Behavioral ecology

Question 1

ethology

Answer 1

Studies of the interactions and reactions of animals t different scenarios
Proximate causation: how actions occur
Ultimate causation: why actions occur

Do not anthropomorphize

Question 2

Conditional strategies

Answer 2

Innate inflexible behavior is rare
FAP: fixed action patterns
These are inherited
They do not change according to learning or condition of the animal
Example?

Question 3

Flexible behavior

Answer 3

The majority of behavior
Changes with learning
Changes with environmental conditions
Behavior is based on a range of decisions
Cost – benefit analysis or a risk assessment

“appear to weigh”

Question 4

Foraging

Answer 4

the action of looking for food
When eating you need to consider
What for is best for me
What is the range of food available
Food availability

Question 5

Migration

Answer 5

long distance movement of a population associated by seasons

Question 6

Circadian clock

Answer 6

internal clock that maintains a 24 hour period of time
Keep time
Know night and daytime

Question 7

True navigation

Answer 7

carrier pigeons, know where they are no matter where they are

Question 8

Migration

Piloting

Answer 8

landmarks, offspring learn from their parents, memorization
Pros and cons

Question 9

Migration

Compass orientation

Answer 9

movement in a direction, sun and stars, requires a circadian clock, magnetic field via visual or magnetic particles
Pros and cons

Question 10

Why migrate

Answer 10

Seasons change
Starvation
Movement of food
Breeding
Exp: salmon, monarch butterflies, artic terns
How would you test for the why?

Pros and cons

Question 11

How does migration evolve?

Answer 11

range of food, temperature change

Question 12

Communication

Answer 12

Communication

Question 13

Signal

Answer 13

information carrying behavior or characteristic
Social process

Question 14

Modes of communication

Answer 14

Tactile
Acousitic
Visual
Olfactory
Type of communication correlates with habitat
Sound travels further in water than air: humpback whales
Bats or wolves
Termites

Question 15

Honesty in the signal

Answer 15

Natural selection has favored deceit
Male signals to women
If you can communicate with out wasting the energy to produce the real thing
Exp: plants looking like wasps
Not really a lie

Question 16

Same species deceit

Answer 16

Bluegill sunfish
Nesting territories
Female mimic
Sneaker male
Pros and cons?

Question 17

Altruism

Answer 17

fitness cost to the giver and fitness benefit to the receiver
Contradictory to every other behavior
Does true one occur in the wild

Question 18

Kin selection

Answer 18

natural selection that acts through the benefits to relatives

Signal, just not the hypothesis is

Alarm calling prairie dogs
Hamiltons rule
Fitness cost = C
Fitness benefit = B
R = relatedness
The allele for self sacrifice spreads if Br> C

Question 19

Hamiltons rule

Answer 19

Altruisms is most likely if
Fitness benefits are high
The relationship is close
Fitness costs are low

.B.S. Haldane: fully grasped the basic quantities and considerations in kin selection, famously writing “I would lay down my life for two brothers or eight cousins.”

Question 20

Inclusive fitness

Answer 20

Alleles can be passed on by not just you
Indirect fitness

The mixture of direct and indirect fitness is called inclusive fitness
kin selection

Question 21

Reciprocal altruism

Answer 21

Altruism among non relatives
Grooming in primates
Vampire bats: blood meals to nonkin

How would these behaviors evolve?

Grooming buddies in vervet monkeys
Vampire bats share with the bats who have shared

Altruistic behavior increases the chances of future sharing from the receiver and favors kin