A lifetime perspective on foraging and mortality.

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Serval ID
serval:BIB_F89AB4B7F83B
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Title
A lifetime perspective on foraging and mortality.
Journal
Journal of Theoretical Biology
Author(s)
Yearsley J., Hastings I.M., Gordon I.J., Kyriazakis I., Illius A.W.
ISSN
0022-5193
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2002
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
215
Number
4
Pages
385-397
Language
english
Abstract
Food intake carries many potential risks which may impair an animal's reproductive success not only in the current breeding cycle, but also for the rest of its lifetime. We examine the lifetime trade-off between the costs and benefits of food intake by presenting a simple animal foraging model, where each unit of food eaten carries with it a risk of mortality. We show that the optimal food intake rate over an animal's lifetime, for both semelparous and iteroparous animals, is not maximal. Instead, animals are required to strike a balance between the immediate reproductive benefits of gathering food and the future reproductive costs incurred by the food's mortality risk. This balance depends upon the lifespan of the animal as well as the nature of the risk. Different mortality risks are compared and it is shown that a mortality risk per unit time spent foraging is not, in general, equivalent to a mortality risk per unit of food consumed. The results suggest that a mortality risk per unit of food consumed, such as that presented by the presence of a toxin or of a parasite in the diet, has important consequences for feeding behaviour and is a possible factor involved in food intake regulation.
Keywords
Animals, Bacteria, Death, Eating, Feeding Behavior, Models, Biological, Parasites, Risk, Time Factors
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
19/11/2007 10:55
Last modification date
20/08/2019 16:24
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