Food Perishability and Inventory Management: A Comparison of Three Caching Strategies

Autor:	O. J. Reichman, Robert P. Gendron
Rok vydání:	1995
Předmět:	Food type Inventory management Food availability Computer science Perishability Cache Environmental economics Duration (project management) Discount points Cache management Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics
Zdroj:	The American Naturalist. 145:948-968
ISSN:	1537-5323 0003-0147
DOI:	10.1086/285778
Popis:	Food stored for an extended period may change substantially in value (e.g., ripen or spoil). Consequently, when selecting food for a long-term cache, an animal should consider what the value of each food item will be when it is eaten rather than when it is collected. This point adds considerable complexity to the problem of food selection compared with the situation addressed by most prey choice models. Beginning with the premise that an animal should store no more of a food type than can be consumed before the remainder spoils, we developed a numerical computer simulation to evaluate three cache management strategies under various conditions of food availability and duration of the cache use period. On the basis of deterioration rates, the simulation predicts how much of each food type an animal should store. The results indicate that animals should adjust the composition of their cache to reflect food perishability and that no one inventory strategy is optimal under all conditions.
Databáze:	OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz:	https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_________::0287fcfe0f4084a732e94f6dc12c8e26 https://doi.org/10.1086/285778 Zobrazit plný text záznamu