Habitat selection by individuals is often a density-dependent process: as density increases, the quality of the habitat decreases due to resource competition and interference. These same changes in habitat quality should likewise affect the foraging efforts of individuals at the patch scale. We used density manipulations, fenced enclosures in the field, to examine patch use in two species of gerbils, Gerbillus andersoni allenbyi and G. pyramidum. At the same time, we used sand tracking to measure activity densities and confirm that gerbils show density-dependent habitat selection across the stabilized and semistabilized sand habitats. We then quantified individual patch use, using giving-up densities (GUD; the amount of food left behind in a resource patch following exploitation) in artificial food patches. Gerbils used resource patches in a density-dependent manner, showing lower GUDs at higher activity densities. Interestingly, this was not the case in both habitats. In the stabilized sand habitat, GUDs...