APS126 Hunter Flashcards
Who are the 3 founding fathers of the study of animal behaviour?
Niko Tinbergen
Karl von Frisch
Konrad Lorenz
All 3 won nobel prize in 1973
What are Tinbergen’s four questions?
- What causes the behaviour?
- How does the behaviour develop? (is it innate or learned?)
- What is its current function? (why is it adaptive, how does it increase fitness?)
- Why did the behaviour evolve like this? (i.e. what is the evolutionary history?)
How are Tinbergen’s questions split?
Into proximate (how) and ultimate (why) questions
Proximate (mechanisms): ontogeny (development), causation (physiological causes of behaviour)
Ultimate (evolution): evolutionary history, function (adaptive significance)
What are some species Tinbergen focused on?
Gulls, wasps and sticklebacks
What is another name for the science of animal behaviour?
Ethology
What is Karl von Frisch most famous for?
Identifying dance language of honey bees (don’t use odour as originally thought)
- he was most interested in animal communication (+mechanisms)
What was von Frisch’s early work on?
Fish
What did Konrad Lorenz mainly work with?
Birds (in captivity)
- e.g. imprinting (birds onto him instead of their mothers) - allowed him to study in even more detail
What did Lorenz state there was a difference between?
Learned and innate behaviour
What method of study did Lorenz pioneer?
Comparative method
- looked at courtship displays of ducks to try and infer the evolutionary (i.e. phylogenetic) relationships between duck species
Which of the 3 scientists have best stood the test of time?
Tinbergen
What are Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) genes concerned with?
Fighting disease
- and how suitable/compatible we are as a complementary mate (better to be complementary, rather than mirroring our own) - more efficient at fighting disease as wider range
Naive coastal california garter snakes were more likely to eat/ flick their tongue at…
banana slugs
- suggests genetic basis to diet
What are the two types of drosophila larvae foraging styles?
“sitter” - move little when foraging
“rover” - move around when foraging
- cross-breeding studies show behaviour is caused by single gene (rover is dominant)
similarities between relatives could also arise purely because of similar…
environments
What are knock-out gene experiments?
Inactivating a known gene to determine its effects on development
e.g. removal of fosB gene in mice prevents normal maternal behaviour in mice
How is behavioural and genetic variation maintained?
If members of the species live in different local environments, they may experience different local selection pressures –> different behavioural phenotypes evolve
Low birthweight, poor early growth or pre-birth famine in humans predict adulthood…
health conditions such as CHD, type 2 diabetes, stroke, asthma
- long-term influence from poor foetal gene expression
In the gambia, individuals born during the rainy season have…
increased mortality rates as they mature and into adulthood
- developmental consequences on immune system for rest of lives
Hormones can affect … and … of foetuses
masculinisation, feminisation
Females who shared a uterus with another female were far more likely to…
have children than those who shared a uterus with a male
A study on anolis lizards found that…
those raised on broad surfaces developed longer limbs than those raised on narrow surfaces
- shows that external environment affects growth and locomotion
Flexibility to make … adjustments provides … advantages for individuals in environments where they are likely to encounter … but biologically important conditions during their lifetimes
behavioural, fitness, unpredictable
Maintenance of behavioural flexibility is … so only wort having if the costs are smaller than the benefits gained in a given …
expensive, environment
-e.g. learning requires a lot of energy (for the brain)
The ability of animals to acquire the correct foundation for normal behaviour even under suboptimal conditions is called…
developmental homeostasis
The development of some hugely important traits (e.g. brain development) is strongly … against poor developmental conditions.
Buffered
Male emperor moths can detect females from miles away. The male’s antennae are … to detect female … …
Large, sex pheromones
Moths have 2 types of … systems. What are these?
olfactory
- 1 tuned to species-specific pheromones
- 1 general odour-sensing system
UV light has a very … wavelength
short
Humans have … types of photoreceptors (cone cells) that translate light into … …
3, nerve impulses
- each detect different wavelengths
- birds have 4 types (1 extra for UV light)
Why do male bluethroats have UV patches on their throats?
To attract female mates (sexual selection)
How many paired appendages are there on the nose of a star-nosed mole? What are the specialised sensory structures found in the skin of these appendages called?
11 - not equally sensitive
Eimer’s organs
Appendage 11 of the starnose mole nose has …% of the Eimer’s organs, but more than …% of the nerve fibres going to the brain.
7, 10
appendages 10 and 11 probably for final identification of food before consumption
Where is a noctuid moth’s ear located?
lower area of thorasic segment
- air sacs and 2 receptor cells (A1 and A2, A1 is more sensitive)
- all-or-nothing response of neurons
Watch bit about moth bat direction + echo, lecture tues mar 26, 27:50
Yep
A wave can only be reflected by an object that is larger than…..
Half the wavelength
… … sounds are needed to detect small insects
high pitched
- bat species that specialise on larger insects have deeper calls
Stimulus filtering is…
a universal feature of sensory systems that typically focuses on information relevant to the animal’s survival or reproduction
The female ormia fly is … … to sounds of the same frequency as the crickets make, especially when compared to the male fly.
Maximally sensitive
The herring gull chicks preferring the red pencil to the model gull with a red spot is an example of a…
supernormal stimulus
- Fixed action pattern (FAP) encoded in genes as does not have time to learn how to feed - all-or-nothing responses
Navigation is…
piloting a course from one location to another
When food is <50m away what waggle dance to scout honeybees do?
Round dance
When food is >50m away what waggle dance do scout honeybees do?
Figure of eight dance
What two pieces of information does the waggle dance give other bees?
Distance and direction (in relation to the sun)
How is distance conveyed using the waggle dance?
The duration of the waggle dance (and entire circuit) is proportional to the distance
Worker desert ants take a direct trip straight back to the nest after foraging for dead insect food (by meandering a lot). How?
Ants locate themselves by integrating distance and direction moved - distance by the amount of walking done and direction by the sun’s position or polarised light patterns
Animals that navigate by the sun have to…
correct for the sun’s shifting position. - e.g. bees adjust the direction according to the sun’s position - use internal clock + stopwatch
What do homing pigeons use to find their way home?
Probably combination of sun and magnetism