Abstract Pitchtford

The simple idea of a forager seeking to maximise its long-term expected rate of finding prey is mathematically attractive, but it often ignores ecological reality. For example, the arrival of prey may be unpredictable, these prey may only be present for a short time, and there may be good reasons why the forager doesn't want to wait around for too long. Data on Macaroni penguins feeding on krill in the Antarctic provide an example. These data motivate some simple foraging models which try to respect the biology yet which might offer scope for new theoretical insight.