A6 Ethology Flashcards
What is ethology?
The study of animal behaviour under natural conditions
Give an example of a natural behaviour, whose frequency was increased due to natural selection?
Baby birds that chrip louder are more likely to get parental attention and be fed more, so over generations, the frequency of loud chriping has increased
Are migratory patterns of birds innate or learned?
Innate
What if a bird has two parents with each a different migratory pattern/ if it is a hybrid bird?
It will fly in a direction that lies between the two inherited directions
What is the change with the migratory pattern of blackcaps coming from germany with global warming?
Blackcaps used to majorly fly to Spain over the winter, and some would fly to the UK, which is closer, but also colder than Spain. With global warming, the population of blackcaps flying to the UK has increased, as it is not as cold anymore and it’s closer. Since they arrive in Germany earlier, due to the shorter distance, they can find the best breeding territory and can reproduce more.
What is an example of altruistic behaviour?
Blood sharing in vampire bats: the altruist gives off blood he doesn’t necessarily need to survive, and that bit of blood helps another bat to survive, as it would die otherwise
What is interesting about foraging behaviour in crabs?
Foraging = Searching food
Crabs have learned to ignore small mussles, as they don’t give a big benefit, ignore big mussles, as the take too much energy, and mainly eat medium sized mussles
What is special about the breeding strategies of salmon, in terms of increasing survival and reproduction chances?
Salmons migrate to the ocean after spending some time in freshwater, where they develop into 2 different salmon types: jacks and hooknoses. Jacks are well-camouflaged and sneak up from riverbed to females to mate, Hooknoses are big and fight against eachother to mate with a female. Jacks have a higher chance of survival, as they are in the ocean for a shorter time, but they have more competition during reproduction.
Courtship in birds of paradise serve the purpose of…
males attracting females to reproduce ew
Why is the oestrus synchronised in lions?
All females will get cubs at the same time, making it easier to care for them.
What is the example of learned behaviour in blue tits?
Blue tits fed on the cream of milk bottles. Once the bottles were sealed with aluminium foils, the population as a whole learned to pick the foil open in order to reach the cream. As blue tits are often together, this learned behaviour spread quickly, as birds were able to observe each other. Once milk wasn’t delivered anymore, this learned behaviour was unlearned and lost, because the new generations had to occasion to learn it.
