TY - JOUR
T1 - Sunfish foraging among patches
T2 - the patch-departure decision
AU - Devries, Dennis R.
AU - Stein, Roy A.
AU - Chesson, Peter L.
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Gary Mittelbach for his insight with this work as well as his comments on the manuscript. Libby Marschall provided assistance as we began working with this system, as well as numerous comments on the manuscript, for which we are grateful. We appreciate comments that were provided by Dick Green, Burt Kotler and Tom Valone. Because we did not always follow the comments that were provided, problems that remain are here in spite of the efforts of these reviewers. Financial support was provided in the form of a Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid of Research to DRD. The Ohio Cooperative Fishery Research Unit provided support in the form of laboratory space and supplies, computer time and use of vehicles. We thank Steve Klosiewski for his statistical advice and Tammy DeVries for her help in harvesting literally thousands of chironomids.
PY - 1989/3
Y1 - 1989/3
N2 - Patch-use behaviour of small bluegill sunfish, Lepomis macrochirus, foraging for chironomid larvae, Chironomus riparius, was investigated in artificial macrophyte patches to examine search pattern within a patch and to determine the decision rule used by fish when leaving a patch. Fish were exposed to a sequence of habitats which differed in quality (i.e. total prey density); however, within a habitat all patches were of equal quality. When foraging in a single patch, fish encountered prey randomly, as evidenced by agreement between the distribution of intercapture intervals and the exponential distribution. Agreement between fish behaviour and predictions of a rate decision rule indicated that the decision to leave a patch was based on some estimate of capture rate in the patch. Predictions of how long fish should stay in a patch and how many prey they should capture during a patch visit were generated, using a giving-up time model based on an exponential distribution of intercapture intervals. Fish generally stayed longer and captured more prey than predicted by the model, using giving-up times that were longer than optimal. The relationship between rate of prey capture for the habitat and giving-up times was shaped such that fish minimized the cost, in terms of a decrease in capture rate, by overestimating rather than underestimating the optimal giving-up time.
AB - Patch-use behaviour of small bluegill sunfish, Lepomis macrochirus, foraging for chironomid larvae, Chironomus riparius, was investigated in artificial macrophyte patches to examine search pattern within a patch and to determine the decision rule used by fish when leaving a patch. Fish were exposed to a sequence of habitats which differed in quality (i.e. total prey density); however, within a habitat all patches were of equal quality. When foraging in a single patch, fish encountered prey randomly, as evidenced by agreement between the distribution of intercapture intervals and the exponential distribution. Agreement between fish behaviour and predictions of a rate decision rule indicated that the decision to leave a patch was based on some estimate of capture rate in the patch. Predictions of how long fish should stay in a patch and how many prey they should capture during a patch visit were generated, using a giving-up time model based on an exponential distribution of intercapture intervals. Fish generally stayed longer and captured more prey than predicted by the model, using giving-up times that were longer than optimal. The relationship between rate of prey capture for the habitat and giving-up times was shaped such that fish minimized the cost, in terms of a decrease in capture rate, by overestimating rather than underestimating the optimal giving-up time.
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U2 - 10.1016/0003-3472(89)90092-4
DO - 10.1016/0003-3472(89)90092-4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0024581326
SN - 0003-3472
VL - 37
SP - 455
EP - 464
JO - Animal Behaviour
JF - Animal Behaviour
IS - PART 3
ER -