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Chapter 51: Study Questions~Behavioral Ecology

Terms in this set (36)

Introduction to Behavior and Behavioral Ecology
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Define Behavior.
Everything an animal does and how it does it
Distinguish between proximate and ultimate questions about behavior. Ask a proximate question and an ultimate question about bird song.
Proximate Questions: Behavior focus on the environmental stimuli that trigger a behavior/The "How"->How does it know when it is the right time to sing?

Ultimate Questions: Addresses the evolutionary significance of a behavior/The "Why"-> Why does the bird sing?
Explain how the classical discipline of ethology led to the modern study of behavioral ecology.
Ethology the scientific study of animal behavior.

1. scientist started looking at proximate and ultimate causes of behavior
2. They also looked at Fixed Action Pattern (FAP) and sign stimuli in animals and example being how the male stickleback fish attacks the fish with red bellies
3. They finally studied imprinting in animals such as how ducklings follow around their mother
4. the studying of imprinting and FAP helped scientists distinguish between proximate and ultimate causes of behavior which helped create an experimental approach to Behavioral Ecology.
Define Fixed Action Patterns (FAP).

Give an example.
A sequence of unlearned behavioral acts that is essentially unchangeable and, once initiated, is usually carried to completion. It is triggered by an external sensory stimulus (sign stimulus.)
Define Imprinting.

Suggest a proximate cause and an ultimate cause for imprinting in young geese. Many behaviors have a genetic component.
A type of behavior that includes both learning and innate components and is generally irreversible-> Distinguished from other types of learning by having a sensitive period (limited phase in an animal's development that is the only time when certain behaviors can be learned)

Proximate:

Ultimate:
Explain how genes and environment contribute to behavior. Explain what is unique about innate behavior.
Genes contribute to innate behavior and environment contributes to learned behavior. Environmental factors modify behavior.

Innate behavior is inborn and cannot be modified.
Distinguish between kinesis and taxis.
Kinesis: A simple change in activity or a turning rate in response to the stimulus (Random) -> Soy Bugs

Taxis: A more or less automatic, oriented movement toward or away from a stimulus. (Movement towards or away from a certain direction)
Distinguish between signal and pheromone.
Signal: A behavior that causes a change in another animal's behavior.

Animals communicate through odors emit chemical substances called Pheromones
Explain how Berthold's research demonstrated a genetic basis for blackcap migration.
Peter Berthold's research team mated migratory black caps from southern Germany with nonmigratory black caps from Cape Verde. From his research, he concluded that migratory restlessness is under genetic control and follows a polygenic inheritance pattern.
Describe Insel's research on the genetic and physiological controls on parental behavior of prairie voles. Describe Bester-Meredith and Marler's research on the influence of social behavior on parental behavior of California mice.
Insel studied male prairie voles. He found that there are significant differences between the distribution of V1A receptors in the brains of monogamous prairie voles. They inserted this receptor gene into laboratory mice. These mice grew to share similar mating behaviors. Thus, a single gene mediates the mating/parental behavior of male prairie voles. Studies of California mice have uncovered an influence of social environment on aggressive and parental behaviors. CA mice raised by white-footed mice stopped being as parental/monogamous; thus, environment influences offspring's behavior.
Learning
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Explain how habituation may influence behavior.
Habituation is a simple form of learning that involves loss of responsiveness to stimuli that convey little or no information. It influences a loss of rersponsiveness when a stimuli is constantly triggered. An example is the boy who cried wolf.
Describe Tinbergen's classic experiment on spatial learning in digger wasps.
He observed that wasps place pine cones around their nest to find it more easily. When he moved the pine cones, the wasps went to the middle of the pine cones where there was now no nest and it couldn't find its nest.
Distinguish between landmarks and cognitive maps.
Landmarks help animals such as the wasp finds its nest.

Cognitive maps help them distinguish where the nest would be even if the main landmark, like the pine cone, is moved, it can still find its ways by looking at other markers. -> More complex than landmarks
Describe how associative learning might help a predator to avoid toxic prey.
In associative learning, animals associate one feature of their environment with another

Classical conditioning is a type of associative learning in which an arbitrary stimulus is associated with a reward or punishment

A predator may associate a feature on the toxic prey with punishment.
Distinguish between classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
Classical Conditioning: a type of associative learning in which an arbitrary stimulus is associated with a reward or punishment (unrelated stimulus creates change in behavior) (ex. the classroom video or the quacking gun video)

Operant Conditioning: a type of associative learning in which an animal learns to associate one of its behavior with a reward or punishment; also known as trial-and-error learning (ex: training a dog with a treat or the Big Bang Theory video)
Describe an experiment that demonstrates problem solving in nonhuman animals.
Chimp wants banana but needs to get it out -> Figures out the best way to get it
Behavioral Traits Can Evolve by Natural Selection
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Explain how Hedrick and Reichert's experiments demonstrated that behavioral differences between populations might be the product of natural selection.
Funnel web spiders:
Desert grassland-> aggressive; Riverside woodland-> timid

Aggressiveness due to genetics or learned response?
-> Results showed that aggressive/timidness is genetic
Use an example to show how researchers can demonstrate the evolution of behavior in laboratory experiments.
Studies of Drosophila, fruit flies, raised in high and low density conditions show a clear divergence in behavior linked to specific genes.
Explain optimal foraging theory.
Optimal foraging theory: the basis for analyzing behavior as a compromise of feeding costs versus feeding benefits. It views foraging behavior as a compromise between the benefits of nutrition and the costs of obtaining food, such as the energy expenditure or the risk of being eaten by a predator while foraging. According to this theory, natural selection should favor foraging behavior that minimizes the costs of foraging and maximizes the benefits.
Explain how behavioral ecologists carry out cost-benefit analyses to determine how an animal should forage optimally. Explain how Zach demonstrated that crows feed optimally on whelks.
Reto Zach conducted a cost-benefit analysis of feeding behavior in crows.
The crows eat molluscs called whelks but must drop them from the air to crack the shells.
Optimal flight height correlated with fewer drops, indicating a trade-off between energy gained (food) and energy expended.
Explain how predation risk may affect the foraging behavior of a prey species.
Predation affects where the animals feed and when they feed.
Animals will feed where this a smaller risk of predation.
Define and distinguish among promiscuous, monogamous, and polygamous mating relationships. Define and distinguish between polygyny and polyandry.
Promiscuous: Having many sexual relationships, or many partners

Monogamous: The habit of having only one mate at a time

Polygamous: (Of an animal) typically having more than one mate

Polygyny: A pattern of mating in which a male animal has more than one female mate.

Polyandry: A pattern of mating in which a female animal has more than one male mate.
Describe how the certainty of paternity influences the development of mating systems.
Knowing if the child is theirs or not... males

Males in many species with internal fertilization engage in behaviors that appear to increase their certainty of paternity, including guarding females, removing sperm from the female's reproductive tract before copulation, and introducing large numbers of sperm to displace the sperm of other males.
Certainty of paternity is much higher when egg laying and mating occur together, in external fertilization.
Explain why males are more likely than females to provide parental care in fishes.
Certainty of paternity determines whether or not the dad will stick around and care for the young
in fish they lay eggs so there is a high certainty of paternity -> Thus the males take care of their young
Suggest an ultimate explanation for a female stalk-eyed fly's preference for mates with relatively long eyestalks.
Stalkeyes demonstrate fitness and females are attracted to males that will produce healthy offspring.
Agonistic behavior in males is often a ritualized contest rather than combat. Suggest an ultimate explanation for this.
Trying to win over a female -> Stronger animal will win over the female, but it isn't necessarily combat
Explain how game theory may be used to evaluate alternative behavioral strategies.
Game theory involves cyclical abundance in terms of the present environment, and which lizard it more populous at any given time. Behavioral strategies such as those in different-colored lizards (orange-aggressive, green-smaller territory, yellow-sneaky) affects mating processes in a region. These lizards adapted these behaviors in order to be more successful in mating, and be the most populous of their kind in that region.
Define inclusive fitness and reciprocal altruism. Discuss conditions that would favor the evolution of altruistic behavior.
Inclusive fitness - the total effect an individual has on proliferating its genes by producing offspring and helping close relatives produce offspring

Reciprocal altruism - altruistic behavior toward unrelated individuals can be adaptive if the aided individual returns the favor in the future
Relate the coefficient of relatedness to the concept of altruism.
Coefficient of relatedness - equals the probability that if two individuals share a common parent or ancestor, a particular gene present in one individual will also be present in the second individual

Natural selection favors altruism when the benefit to the recipient multiplied by the coefficient of relatedness exceeds the cost to the altruist
-> in other words: when rB is greater than C
Define Hamilton's rule and the concept of kin selection.Social Learning and Sociobiology
Hamilton's rule - rB is greater than C

Kin selection - the natural selection that favors altruistic behavior by enhancing reproductive success of relatives
Define social learning and culture.
Social learning - forms the roots of culture

Culture - a system of information transfer through observation or teaching that influences behavior of individuals in a population
Explain why mate choice copying by a female may increase her fitness.
Females sometimes choose mates with a certain characteristic because that characteristic, if passed on to the offspring, will give the offspring a better chance at survival
State the main premise of sociology.
The main premise of sociology is that the social world can be studied, interpreted, and changed to benefit the lives of all people.
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