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Optimal within-patch movement strategies for optimising patch residence time: an agent-based modelling approach

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Abstract

Several optimisation models, like the marginal value theorem (MVT), have been proposed to predict the optimal time foraging animals should remain on patches of resources. These models do not clearly indicate, however, how animals can follow the corresponding predictions. Hence, several proximate patch-leaving decision rules have been proposed. Most if not all of these are based on the animals’ motivation to remain on the patches, but the real behaviours involved in such motivation actually still remain to be identified. Since animals are usually exploiting patches of resources by walking, we developed a model simulating the intra-patch movement decisions of time-limited animals exploiting resources distributed in delimited patches in environments with different resource abundances and distributions. The values of the model parameters were optimised in the different environments by means of a genetic algorithm. Results indicate that simple modifications of the walking pattern of the foraging animals when resources are discovered can lead to patch residence times that appear consistent with the predictions of the MVT. These results provide a more concrete understanding of the optimal patch-leaving decision rules animals should adopt in different environments.

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Acknowledgements

S. Benhamou, V. Calcagno, P. Crowley, E. Desouhant and J.S. Pierre are thanked for their comments on an early version of the manuscript. The code of the simulation model was developed thanks to the GAlib, a C++ library that provided tools for implementing genetic algorithms (http://lancet.mit.edu/ga/), and was run on the cluster of the INRA MIGALE bioinformatics platform (http://migale.jouy.inra.fr).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INRA, CNRS, Université de Nice, 400 Route des Chappes, BP 167, 06903, Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France

    E. Wajnberg & P. Coquillard

  2. Institute of Ecology, FB 2, Biology, University of Bremen, Leobener Str./NW2, 28359, Bremen, Germany

    T. S. Hoffmeister

  3. INRA, 400 Route des Chappes, BP 167, 06903, Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France

    E. Wajnberg

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  1. E. Wajnberg
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  2. T. S. Hoffmeister
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  3. P. Coquillard
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Correspondence to E. Wajnberg.

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Communicated by D. Naug

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Wajnberg, E., Hoffmeister, T.S. & Coquillard, P. Optimal within-patch movement strategies for optimising patch residence time: an agent-based modelling approach. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 67, 2053–2063 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-013-1615-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-013-1615-5

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