Abstract
The present study developed a concurrent-chain procedure that appropriately satisfied Charnov's marginal value theorem (1976) in order to analyze the foraging behavior of pigeons (Columba livia). In the new procedure, travel between patches (fixed ratio schedule; FR) was only observed in the case of arrival at the new depleting patch (progressive ratio schedule; PR, reset value 1, PR-step 5) where the food density was rich and did not provide the food. Although the present results were similar to those obtained in biological studies, the pigeons tended to reside in the patch for a longer duration than the values predicted by the marginal value theorem. Adding a free parameter (K) to the marginal value theorem made it possible to analyze the differences in the patch residence time between the obtained and predicted values. The present study suggested that the new procedure and the results obtained from the present experiments expanded the applicability of the marginal value theorem to foraging behavior in the depleting patch.
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