Here are some short movies to illustrate two key concepts in optimal foraging:
The first shows the calculations for the rule about whether foragers should add items to their diet. This addresses the question “if there’s a food item in front of me, should I eat it?” (), which is central to the question of why some consumers are specialists and some are generalists:
The second shows the rules for how long a forager should stay in a patch before moving on to the next patch. This addresses the question as to whether foragers should “clean their plate” or move on to the next patch when resources become rare. Note, this is the same calculus that is used in resource extraction fields to work out the optimal level of extraction: e.g. should we get every last drop of oil out of the ground, even though it gets harder and harder, or just move on to the next well.