Nearly all animals forage to acquire energy for survival through efficient search and resource harvesting. Patch exploitation is a canonical foraging behaviour, but there is a need for more tractable and understandable mathematical models describing how foragers deal with uncertainty. To provide such a treatment, we develop a normative theory of patch foraging decisions, proposing mechanisms by which foraging behaviours emerge in the face of uncertainty. Our model foragers statistically and sequentially infer patch resource yields using Bayesian updating based on their resource encounter history. A decision to leave a patch is triggered when the certainty of the patch type or the estimated yield of the patch falls below a threshold. The time scale over which uncertainty in resource availability persists strongly impacts behavioural variables like patch residence times and decision rules determining patch departures. When patch depletion is slow, as in habitat selection, departures are characterized by a reduction of uncertainty, suggesting that the forager resides in a low-yielding patch. Uncertainty leads patch-exploiting foragers to overharvest (underharvest) patches with initially low (high) resource yields in comparison with predictions of the marginal value theorem. These results extend optimal foraging theory and motivate a variety of behavioural experiments investigating patch foraging behaviour.

几乎所有的动物都通过有效的搜索和资源收获来觅食以获得生存所需的能量。补丁开发是一种典型的觅食行为，但需要更易于处理和理解的数学模型来描述觅食者如何处理不确定性。为了提供这样的处理，我们开发了补丁觅食决策的规范理论，提出了在不确定性面前出现觅食行为的机制。我们的模型觅食者根据他们的资源遭遇历史使用贝叶斯更新统计和顺序地推断补丁资源产量。当补丁类型的确定性或补丁的估计产量低于阈值时，将触发离开补丁的决定。资源可用性的不确定性持续存在的时间尺度强烈影响行为变量，如补丁停留时间和决定补丁离开的决策规则。当斑块枯竭缓慢时，如在栖息地选择中，离开的特点是不确定性减少，这表明觅食者居住在低产斑块中。与边际价值定理的预测相比，不确定性导致利用斑块的觅食者过度收获（未充分收获）具有最初低（高）资源产量的斑块。这些结果扩展了最佳觅食理论，并激发了各种研究斑块觅食行为的行为实验。离开的特点是不确定性减少，这表明觅食者居住在低产区。与边际价值定理的预测相比，不确定性导致利用斑块的觅食者过度收获（未充分收获）具有最初低（高）资源产量的斑块。这些结果扩展了最佳觅食理论，并激发了各种研究斑块觅食行为的行为实验。离开的特点是不确定性减少，这表明觅食者居住在低产区。与边际价值定理的预测相比，不确定性导致利用斑块的觅食者过度收获（未充分收获）具有最初低（高）资源产量的斑块。这些结果扩展了最佳觅食理论，并激发了各种研究斑块觅食行为的行为实验。