User:Casually Anonymous/Foraging

Genetics
Some behaviors are more dominant than others. In a study using fruit fly larvae (Drosophila melanogaster), there were two types of foraging strategies: rovers and sitters. Rovers used the strategy of moving across multiple patches in search for food, while sitters remained in one patch with no inclination to go searching. Both of these strategies are polymorphic traits that naturally occur within the larval stages of fruit flies. The gene responsible for major effects on foraging behavior in Drosophila melanogaster larvae is the chaser (Csr) gene. During the study, homozygous strains were produced by crossing the rovers with rovers and sitters with sitters. Using the method of hybridization - crossing rovers with sitters - all of the offspring displayed the rover foraging behavior, thus demonstrating that it is an allele of complete dominance.

Search behavior
Animals can typically be classified into two categories by their pattern of movement exhibited through foraging behaviors. They are "cruise" searchers and "ambush" searchers. Cruise searchers forage by continuously hunting for prey at the outer borders of the area being searched, while ambush searchers forage by sitting and waiting. They remain motionless for long durations as they wait on the prey to pass by, therefore initiating the ambusher to attack.

Parasitism (reworded and cited)
Parasitism can affect the way in which animals forage. For an organism to counteract the procurement of a parasite, they may display avoidance towards certain areas where parasites have previously been discovered. This avoidance behavior is a trade-off mechanism where the loss of time and energy in avoiding food patches is traded with the decrease in risk of contracting a parasite. Adaptations in diet also help in the prevention of parasitic infection. By avoiding foods that have high potential for parasitic contamination, as well as including food items that contain anti-parasitic properties in the diet. These anti-parasitic properties can be used in a self-medicating way, either prophylactically or therapeutically.

Foraging Arena Theory:
A quantitative model that allows for the evaluation of trade-off decisions that occur in aquatic ecosystems. 'Foraging arenas' are the areas in which a juvenile fish can forage closer to their home while also providing an easier escape from potential predators. This theory predicts that feeding activity should be dependent upon the density of juvenile fishes, and the risk of predation within the area. A balance between the growth and mortality of these juvenile fishes is reliant consequent to the duration of foraging performed by said juvenile fish. These components vary with regards to the habitat.

Group foraging and the ideal free distribution theory (reworded and cited)
The ideal free distribution (IFD) theory is used to understand and predict the foraging behavior of animals within groups. A null model for habitat selection through the distribution of animals within patches. This theory predicts that the foragers will make immediate decisions on foraging location due to the quality (resources) of the patches available during that time. They are able to share these resources equally, therefore minimizing resource competition as well as maximizing fitness. Ideal free distribution can only occur if the intake of resources by the predators within the patches are approximately equal.