Abstract Bartumeus

Understanding the structural complexity and the main drivers of animal search behaviour is pivotal to foraging ecology. Yet, the role of uncertainty as a generative mechanism of movement pattern is poorly understood. According to traditional views, the lack of resource information result in the assumption that foraging strategies are ballistic. On the contrary, novel insights from search theory suggest that before resolving to relocate to another area, organisms could also collect and assess new information from the environment, unfolding complex exploratory strategies. Based on an extension of the first passage time theory, we unveil elelmentary random search principles that can be useful to frame the study of foraging behaviour under uncertainty.