ABSTRACT
Foraging is a fundamental activity by which animals acquire nutrients essential for growth and reproduction. This includes the search for feeding sites, the selection of food resources that yield most benefits, the cooperation or avoidance of competition with other foragers, and sometimes, the processing of food items into consumable nutrients. While theoretical and experimental research on each of these different facets of foraging have developed in separated directions over the past 60 years, studies are increasingly integrating approaches of ethology, behavioural ecology, nutritional ecology, and systems biology to develop a more comprehensive, multi-level, understanding of animal foraging behaviour. Here, we review some of the most influential conceptual developments for the study of foraging across a wide range of species. We then describe how integrating these approaches can bring considerable insights into our understanding of animal behaviour and their broader impact on the environment, using recent examples on bees.
