Behavioural Mechanisms of Food Selection examines animals belonging to diverse trophic groups, from carnivores, herbivores, micro-algal grazers, to filter-feeders and detritus-feeders. In the past Optimal Foraging Theory has been applied to all these groups, but in different ways and in disci plines that rarely overlap. Here concepts and developments hitherto scattered in the literature are drawn together. This uniquely broad synthesis captures the state of the art in the study of diet selection and prescribes new objectives in theoretical development and research.

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BBehavioural Mechanisms of Food Selection/B examines animals belonging to diverse trophic groups, from carnivores, herbivores, micro-algal grazers, to filter-feeders and detritus-feeders. In the past Optimal Foraging Theory has been applied to all these groups, but in different ways and in disci plines that rarely overlap. Here concepts and developments hitherto scattered in the literature are drawn together. This uniquely broad synthesis captures the state of the art in the study of diet selection and prescribes new objectives in theoretical development and research.

Inhalt
Theory.- Predator switching and the interpretation of animal choice behaviour: the case for constrained optimization..- Foraging in the context of life-history: general principles and specific models..- The starvation-predation trade-off and some behavioural and ecological consequences..- Timing mechanisms in optimal foraging: some applications of scalar expectancy theory..- On evaluation of foraging strategies through estimates of reproductive success..- Evaluation and Selection of Food Items.- Active diet selection or passive reflection of changing food availability: the underwater foraging behaviour of canvasback ducks..- Territorial salamanders evaluate size and chitinous content of arthropod prey..- Are rules of thumb sufficient for the starling's choice of food according to gain in energy?.- Prey selection and processing in a stomatopod crustacean..- Constraints and Physiological State.- Time scale and diet choice decisions..- Food requirement and risk-sensitive foraging in shortfall minimizers..- The combined effects of learning and hunger in the feeding behaviour of the fifteen-spined stickleback (Spinachia spinachia)..- The role of behaviour and morphology in the selection of prey by pike..- How important are nutrient constraints in optimal foraging models or are spatial/temporal factors more important?.- Ontogenetic Changes in Food Selection.- Ecological and morphological aspects of changes in food uptake through the ontogeny of Haplochromis piceatus..- Predicting ontogenetic niche shifts in the field: what can be gained by foraging theory?.- Bulk Processors: Mammalian Grazers.- The impact of different growth patterns on the utilization of tree species by a generalist herbivore, the moose Alces alces: implication of optimal foraging theory..- Rules and cuesused by sheep foraging in monocultures..- Constraints on diet selection and foraging behaviour in mammalian herbivores..- Diet selection by generalist herbivores: a test of the linear programming model..- A reply to Hobbs..- Applicability of five diet-selection models to various foraging challenges ruminants encounter..- Bulk Processors: Invertebrate Grazers.- The characteristics of algae in relation to their vulnerability to grazing snails..- Comparative foraging behavior of tropical and boreal sea urchins..- Bulk Processors: Deposit Feeders.- Effects of food value of artificial and natural sediments on functional response and net rate of energy gain by a deposit-feeding polychaete..- Supply-side optimization: maximizing absorptive rates..- Foraging strategy of a deposit feeding crab..- Bulk Processors: Filter Feeders.- Retention efficiency, perceptual bias, and active choice as mechanisms of food selection by suspension-feeding zooplankton..- Concentration-variable interactions between calanoid copepods and particles of different food quality: observations and hypotheses..- Water processing in filter-feeding bivalves..- Behavioural plasticity in the suspension feeding of benthic animals..- Interactions among Foragers: Social Co-Operation.- How trail laying and trail following can solve foraging problems for ant colonies..- Interactions among Foragers: Competition.- Intraspecific kleptoparasitism and foraging efficiency as constraints on food selection by kelp gulls Larus dominicanus..- Foraging in the black-headed gull: compensatory site selection by immatures..- Interactions between Foragers and other Animals: Predation.- Information overload and food selection..- Diet selection under the risk of predation..- Interacting effects of predator and prey behavior in determining diets..- Hunting by the hunted: optimal prey selection by foragers under predation hazard..- Interactions between Foragers and other Animals: Fisheries Management.- On the role of ecological experimentation in resource management: managing fisheries through mechanistic understanding of predator feeding behavior..- The role of the optimal diet predator in multispecies fishery assessment..- Round-Table Discussion (1).- Can there be a general theory of diet selection?.- Round-Table Discussion (2).- The role and importance of optimal foraging theory in ecology.- Participants and Addresses.- Inde.