Nutritional missed opportunity costs: wild house mice (Mus musculus) consistently consume less preferred food, with implications for control.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Foraging animals must navigate trade-offs among foods of varying quality and accessibility, with preferences generally predicted to be driven by energy maximisation. Limited access to preferred resources increases missed opportunity costs (MOCs), which should necessitate uptake of less-preferred alternatives. How animals trade off access to preferred versus less-preferred foods has important implications for wildlife management, especially where anthropogenic, natural, and management-related food sources co-occur. In cropping systems, mouse control relies on their uptake of unpalatable poisons coated on wheat grains, even when high-quality alternatives like sown and spilled grain are available. We tested whether increasing the cost of accessing preferred wheat seeds woul

SUBMITTER: Parker FCG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12713708 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature