Behavioural Mechanisms of Food Selection

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XII

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2. Theory

   1. Predator Switching and the Interpretation of Animal Choice Behavior: The Case for Constrained Optimization

      • Leslie A. Real

      Pages 1-21

   2. Foraging in the Context of Life-History : General Principles and Specific Models

      • Alasdair I. Houston

      Pages 23-38

   3. The Starvation-Predation Trade-Off And Some Behavioural and Ecological Consequences

      • John M. McNamara

      Pages 39-59

   4. Timing Mechanisms in Optimal Foraging: Some Applications of Scalar Expectancy Theory

      • Alejandro Kacelnik, Dani Brunner, John Gibbon

      Pages 61-82

   5. On Evaluation of Foraging Strategies Through Estimates of Reproductive Success

      • Robert G. Jaeger, Jeffrey Lucas

      Pages 83-94

3. Evaluation and Selection of Food Items

   1. Active Diet Selection or Passive Reflection of Changing Food Availability: The Underwater Foraging Behaviour of Canvasback Ducks

      • John P. Ball

      Pages 95-109

   2. Territorial Salamanders Evaluate Size and Chitinous Content of Arthropod Prey

      • Robert G. Jaeger

      Pages 111-126

   3. Are Rules of Thumb Sufficient for the Starling’s Choice of Food According to Gain in Energy?

      • Werner Schuler

      Pages 127-142

   4. Prey Selection and Processing in a Stomatopod Crustacean

      • Roy L. Caldwell, Michael J. Childress

      Pages 143-164

4. Constraints and Physiological State

   1. Time Scale and Diet Choice Decisions

      • Jeffrey R. Lucas

      Pages 165-185

   2. Food Requirement and Risk-Sensitive Foraging in Shortfall Minimizers

      • C. J. Barnard

      Pages 187-213

   3. The Combined Effects of Learning and Hunger in the Feeding Behaviour of the Fifteen-Spined Stickleback (Spinachia Spinachia L.)

      • Marion I. Croy, Roger N. Hughes

      Pages 215-234

   4. The Role of Behaviour and Morphology in the Selection of Prey by Pike

      • Paul J. B. Hart, Stellan F. Hamrin

      Pages 235-254

   5. How Important are Nutrient Constraints in Optimal Foraging Models or are Spatial/Temporal Factors More Important?

      • Gary E. Belovsky

      Pages 255-280

5. Ontogenetic Changes in Food Selection

   1. Ecological and Morphological Aspects of Changes in Food Uptake Through the Ontogeny of Haplochromis Piceatus

      • Frietson Galis

      Pages 281-302

   2. Predicting Ontogenetic Niche Shifts in the Field: What can be Gained by Foraging Theory?

      • Lennart Persson

      Pages 303-321

6. Bulk Processors: Mammalian Grazers

   1. The Impact of Different Growth Pattern on the Utilization of Tree Species by a Generalist Herbivore, the Moose Alces Alces: Implications of Optimal Foraging Theory

      • Bernt-Erik Saether

      Pages 323-341

   2. Rules and Cues Used by Sheep Foraging in Monocultures

      • D. R. Bazely

      Pages 343-367

   3. Constraints on Diet Selection and Foraging Behaviour in Mammalian Herbivores

      • A. W. Illius, I. J. Gordon

      Pages 369-393

Behavioural Mechanisms of Food Selection examines animals belonging to diverse trophic groups, from carnivores, herbivores, micro-algal grazers, to filter-feeders and detritus-feeders. In the past Optimal Foraging Theory has been applied to all these groups, but in different ways and in disci plines that rarely overlap. Here concepts and developments hitherto scattered in the literature are drawn together. This uniquely broad synthesis captures the state of the art in the study of diet selection and prescribes new objectives in theoretical development and research.

• Behaviour
• Diet Selection
• Ecology
• Optimal Foraging Theory
• development

• Unit of Functional and Evolutionary Biology School of Biological Sciences, University College of North Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd, UK

  Roger N. Hughes

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