Quantifying costs and rewards in optimal foraging models of the marine environment. Using bulk feeding mysticete whales as an example ...

• Main Author: Swift, René James
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: University of St Andrews 2021
• Subjects: QL737.C42S8; Baleen whales > Behavior; Baleen whales > Food; Marine mammals > Behavior; Marine mammals > Food; baleen whales
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17630/sta/741; https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/29197

Animals feed to maintain body condition and maximise fitness. Feeding is a multi-stage behaviour that encapsulates aspects of an animals' sensory and foraging ecology, and that can be divided into the following broad functional categories; prey detection, capture, and handling (assimilation of acquired energy stores). The evolutionary consequences of foraging have the potential to shape predator-prey dynamics, influence community and ecosystem structure; and to drive the evolution of physiological and morphological adaptations that minimise energetic costs and maximise energy uptake. Excess energy can be converted to fat (lipids) and stored to enhance reproductive potential or to protect against temporary (voluntary) starvation associated often with long distance migration or changes in prey distribution. Understanding how an animal balances these conflicting forces, and makes key foraging decisions is an important aspect to understanding their ecology. Simple questions such as how, when, where, why and what ...