Question

Compare the drop height preferred by crows with the graph of total flight height for the platform drops. Are the data consistent with the hypothesis of optimal foraging? Explain.

Short answer

The data, such as total flight height and drop height preferred by crows, are consistent with the optimal foraging theory; these two data coincide.

Step-by-step solution

Behavioral ecology

The scientific field of animal biology that deals with the control and contribution of animals’ behavior towards its survival, fitness, and reproduction is called behavioral ecology.

Examples of behavioral ecology include whelks like prey-dropping behavior of crow, humpback whale songs, penguins huddling in Antarctica, slotting gazelle, river crossing by African elephant, and inflated vocal sac of the frog.

Some of the characteristics of animal behavior in behavioral ecology are feeding behavior, locomotion, avoidance behavior, and aggressive behavior.

Mollusca

The phylum of soft-bodied invertebrates that live in oceans and act as a food source for other taxa is called Mollusca.Examples of Mollusca include tusk shell, caudofoveata, tentaculita, gastropods, Bivalvia, cuttlefishes, wiwaxia, kimberella, conchifera, and pleistomollusca.

Some characteristic features of Mollusca are unsegmented bodies, soft bodies, invertebrates, muscular foot for locomotion, mantle, body with three sections (head and visceral mass), and hard outer shell. Examples of predators of Mollusca are crows, mice, crabs, squid, and squirrels.

Hypothesis of optimal foraging

The feeding behavior of a crow with less energy expenditure and more energy gains shows its optimal foraging strategy to stall and drop whelk and open its shell to consume its exposed flesh.

There is a rough coincidence based on the optimal foraging hypothesis between two data sets, including the height that a crow preferred to drop a whelk, and the number of drops and the drop height is the total flight height.