ACE, University of Liverpool, William Hartley Building, Brownlow Street, Liverpool L69 3GS, United Kingdom.
Math Biosci. 2013 Mar;242(1):25-32. doi: 10.1016/j.mbs.2012.11.011. Epub 2012 Dec 13.
Models of foraging behaviour often assume either that animals are searching for resources, and therefore have no prior knowledge of resource locations, or that they are effectively omniscient, with a comprehensive knowledge of their habitat. By contrast, few attempts have been made to examine the actual conditions under which spatial memory will provide net benefits to foragers. To redress this balance, a model is developed that relates the sensory acuity of the forager and key indices of resource structure to the expected foraging efficiency via calculation of inter-patch distances. Efficiencies of 'ignorant' and 'prescient' foragers are examined in order to derive sets of conditions under which natural selection will favour the evolution of spatial memory capabilities. Results suggest that when resources are densely distributed or sensory acuity is high, spatial memory for resource locations provides no increase in efficiency over that of an 'ignorant' forager encountering resources at random.
觅食行为模型通常假设动物要么在寻找资源，因此对资源位置没有先验知识，要么它们实际上是无所不知的，对其栖息地有全面的了解。相比之下，很少有人试图研究在实际条件下，空间记忆会如何为觅食者带来净收益。为了纠正这种不平衡，我们建立了一个模型，通过计算斑块之间的距离，将觅食者的感官敏锐度和资源结构的关键指标与预期的觅食效率联系起来。为了推导出自然选择有利于空间记忆能力进化的条件集，我们研究了“无知”和“有先见之明”的觅食者的效率。结果表明，当资源密集分布或感官敏锐度较高时，对资源位置的空间记忆不会提高效率，而“无知”的觅食者随机遇到资源时，效率也不会提高。
