Foraging Constraints

A foraging constraint can be defined as any parameter that prevents the forager to choose the most efficient foraging strategy.

The constraints can be:

• behavioral: a time-consuming and extensive mating ritual to find a partner and generate offspring.

• morphological: the forager might be ill-equipped to overcome some preys' natural defenses.

• physiological: the forager might need to spend a substantial amount of time in the sun to maintain its body temperature.

• environmental: the water might freeze over an aquatic source of food in winter, making it unreachable.

These constraints are sometimes sorted as intrinsic and extrinsic. Basically, the intrinsic constraints are those on which the forager can directly act upon (e.g. maintaining a specific body temperature, satisfying a particular dietary requirement) while extrinsic constraints are external factors against which the forager has to adapt (e.g. an alteration in the climate, the arrival of a new predator).