Customer Reviews

Foraging Theory

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4 star:		(3)
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During the course of my Ph.D. (still unfinished), I have worked my way through Stephens and Krebs' "Foraging Theory" four times. Here are my impressions:

The book is very well organized; chapters introduce new concepts incrementally, and the overall flow is very good. The authors start with the classical patch and prey models, adding complexity in later chapters. Separate chapters address trade-offs and simultaneous optimization, dynamic optimization, and rules-of-thumb. The concluding chapters consider model testing and the success of the optimization paradigm.

The writing is somewhat stiff, but still pretty good for a technical work. The bit about how great tits rarely feed on conveyor belts in nature is an exemplar of scientific understatement.

If mathematics are not your strong point, or your background is weak, you will have a hard time with many of the proofs. I skipped over most of these sections expecting to get the gist of the material, only to regret my decision during my comprehensive exams!

While Stephens and Krebs provide a thorough overview of the material, "Foraging Theory" suffers from one serious flaw. The presentation focuses on model development, rather than analysis and interpretation. In order to truly understand these models, the student absolutely must work through "real" examples under the tutelage of an experienced mentor.

The binding has held up very well. The book looks nearly new, despite having been stomped on several times and thrown out a third-story window at least once.

Even after all of these years, "Foraging Theory" still represents the state-of-the-art in optimization-based approaches to behavioral analysis.

I never write reviews but I had to respond to a negative review of this book that I just read. This has been THE foraging theory book since it was published. Granted, a great deal of work has built upon original foraging theory that is not included in this book. To me, that merely suggests that the publishers should encourage the authors to write an updated version even if they are unlikely to agree. Having been involved in this area of research for the past ten years I can tell you that if you intend to do any sort of foraging work, you will find this a useful reference. I have bought this book twice already due to people "borrowing" it permanently. In fact I looked up the book because I am once again missing my copy!

It is true that the book is a bit heavy on the math but as this book is about ecological theory it should not surprise readers. Despite the theoretical approach, is certainly possible to learn a great deal from the book without a math background. There are definitely more current books on the topic as well as a large body of scientific literature on the subject but this book still remains one of the more used books on my shelf.

This is a wonderful book on foraging theory. It is surprisingly readable given the complexity of the mathematics often involved. I see in this book one outstanding strength but also several areas that could be improved.

All too often texts lay out a result without elaborating how the result was attained; that will not be seen here. For every foraging paradigm or model the formulae are worked out step by step. The authors clearly describe how the final model is derived and what the initial assumptions are.

The weakness of this book is an absence of application. For a beginner in foraging research this book must be paired with another text on methods and applications. I have found the Clark and Mangel text "Dynamic State Variable Models in Ecology" to be an excellent compliment. C&M pick up where this text leaves off beginning with the formula fully formed and putting it to use. One should not judge this text on its lack of application as it is titled appropriately as theory; but the interested reader should be aware of this limitation in scope.

My other critique is minor, and rather entertaining to the point of making me wonder if it was included for comic relief. The authors valiantly yet foolishly defend an idea where I propose they have no business doing so. The defended idea is the "Zero-One rule."

The zero-one rule is first introduced, reasonably enough, with prey models as the rule that for a variety of prey types a given type will be always taken or never taken upon encounter. As new models are discussed however the zero-one rule becomes less and less applicable. The authors defend the idea in one case where the forager's choice depends upon the angle from which it approaches two prey (or patches) by claiming that given the same choices and the same approach angle the choice will be the same - ie the forager will always take or never take a given prey. When state-dependent models are introduced the idea again comes under fire and the authors now defend it with what I see as the quite humorous view that "at any one time it still applies." This strikes me as a ridiculously banal point that in any given trial the forager will either take or not take the food item; this hardly seems to qualify as a 'rule' worthy of a name.

All in all this is an indispensable text for the field of foraging behavior as it illustrates a variety of models as well as the need to choose the appropriate model for a given study. To be of direct application however I'd highly recommend an accompanying text on methods and applications.

Foraging Theory is truly indispensable for anyone working on foraging of any kind. It is a great reference that I seem to keep going back to. My copy is nearly destroyed with notes and coffee stains. I would go so far as to label it unavoidable, because it is cited in so many papers and reviews. Thankfully, as a math-centered, unavoidable book, it is also a pleasure to read. I find that the writing is extremely clear and I enjoyed the breadth of examples the authors chose. When I first picked up the book early on in my education, I also found it to be a really nice first introduction to understanding models in general.

I saw where it was recently listed as a top 10 most cited book in ecology and evolution. That should certainly tell you something.

This work on foraging theory is extremely weak on all aspects of foraging theory or ecology. I would recommend to interested individuals almost all other textbooks on foraging, most which are much more informative.