Optimal foraging theory

Optimal foraging theory (OFT) is a behavioral ecology model that helps predict how an animal behaves when searching for food. Although obtaining food provides the animal with energy, searching for and capturing the food require both energy and time. To maximize fitness, an animal adopts a foraging strategy that provides the most benefit (energy) for the lowest cost, maximizing the net energy gained. OFT helps predict the best strategy that an animal can use to achieve this goal. OFT is an ecological application of the optimality model. This theory assumes that the most economically advantageous foraging pattern will be selected for in a species through natural selection. When using OFT to model foraging behavior, organisms are said to be maximizing a variable known as the currency, such as the most food per unit time. In addition, the constraints of the environment are other variables that must be considered. Constraints are defined as factors that can limit the forager's ability to maximize the currency. The optimal decision rule, or the organism's best foraging strategy, is defined as the decision that maximizes the currency under the constraints of the environment. Identifying the optimal decision rule is the primary goal of the OFT. An optimal foraging model generates quantitative predictions of how animals maximize their fitness while they forage. The model building process involves identifying the currency, constraints, and appropriate decision rule for the forager. Currency is defined as the unit that is optimized by the animal. It is also a hypothesis of the costs and benefits that are imposed on that animal. For example, a certain forager gains energy from food, but incurs the cost of searching for the food: the time and energy spent searching could have been used instead on other endeavors, such as finding mates or protecting young. It would be in the animal's best interest to maximize its benefits at the lowest cost. Thus, the currency in this situation could be defined as net energy gain per unit time.