Theory 17/Exploration vs Exploitation/Foraging
Leaving Early Costs Food
The claim
The optimal time to leave a patch trades the food remaining against the value of discovering a better one, so the leaving threshold depends on habitat quality.
01Mechanism
Marginal value theorem: leave when the current rate falls to the average rate, which rises with habitat quality.
02Prediction
Residence time should fall as habitat quality rises.
03Refutation
Residence time independent of habitat would remove the trade-off.