Foraging Food Competition

Introduction: Foraging for food is an energy decision. Is the food item worth the energy to
search and handle it? For humans, this decision is easy. Food items are mass produced for
consumption. However, animals in nature struggle with foraging decisions. Only the forager
with the best foraging patterns will survive to reproduce. The optimal foraging theory states
only the most advantageous foraging behaviors will be selected for. However the most
advantageous foraging behaviors may not be the same for all.
Different species in different environments will make different foraging decisions. In this lab
we will explore the foraging decision a bird may make in three different environments.
Directions: In groups of 4-5, you will randomly choose an environment from three choiceNew England, Georgia, or Brazil. Each environment will have the same number of cups. The
cup is called a site. It is filled with food items the bird can forage. However, each site can
have high quality food times, medium quality, or low quality. Each environment will have the
same number of food items.
In the lab, each student must fill one of the following roles: leader, timer keeper, recorder (to
track of food eaten in chart), and reporter.
The leader needs to make sure each bird follows the foraging rules. Each group should have
one foraging bird. The bird will have a 5 minute period to foraging. The bird MUST follow
the rules or they die.

*Any group found not following the rules will be removed from the lab*
Rules:
1. Only one member of the group can be a bird
2. All rules must be followed or the bird dies
3. If rules are broken, but group leader allows bird to continue foraging, the will be
removed from lab. They cannot win, they cannot eat the foraged food.
4. Forager can start at any food site (cup)
5. Forager can move to new cup every 5 seconds
6. Forage may choose to take or not take the food item once they have found it.
7. If they choose to take a food item, the foraging must handle the food item. Handling
chocolate balls takes 15 seconds. Handling Peanut M&Ms takes 10 seconds. Handling
M&M takes 5 seconds. Handling and searching time are different
8. Forager can only move one cup away from current cup in any direction
9. Forager must eat every 30 seconds to survive
10. The group with the most CALORIES wins the competition
11. The points are as followed
a. M&Ms= 2 calories
b. Peanut M&Ms= 5 calories
c. Chocolate coins = 10 calories
12. Record results on table below
13. Winner will be based on average total points for two trials

M&Ms

Peanut M&Ms

Chocolate Coins

X2

X5
Total points

X10

M&Ms

Peanut M&Ms

Chocolate Coins

X2

X5
Total points

X10

Trial 1

Trial 2

Average

Average points

Analysis Questions:
1. What was the food quality in each geographic area? What do you know about each of
the geographic areas that you competed in? (Brazil, New England, Georgia) [2 pts]

2. Look in all the cups at your station and determine if you had a poor, medium, or highquality habitat. [1 pts]

3. Look at your result tables. Were you a specialist or a generalist? How do you know?
[2 pts]

4. Look at the results of other groups. What type of habitats did they forage in? What did
they eat? Were they specialist or generalist? [5 pts]

5. Did any group have a bad foraging strategies? Why or why not? [2 pts]
6. Who won the competition? Why? [2 pts]
7. Can you think of any biological reasons for the trends you observed in foraging
patterns? If being a specialist species can result in having higher quality food, why
arent all animals specialist? [4 pts]
8. Describe how the marginal value theorem is present in the birds decision making
process in the experiment. (Be specific, must show you understand the theorem and
what it looked like in our model) [4 pts]

9. What else must animals consider when foraging for food in their natural
environments? [2 pts]
10. Calculation: Using the classical model of prey choice, calculate the profitabilities of
each prey item. [6 pts]
11. Calculation: Determine whether you should eat only the most profitable prey type or
eat other prey items using the classical model of prey choice. [6 pts]
*HINT: Find search time of prey type for your environment*
12. Did the results of the experiment support your calculations? Why or why not? [4 pts]