Definition
A foraging strategy in which prey or resources are transported to a nest or other habitual base rather than being consumed in situ.
Introduction
Many animals use one or more habitual locations as nests, shelters, or storage caches during all or part of their lives and transport resources to this central place. Examples include birds bringing food to their nests to feed their chicks, bees storing honey at their nest to feed brood and provide food during periods when no flowers are available, male terns bringing food to females during courtship, chipmunks stockpiling seed for the winter, or eastern woodrats collecting nesting materials. A central place can also function as a store of information, as in ant colonies where pheromone trails radiating from the nest encode the sum of the colony’s knowledge about available food sources or honeybees which dance inside the nest to communicate the position of flowers. Humans, too, are central place foragers, transporting everything...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Collett, M., Chittka, L., & Collett, T. S. (2013). Spatial memory in insect navigation. Current Biology, 23(17), R789–R800. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.07.020
Dornhaus, A., Collins, E. J., Dechaume-Moncharmont, F. X., Houston, A. I., Franks, N. R., & McNamara, J. M. (2006). Paying for information: Partial loads in central place foragers. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 61(1), 151–161. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-006-0246-5
Giraldeau, L. A., & Kramer, D. L. (1982). The marginal value theorem: A quantitative test using load size variation in a central place forager, the Eastern chipmunk, Tamias striatus. Animal Behaviour, 30(4), 1036–1042. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-3472(82)80193-0
Houston, A. I. (1985). Central-place foraging: Some aspects of prey choice for multiple-prey loaders. The American Naturalist, 125(6), 811–826. https://doi.org/10.1086/284381
Houston, A. I., & McNamara, J. M. (1985). A general theory of central place foraging for single-prey loaders. Theoretical Population Biology, 28(3), 233–262. https://doi.org/10.1016/0040-5809(85)90029-2
Lihoreau, M., Raine, N. E., Reynolds, A. M., Stelzer, R. J., Lim, K. S., Smith, A. D., … Chittka, L. (2012). Radar tracking and motion-sensitive cameras on flowers reveal the development of pollinator multi-destination routes over large spatial scales. PLoS Biology, 10(9), 19–21. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001392
McNamara, J. M., & Houston, A. I. (2009). Integrating function and mechanism. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2009.05.011
Moser, E. I., Kropff, E., & Moser, M.-B. (2008). Place cells, grid cells, and the brain’s spatial representation system. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 31(1), 69–89. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.neuro.31.061307.090723
Orians, G. H., & Pearson, N. E. (1979). On the theory of central place foraging. In D. J. Horn, G. R. Stairs, & R. D. Mitchell (Eds.), Analysis of ecological systems (pp. 155–177). Columbus: Ohio State University Press.
Pyke, G. H. (1984). Optimal foraging theory: A critical review. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 15(231), 523–575. Retrieved from http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev.es.15.110184.002515
Rands, S. A., Houston, A. I., & Gasson, C. E. (2000). Prey processing in central place foragers. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 202. Retrieved from http://www.idealibrary.com
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Woodgate, J.L., Chittka, L. (2018). Central Place Foraging. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_881-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_881-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences