This thesis is focused on the analysis of eurasian beavers foraging behaviour and their strategy of getting food in the long-term perspective. First part (theoretical) of the thesis contains an explanation of the theory of the central place foraging, animal selective behaviour when food is selected and central place foraging influence on trees fertility. In this part is also mentioned the predation risk or how does the beaver perceives competitive pressure from other animals, and factors that can cause the change in population density of beaver colonies. The objective of this work is to determine the effect of long-term beaver populating on the volume of comsumed biomass and expanse of the territory, and a comparison of these results with one another in terms of different times of occupated territories. The second part describes the methodical procedure of the field survey. Data I collected from the areas of Šumava, Český les and South Moravia. I tried to find out, how the beaver´s foraging behaviour is induced depending on time inhabiting the territory and on increasing distance from the shore. This research shows that the beaver trips for food increases with age of occupation in 7-10 years and then the distance of tree cuts declined again from the shore. The volume of consumed biomass in reliance of increasing time of beaver occupation also decline and the most favoured tree species was an oak tree for which beavers were willing to walk long distances. The results of the simple analysis are presented as a measurement for both the entire region and also for each territory.

The current study utilized two experiments to assess Smith's (1981) simple per capita-maximization model, which provides a quantitative framework for predicting optimal group sizes in social foraging contexts. Participants engaged in a social foraging task where they chose to forage for points exchangeable for lottery prizes either alone or in a group that has agreed to pool and share all resources equally. In Experiment 1, groups (“settlements”) of 10 or 12 participants made repeated group membership choices. Settlements were exposed to three conditions in which the optimal group size was either 2, 5, or 2 for the 10 person settlement or 3, 4, or 6 for the 12 person settlement. A linear regression of the data from Experiment 1 revealed a strong relationship between the observed group sizes and group sizes predicted by the simple per capita maximization model. Experiment 2 was a systematic replication of Experiment 1 in which single participants foraged for shared resources with groups of automated players in a computerized simulation. Automated player group choices mirrored group choices of participants in Experiment 1; excluding the data for the best performing participant. Thus, the participant acted essentially in the stead of the best performing participant for each condition. Two logistic regressions provided mixed support for the model, while failing to replicate the results of Experiment 1, providing mixed support for the use of the simple per capita maximization model in predicting group sizes in social foraging contexts.

I studied movement characteristics and vegetative resources effects on home range size of beavers at Redstone Arsenal (RSA) in north central Alabama, USA. Beavers were captured and radio tagged from 11 wetlands during winter and spring of 2011. I monitored movements of radio-tagged beavers using radio telemetry from May 2011–April 2012. Beavers moved faster, presumably more favorable to central place foraging, in wetland as they proceeded farther away from the central place, but did not in upland. Additionally, distributions of hourly distances from lodges were bimodal. Home range, core areas, and distance from lodge did not differ between age classes. Home range sizes increased with increasing habitat productivity and resource dispersion, whereas home ranges decreased with temporal variation in resources throughout the year. Quantity and spatial distribution of resources and patterns of foraging behavior influence movements and home ranges of central place foragers.

The Hadza, residing near Lake Eyasi in northern Tanzania, represent one of the last remaining hunter-gatherer populations. Inhabiting the same area as our hominin ancestors and exploiting very similar resources, the Hadza maintain a foraging lifestyle characterised by a sexual division of labour. Studies of their foraging and food sharing habits serve as the foundation to numerous hypotheses of human behaviour and evolution. Data from the Hadza have featured heavily in debates on the sexual division of labour. These debates focus predominantly on men’s foraging, including how and why men provision. Women’s provisioning, on the other hand, is seldom explicitly examined and is often presumed to be constrained by reproduction. This thesis contributes to debates on the sexual division of labour by investigating how a woman’s reproductive status affects her foraging behaviours. Observational data on women’s foraging are investigated from 263 person/day follows (1,307 hours total) across 10 camps between 2004 and 2006. These data present the first quantitative documentation of forager women’s eating and sharing outside of camp. Interview data on women’s reproductive timeline are also analysed from in-depth interviews with 58 women from 9 camps in 2015. Spanning from menarche to menopause, these data offer the first quantitative and qualitative documentation of forager women’s menstruation. The results demonstrate that Hadza women eat and share over 800 kilocalories outside of camp per person/day. They regularly give and receive food, including gifts of honey from men. Breastfeeding women are more likely to give gifts and give more gifts than non-breastfeeding women. When they bring nurslings with them outside of camp, they forage less kilocalories per hour. Post-menopausal women eat less relative to what they forage, are less likely to receive gifts, rest less and forage more than pre-menopausal women. Although Hadza women describe their foraging workload as most difficult during late pregnancy, no significant differences in eating, sharing, resting or foraging are observed for pregnant women. Menstrual data from the Hadza reveal that menstruation is not only culturally relevant to the sexual division of labour, but it is also biologically relevant to current understandings of fertility. The majority (60%) of Hadza women report not doing their normal work during menstruation. They also report menstruation-related taboos for berry picking. The thesis presents an in-depth review of women’s menstruation, from the duration of menses to the menstrual cleaning process.