TY - JOUR
AU1 - Schoener, T W
AB -  THOMAS W. SCHOENER Biological Laboratories, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts Natural history is replete with observations on feeding, yet only recently have investigators begun to treat feeding as a device whose performance­ as measured in net energy yield/feeding time or some other units assumed commensurate with fitness-may be maximized by natural selection (44, 1 13, 135, 156, 181) . The primary task of a theory of feeding strategies is to specify for a given animal that complex of behavior and morphology best suited to gather food energy in a particular environment. The task is one, therefore, of optimization, and like all optimization problems, it may be tri sected: 1. Choosing a currency: What is to be maximized or minimized? 2. Choosing the appropriate cost-benefit functions: What is the mathematical form of the set of expressions with the currency as the dependent variable? 3. Solving for the optimum: What computational technique best finds ex­ trema of the cost-benefit function? In this review, most of the following section is devoted to possible answers to the first problem. Then four key aspects of feeding strategies will be considered: (a) the optimal diet, (b) the optimal foraging space, (c) the optimal foraging period, 
TI - Theory of Feeding Strategies
JF - Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics
DO - 10.1146/annurev.es.02.110171.002101
DA - 1971-11-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/annual-reviews/theory-of-feeding-strategies-Gs7ugxRNN5
SP - 369
EP - 404
VL - 2
IS - 1
DP - DeepDyve
ER -