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waite, TA (2001) Intransitive preferences in hoarding gray jays (Perisoreus canadensis). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 50, 116–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wedell, D (1991) Distinguishing among models of contextually induced preference reversals. Journal of Experimental Psychology 17, 767–778.Google Scholar
Wunderle, JM & O'Brien, TG (1985) Risk-aversion in hand reared bananaquits. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 17, 371–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar