Time Budgeting and Group Size: A Theory

作者：Thomas Caraco · 发表于：Ecology · 年份：1979 · DOI：10.2307/1936081 · 被引用次数：233 · 研究领域：Animal Behavior and Reproduction、Animal Ecology and Behavior Studies、Plant and animal studies

This paper considers interactions between time budgets, group size and overwinter survivorship for members of avian foraging flocks. Individuals should respond to the social environment and energetic requirements by varying their allocation of time to predator detection, feeding and aggression. Predictions relate time budgets qualitatively to both the expectation and variance of foraging group sizes. Optimal group sizes for dominants and subordinates are compared to the expected group size.