Optimal search strategies for hidden targets

Abstract

What is the fastest way of finding a randomly hidden target? This question of general relevance is of vital importance for foraging animals. Experimental observations reveal that the search behaviour of foragers is generally intermittent: active search phases randomly alternate with phases of fast ballistic motion. In this letter, we study the efficiency of this type of two states search strategies, by calculating analytically the mean first passage time at the target. We model the perception mecanism involved in the active search phase by a diffusive process. In this framework, we show that the search strategy is optimal when the average duration of "motion phases" varies like the power either 3/5 or 2/3 of the average duration of "search phases", depending on the regime. This scaling accounts for experimental data over a wide range of species, which suggests that the kinetics of search trajectories is a determining factor optimized by foragers and that the perception activity is adequately described by a diffusion process.

4 pages, 5 figures. to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett

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