Concept that evolution seeks to minimize the of gathering by organisms.

The benefit of foraging is the acquisition of nutrients. Cost include input (i.e., energy requirements), possibility of , and likelihood of being . Also important are time delays.

With , the idea is that an organism's behavior is adjusted so that these costs are minimized and/or such that the amount of food obtained is maximized while keeping costs constant. Also relevant to these issues is the quality of foods where higher quality food is preferable to lower quality food.