Most research on animal foraging behavior focuses on fast, active animals that search widely through the environment for their prey. However, many predators are relatively sedentary, and capture prey by waiting in ambush for long periods of time. The study of ambush foraging behavior has been neglected in part because of a lack of theoretical analysis of the problems faced by ambush predators, and also because of the difficulty in studying cryptic, secretive animals in their natural habitat. This study will address these problems by using modern computational modeling techniques to generate quantitative predictions about ambush hunting behavior. This mathematical model will then be tested through a combination of field and laboratory studies on an ambush predator that has proven to be a very tractable subject for the study of foraging behavior, the timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus). This project will both increase our knowledge of foraging strategies that are used by species that ambush their prey, and also provide much-needed empirical testing of a modeling approach that is becoming increasingly popular in behavior and ecology.
