State-dependent mortality can enhance behavioral unpredictability.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Although behavioral unpredictability is widely described within-individual variability in behavior, its adaptive significance is little understood. Using a dynamic state variable model, this study investigated the conditions under which behavioral unpredictability (a component of within-individual variability) in foraging behavior is advantageous. The model considers a situation in which a forager forages for a fixed period, represented by discrete time steps. The outcome of foraging may change the level of a state (e.g., size and fat storage) of the forager at each time step, and variability in the foraging outcome is assumed to be positively correlated with behavioral unpredictability. The probability of death at each time step is influenced by the state at the same ti

SUBMITTER: Okuyama T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7315534 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature