02209nas a2200241 4500008004100000022001300041245006600054210006500120260001600185300001200201490000800213520132800221653002001549653001301569653002001582653001701602653002801619653001801647100002601665700002201691700002101713856023301734 2018 eng d a0003347200aCognitive constraints on optimal foraging in frog-eating bats0 aCognitive constraints on optimal foraging in frogeating bats cJan-09-2018 a43 - 500 v1433 a
Animals are expected to optimize energy intake when choosing between different foraging options. A common explanation for deviations from optimal economic decisions is that there is an imperfect relationship between physical reality and an animal's perceptual processes, which can constrain assessment of profitability. One such phenomenon that is apparently ubiquitous across taxa is proportional processing, where a perceived change in a stimulus is proportional to the change in stimulus magnitude. In this study, we investigated whether proportional processing explains how frog-eating bats, Trachops cirrhosus, discriminate between patches of frog choruses that vary in their number of calling frogs. To test this, we created artificial choruses consisting of one to six calling frogs. In the flight cage, we then tested the preference of bats (N = 17) with every pairwise combination of chorus size. We found that while bats generally preferred larger choruses, preferences for larger choruses were better explained by the relative, not absolute, differences in chorus sizes. This indicates that T. cirrhosus is perceptually limited in its ability to discriminate between choruses of varying size as the choruses increase in size. Foragers are likely to be less choosy when choosing among larger patches.
10aDecision making10aforaging10afrog-eating bat10apatch choice10aproportional processing10atĂșngara frog1 aHemingway, Claire, T.1 aRyan, Michael, J.1 aPage, Rachel, A. uhttps://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0003347218302227https://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0003347218302227?httpAccept=text/xmlhttps://api.elsevier.com/content/article/PII:S0003347218302227?httpAccept=text/plain