Foraging is fundamental to animal survival and reproduction, yet it is much more than a simple matter of finding food; it is a biological imperative. Animals must find and consume resources to succeed, and they make extraordinary efforts to do so. For instance, pythons rarely eat, but when they do, their meals are large - as much as 60 percent larger than their own bodies. The snake's digestive system is normally dormant, but during digestion metabolic rates can increase fortyfold. A python digesting quietly on the forest floor has the metabolic rate of a thoroughbred in a dead heat. This and related foraging processes have broad applications in ecology, cognitive science, anthropology, and conservation biology - and they can be further extrapolated in economics, neurobiology, and computer science. "Foraging" is the first comprehensive review of the topic in more than twenty years. A monumental undertaking, this volume brings together twenty-two experts from throughout the field to offer the latest on the mechanics of foraging, modern foraging theory, and foraging ecology. The fourteen essays cover all the relevant issues, including cognition, individual behavior, caching behavior, parental behavior, anti-predator behavior, social behavior, population and community ecology, herbivory, and conservation. Considering a wide range of taxa, from birds to mammals to amphibians, "Foraging" will be the definitive guide to the field.

About the Author
David W. Stephens is professor of ecology, evolution, and behavior at the University of Minnesota and coauthor of Foraging Theory. Joel S. Brown is professor of biology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and coauthor of Evolutionary Game Theory, Natural Selection, and Darwinian Dynamics. Ronald C. Ydenberg is professor in the behavioral ecology research group and director of the Centre for Wildlife Ecology at Simon Fraser University.


Book Information
ISBN 9780226772646
Author David W. Stephens
Format Paperback
Page Count 576
Imprint University of Chicago Press
Publisher The University of Chicago Press
Weight(grams) 936g
Dimensions(mm) 23mm * 15mm * 4mm