question archive Herring occur in large schools (or patches) off the coast of Norway, which are searched for and fed upon by killer whales
Herring occur in large schools (or patches) off the coast of Norway, which are searched for and fed upon by killer whales
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Herring occur in large schools (or patches) off the coast of Norway, which are searched for and fed upon by killer whales. Once a school of herring is discovered by a foraging whale, it consumes the fish, eventually reducing their density to such a level that the whale moves on in search of another school of herring. The decision by a whale of when to abandon a school of anchovies and look for another is done in such a manner as to maximize the long-term rate of food intake, which in turn is predicted by the marginal value theorem.
(a) Define the the marginal value theorem, including its main underlying assumption.
(b) Then, describe the two factors that influence the whale's leaving time.
(c) Finally, describe how the marginal value theorem can be used to predict how long a whale should remain in a school of anchovies, or in other words, at what point the whale should decided to leave a school of anchovies.
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a) The Marginal Value Theorem is an optimality model that describes the strategy that an optimally foraging individual present in an environment where food is available in various patches separated by area of no resource. Therefore, this theorem helps in understanding maximum gain per unit time in systems and also how to predict giving up time and giving up density.
b) the two factors determining the Whale leaving time are:
- For how long the present system can fulfill the energy demands i.e. density of resources available
- The distance the Whale has to cover to reach new energy resource destination.
c) The marginal value theorem can be used to predict how long a whale should remain in a school of anchovies by calculating time an individual will spend searching for a particular patch before moving on to a new one. The model compares the benefits and costs and helps in predicting giving up time and giving up density, based on the distance of next resourceful area and the amount of food available on the present area respectively.
