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Volume 14 - Issue 1 - March 1991

Contents

Page 2 of 6

Open Peer Commentary

Author's Response

Target Article

  • Modeling behavioral adaptations

  • Colin W. Clark
  • Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    19 May 2011, pp. 85-93

  • Optimization models have often been useful in attempting to understand the adaptive significance of behavioral traits. Originally such models were applied to isolated aspects of behavior, such as foraging, mating, or parental behavior. In reality, organisms live in complex, ever-changing environments, and are simultaneously concerned with many behavioral choices and their consequences. This target article describes a dynamic modeling technique that can be used to analyze behavior in a unified way. The technique has been widely used in behavioral studies of insects, fish, birds, mammals, and other organisms. The models use biologically meaningful parameters and variables, and lead to testable predictions. Limitations arise because nature's complexity always exceeds our modeling capacity.

Open Peer Commentary

Page 2 of 6