Example Three: Temporal Patterns in Limpet Foraging

Abstract

This chapter presents a third example application of state- and prediction-based theory (SPT), again involving a behavior originally modeled via dynamic state variable modeling (DSVM). This example also addresses animal foraging, this time a choice of foraging activity. In this case, physiology has more important and interesting effects on behavior: the model animal, like many herbivores, can consume food relatively rapidly but does not assimilate its energy until the food's rather slow passage through a long gut. This leads to uncoupling of foraging behavior and energy assimilation on short time scales. The example is based directly on the DSVM analysis by Santini et al. of foraging behavior in the limpet Cella grata, which feeds by scraping rocks in the intertidal zone.