Foraging

Many animals forage in the soil, looking for food such as plants or smaller organisms.

Optimal Foraging Theory

The optimal foraging theory predicts how a foraging animal will behave when presented with a choice in its prey. This theory takes into account not only the energy the organism receives from the prey, but also the energy and time it costs to forage for the prey. Animals want to receive the greatest benefit of energy while expending the least amount of their own time and energy. The goal of this theory is to find the foraging strategy that maximizes the energy the species receives under the constraints of it's environment. These constraints can include how long it takes for the animal to travel to the foraging sites, how long it takes to search for the prey, how long it takes for the animal to prepare its foraged prey for eating, along with other factors. The optimal diet model can be used to find the optimal foraging strategy.

Optimal Diet Model

In this model, predators have to decide whether to eat the prey they find or look for another, hopefully more profitable, source of prey. Animals have to choose between big prey and large prey. They do this by considering the handling time (how long it takes to prepare the prey for eating), search time, and energy they would gain. To determine the profitability in this model, the value of energy the animal will receive should be divided by the handling time. The prey with the larger number is more profitable. However, if the predator comes across one prey and has to decide whether to eat it or look for another source of prey, search time for that second prey has to be taken into consideration. If the the energy value divided by the handling time plus the search time of the second prey is greater than the energy value divided by the handling time of the first prey, then the animal should search for the other source of prey. Shown in an equation, the animal should only search for the second source of prey if E2/(h2+S2) > E1/h1. In this equation E1 and E2 are the energy values benefited from prey 1 and prey 2, respectively, h1 and h2 are the handling time of prey 1 and prey 2, and S2 is the search time for prey 2.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S003140560470075X