Role of social interactions in dynamic patterns of resource patches and forager aggregation

The dynamics of resource patches and species that exploit such patches are of interest to ecologists, conservation biologists, mode-lers, and mathematicians. Here we consider how social interactions can create unique, evolving patterns in space and time. Whereas simple prey taxis (with consumable prey) promotes spatial uniform distributions, here we show that taxis in producer–scrounger groups can lead to pattern formation. We consider two types of foragers: those that search directly (“producers”) and those that exploit other foragers to find food (“scroungers ” or exploiters). We show that such groups can sustain fluctuating spatiotemporal patterns, akin to “waves of pursuit. ” Investigating the relative benefits to the individuals, we observed conditions under which either strategy leads to enhanced success, defined as net food con-sumption. Foragers that search for food directly have an advantage when food patches are localized. Those that seek aggregations o