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Reviewing papers by others is a part of the game, checkout Orr's Publons profile for contributions as a reviewer or the Research Gate and Google Scholar profiles for publication list
Movement Ecology and Individual Behavior
The exploration-exploitation tradeoff is fundamental for foraging and other ecological topics, as well as to other research disciplines like economy and psychology. Here we investigate empirically how animals cope with this trade-off, and predation risk, while learning about their environment and resources within. We use the Persian fallow deer reintroduction as a case study system since these adults are naïve to the environment (whereabouts of resources and predators) and go through a state- and phase-dependent process of knowledge gain.
The exploration-exploitation tradeoff is fundamental for foraging and other ecological topics, as well as to other research disciplines like economy and psychology. Here we investigate empirically how animals cope with this trade-off, and predation risk, while learning about their environment and resources within. We use the Persian fallow deer reintroduction as a case study system since these adults are naïve to the environment (whereabouts of resources and predators) and go through a state- and phase-dependent process of knowledge gain.
Mia Maor
Mia Maor
Theory regarding the EE tradeoff suggests that before one (whether it being a human, an animal, or an organization) can begin to exploit its environment (harvesting resources) it must accumulate enough knowledge through exploration to achieve its goals. The optimal solution for the EE tradeoff has been studied in many disciplines including psychology (e.g. optimal decision making), economics and ecology (learning and foraging).
... but how and where can one measure that?
A key aspect of our ability to investigate the EE tradeoff in ecology is to be able to describe what the animal is doing (EE). Recent developments in concepts (movement ecology paradigm) and tools (tracking) allow us to follow individuals in the appropriate details and thus to address, at last, the challenging question of EE tradeoff. High resolution movement data provides information about the underlying behaviors, state of the animal, the habitat it utilizes.
... but how and where can one measure that?
A key aspect of our ability to investigate the EE tradeoff in ecology is to be able to describe what the animal is doing (EE). Recent developments in concepts (movement ecology paradigm) and tools (tracking) allow us to follow individuals in the appropriate details and thus to address, at last, the challenging question of EE tradeoff. High resolution movement data provides information about the underlying behaviors, state of the animal, the habitat it utilizes.
Animal reintroductions, provide us with the unique situation in which the released animals are placed in an area that is completely unfamiliar to them (i.e. no prior knowledge of it) and therefore must first learn their environment (explore) to later perform the activities and behaviors appropriate to the wild (exploit). Thus, reintroductions are the optimal system to empirically test the exploration-exploitation theory.
The long-term reintroduction program of Persian fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica) in the Western Galilee (since 1996) includes soft and hard release protocols. Female deer are released with GPS tags, generating a large dataset of animal’s movement patterns from which we can identify exploration phases and knowledge accumulation patterns. Sampling locations at fine resolution (10-30 min) allows us to identify movement modes during the foraging and establishment movement. Deer are particularly suitable for addressing these questions as they forage on static resources (leaves) thus associating between movement and exploration (i.e., no sit&wait predator), further they do not form large aggregations where naïve individuals can learn from locally informed ones.
Our expectations are...
We will investigate whether the EE tradeoff is in fact a dynamic state-and phase-dependent process in the realm of animal behavior and through animal movement. We hypothesize that the different exploration phases will be exhibited in the animal’s movement patterns and that the newly released individuals go through the different exploration phases as they accumulate knowledge as a function of time from release. In addition, the release circumstances (release protocol; hard vs. soft release, individual variation) will affect the exploration phases and the survival of reintroduced deer to cope with predation risk by wolves.
