Shell dropping by Northwestern Crows: a reexamination of an optimal foraging study

1989 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 770-771
Author(s):  
R. C. Plowright ◽  
G. A. Fuller ◽  
J. E. Paloheimo
Keyword(s):  
Optimal Foraging ◽  
Optimal Foraging Theory ◽  
Foraging Theory ◽  
Corvus Caurinus ◽  
Lower Height ◽  
Optimality Models

The report by Zach (Zach, R. 1979. Behaviour, 68: 106–117) that Northwestern Crows (Corvus caurinus), when breaking whelks, drop the shells from an optimal height is reexamined. The currency used by Zach is arguably inappropriate because of the significant handling costs incurred by the birds in the shell-breaking process. As the birds ascend to a lower height than is predicted by any of the optimality models examined in this paper, it is suggested that their behaviour should not be cited as an example of the successful application of optimal foraging theory.

Optimal foraging: theory and experiment

Nature ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 268 (5621) ◽  
pp. 583-584 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Krebs
Keyword(s):  
Optimal Foraging ◽  
Optimal Foraging Theory ◽  
Foraging Theory ◽  
Theory And Experiment

Testing optimal foraging theory models on benthic divers

2016 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 127-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dahlia Foo ◽  
Jayson M. Semmens ◽  
John P.Y. Arnould ◽  
Nicole Dorville ◽  
Andrew J. Hoskins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Optimal Foraging ◽  
Optimal Foraging Theory ◽  
Foraging Theory

scholarly journals Beyond Depression? A Review of the Optimal Foraging Theory Literature in Zooarchaeology and Archaeobotany

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Lena Jones ◽  
David A. Hurley
Keyword(s):  
Optimal Foraging ◽  
Optimal Foraging Theory ◽  
Foraging Theory ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Resource Depression ◽  
Environmental Interactions ◽  
Prey Populations

The use of optimal foraging theory in archaeology has been criticized for focusing heavily on “negative” human-environmental interactions, particularly anthropogenic resource depression, in which prey populations are reduced by foragers’ own foraging activities. In addition, some researchers have suggested the focus on resource depression is more common in the zooarchaeological literature than in the archaeobotanical literature, indicating fundamental differences in the ways zooarchaeologists and archaeobotanists approach the archaeological record. In this paper, we assess these critiques through a review of the literature between 1997 and 2017. We find that studies identifying resource depression occur at similar rates in the archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological literature. In addition, while earlier archaeological applications of optimal foraging theory did focus heavily on the identification of resource depression, the literature published between 2013 and 2017 shows a wider variety of approaches.

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