Assessing Lévy walks as models of animal foraging

• Published in: Journal of the Royal Society interface Vol. 8; no. 62; pp. 1233 - 1247
• Main Authors: James, Alex, Plank, Michael J., Edwards, Andrew M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England The Royal Society 07.09.2011
• Subjects: Animal Movement; Animals; Behavior, Animal; Computer Simulation; Efficiency; Feeding Behavior; Heavy-Tailed; Models, Biological; Power Law; Random Search; Random Walk; Review; Review Articles; Stochastic Processes

The hypothesis that the optimal search strategy is a Lévy walk (LW) or Lévy flight, originally suggested in 1995, has generated an explosion of interest and controversy. Long-standing empirical evidence supporting the LW hypothesis has been overturned, while new models and data are constantly being...