- Researchers are attempting to understand whether the floralnectar consumption by a particular hummingbird species conforms tothe expectations of optimal foraging theory. Describe twoexperiments that could be performed to assess this.
One will be an observationalexperiment, where foraging is observed in the wild, throughout theyear, without manipulation. Assume that cold temperature is the keyenvironmental constraint that limits the birds’ abilities to bechoosy (i.e. hint, look at the salmon experiment from our lecture).Also assume these birds choose among 3 different types offlowers/nectar that are available throughout their active season:A, B, and C. A has the highest amino acid content and C has thelowest. All have equal amounts of energy. A is the hardest to find,followed by B, and then C.
The other will be a manipulativeexperiment in which the search time is varied. In this one youcreate an arena with 2 types of artificial flower, each withdifferent qualities of nectar (i.e. different amino acid content).The flowers differ in colors that the birds can distinguish, butare otherwise identical (i.e. the handling time is kept the same).You have to set things up so that the cost-to-benefit ratio oflooking for the higher nutrition flower is changed across 2treatments. Hint: think along the lines of the conveyor beltexperiment.
Be sure to explicitly state your dependent and independentvariables and to describe the results expected if the birds doindeed conform to the expectations of optimal foraging theory
