Source Texts
Text
Optimal foraging theory (OFT) holds that animals' foraging behaviors reflect cost-benefit trade-offs that vary by species and with dynamic ecological circumstances. One such circumstance is lunar intensity, which Joel Brown and colleagues found to be negatively associated with foraging by Arizona pocket mice but Patricia C. Wright found to be positively associated with foraging by three-striped night monkeys. This discrepancy is explicable in terms of OFT: the monkeys' greater reliance on vision means that higher lunar intensity benefits them more than it benefits the mice.