Behavioral ecology Flashcards
ethology
Studies of the interactions and reactions of animals t different scenarios
Proximate causation: how actions occur
Ultimate causation: why actions occur
Do not anthropomorphize
Conditional strategies
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?
Flexible behavior
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”
Foraging
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
Migration
long distance movement of a population associated by seasons
Circadian clock
internal clock that maintains a 24 hour period of time
Keep time
Know night and daytime
True navigation
carrier pigeons, know where they are no matter where they are
Migration
Piloting
landmarks, offspring learn from their parents, memorization
Pros and cons
Migration
Compass orientation
movement in a direction, sun and stars, requires a circadian clock, magnetic field via visual or magnetic particles
Pros and cons
Why migrate
Seasons change
Starvation
Movement of food
Breeding
Exp: salmon, monarch butterflies, artic terns
How would you test for the why?
Pros and cons
How does migration evolve?
range of food, temperature change
Communication
Communication
Signal
information carrying behavior or characteristic
Social process
Modes of communication
Tactile
Acousitic
Visual
Olfactory
Type of communication correlates with habitat
Sound travels further in water than air: humpback whales
Bats or wolves
Termites
Honesty in the signal
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
Same species deceit
Bluegill sunfish
Nesting territories
Female mimic
Sneaker male
Pros and cons?
Altruism
fitness cost to the giver and fitness benefit to the receiver
Contradictory to every other behavior
Does true one occur in the wild
Kin selection
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
Hamiltons rule
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.”
Inclusive fitness
Alleles can be passed on by not just you
Indirect fitness
The mixture of direct and indirect fitness is called inclusive fitness
kin selection
Reciprocal altruism
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
