Yesterday, I went walking with my namesake and friend near her house. She lives in a lovely little nook of a neighbourhood that manages to nest itself (as developed as it is) in a vast sea of wildlife and greenery. As I pulled my car to a stop near a hedge of ivy, there were two birds in a little stream along the edge of the fence. These birds were at the very edge of the stream's bank and I saw one of them forcefully jab his beak into the swiftly flowing water. To my surprise, I saw him pull out a huge object from the water - don't ask me what that was, I have no idea, but relative to a little bird this was a huge something to be pulling out. I saw the other bird hop along the bank and attempt the same move, but he came up with nothing.
There was another bird, a Kiskadee (pictured above) that approached from a high point of the ivy hedge, but s/he didn't descend. Instead, I watched the Kiskadee observe these other birds. I don't know if the Kiskadee thought they were wasting their time in the drain, or if s/he thought s/he'd wait to see what they came out of their hunt with. I thought suddenly "They're foraging!" like that was some epiphany, but it just dawned on me that foraging is such an absolutely foreign concept to the human experience. Isn't it? I mean in western society I think the biggest drive is in knowing how to
afford sustenance (I'm using the term sustenance loosely here to mean not just food, but everything we think we need to survive). Most of us aren't going around
looking for food. Right?
As soon as I agreed with myself that no, most of us weren't going around looking for food, I realised that in some ways, that
is exactly what we're doing. Consider the three specimens; one bird dived in beak first, full speed ahead without invitation or support. He came out with a huge find. The other bird followed his lead, but was further up the stream than the first bird, and found nothing. The third bird observed everything that happened before he decided to do anything one way or the other. Do you see anything familiar there? I saw human parallels in that, where the food is more of a
life sustenance, an energy source. Some people watch what others are doing before they make a decision, some follow immediately in someone's footsteps, and some dive straight in and follow their gut reactions.
The
Optimal Foraging Theory (OFT, MacArthur & Pianka, 1966) suggests that a species would probably evolve to have the most efficient means of harvesting resources, that is, it will use the least energy in the smallest space with the greatest margin of return. The theory suggests that the patch or site of foraging should only be expanded to the point where the units of harvested energy exceed the spent energy. This will include not only the type of food acquired (i.e. level of preference & nutrition for specific foods), the number of competitors and the distance to acquire food. I found this interesting as a concept, and I wondered if we were an efficient species under the lens of OFT. To make it more personal, I wondered if I was efficiently harvesting sustenance from my environment based on a theory of optimal foraging.
In the days of social media, we are bombarded with data. I was going to call it "information," but some of the things I encounter on social media inform me of nothing - data feels more appropriate because it describes the raw harvested substance. OFT looks at levels of sustenance, or energy retained from each food source collected and the length of time that that food source provides energy to the forager. What could this mean for us when the energy sources represent things we collect to propel us forward in our life? Energy sources to humans can come from food, but they can also come from other people, books, television, movies and activities. On social media, energy sources can come from not only direct interaction with other people, but also the various memes, gaming applications and fan or support pages.
OFT could explain why some people have 3000 friends and redistribute memes 50 times a day, while others respond with "K" to a novella posted on their page, and whose last activity was a month ago. OFT is also an interesting measuring stick for our own efficiency in harvesting energy. Are you collecting more energy than you're expending in searching for, defending and consuming life? I hope this isn't too abstract a metaphor, but which bird are you? Which bird do you think is most efficient, and do you think each bird is in the same position? What I mean is, what if the bird who dove straight in pulled out a useless, heavy piece of wood with no nutritional value? What if he strained his neck muscles from hastily grabbing at the biggest thing he could find? What if the bird who was further up the stream caught guppies right after I got out of my car? And what if my observing Kiskadee doesn't even eat out of streams, but strictly eats berries?
To make it human, I consider my own position in life. I am energised so much by diversity. I would move to Iceland or the Falkland Islands at the drop of a hat if I thought that was right for me, just because I am hungry for information about people and lifestyles and just different ways of being. Living in a place where I feel like nothing changes literally makes me tired. For others, they could think of nothing worse than moving all the time, or going to a strange place where they don't know anyone. They might get energy from being close to home and knowing that their well known community is only a short distance away. We have a different context, and our energy sources are different. If we try to find energy from the other's source, we'll never have enough. This is another reason why I think it's so important to learn yourself. I say "learn" and not "understand" because the latter sounds as though you do some exploration and at some point you understand what you found. I don't think human beings are simple enough to be understood entirely - I think it's more about continuously learning something new about yourself and reactions.
According to OFT, depending on the environment, preference of species and existence of competition, a foraging niche is formed. This is the patch where the least energy is expended for the greatest return in sustenance for the forager. I use this to ask myself the following questions:
1.) What gives me energy (what are my food sources/is my sustenance)?
2.) What are my preferred sources of sustenance?
3.) Who is competing with me for what I want?
4.) Is my energy to get sustenance greater or less than the sustenance I receive?
Then, I find my niche. My calculations show that it'll take the rest of my life, or I'll be finding different little niches for the next 60 or so years. Here we go! :)
