Foraging

Foraging is the search for and acquisition of food, through activities such as locating, collecting, hunting, or scavenging resources.

Optimal foraging theory: A framework for predicting how animals choose food and search strategies to maximize net energetic benefits. It models how foragers trade food rewards against the costs of finding and handling them.
Niche: The ecological conditions and resources that allow a species to survive and reproduce. A species' foraging options are shaped by the resources and conditions in its niche.
Hunter-gatherer: A person or society that obtains food primarily by hunting wild animals and gathering wild plants. Human hunter-gatherers depend directly on foraging rather than food production.
Agriculture: The cultivation of crops and raising of animals for food and other products. Agriculture produces food through managed cultivation rather than relying mainly on wild resources.
Marginal value theorem: A model predicting when a forager should leave a depleting food patch for another. It explains how patch quality and travel time shape departure decisions.
Diet: The kinds and proportions of foods an organism consumes. Diet records what foraging ultimately acquires and consumes.
Subsistence strategy: A way a society secures the food and other resources needed to live. Foraging is one subsistence strategy, often combined historically with other ways of obtaining food.
Pastoralism: A livelihood centered on raising and managing domesticated livestock. Pastoralism depends on managed herds, unlike foraging from wild food resources.
Central place foraging: Foraging in which an animal repeatedly returns to a fixed location, such as a nest or den. It shows how carrying food home changes the costs of searching and gathering.
Habitat: The natural environment in which an organism lives and obtains resources. Habitat determines where food resources occur and how accessible they are.

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