Life history and the fitness consequences of imperfect information

The acquisition of information incurs costs in time, energy, exposure to predation, and/or lost opportunity. Without information, however, animals will be unable to assess the costs and benefits of decisions. Obtaining perfect information may be impossible, but how close to perfect do animals need assessments of ecological factors, such as predation risk, before estimation errors affect fitness? A recent article suggested that animals should be tolerant to imperfect information about predation risk, possibly relying on simple rules of thumb. Using a dynamic state variable approach, we examine some of the assumptions underlying this work, and show that tolerance towards imperfect information is dependent on life-history strategy. By changing the relationship between energy and fitness, assumptions about life-history strategies can be modified. Calculations show that tolerance to imperfect information is sensitive to these assumptions with some life histories leading to overestimation, while other life histories result in underestimation. One consistent effect across life histories is that animals with a higher rate of increase in fitness with respect to energy should show greater tolerance to imperfect information.