Study Questions for Chapter 7: The Ecology of Foraging

1. Describe the problems faced by a predator during foraging and contrast these with the problems faced by a prey during foraging.

2. Explain the basic premises of the ideal free distribution. Are there any animals that exhibit the ideal free distribution? (Why or why not?).

3. What are the costs and benefits of territorial behavior? Describe a simple graphical model of these trade-offs.

4. What are the advantages to group hunting? Why is the observed size (2-4) of lion prides greater than the optimal size (1-2)?

5. What is an information center? What kinds of alternative information parasites can invade an information center and under what ecological conditions is each kind successful?

6. Explain the advantage of being a rare strategy.