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animal behaviour exam revision > behaviour > Flashcards

behaviour Flashcards

1
Q

What is behaviour?

A

a Living organisms coordinated response to an external or/and internal stimuli.

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2
Q

early natural history?

A

observing animals behaviour and describing them in detail.
it does not generate or test hypothesis.

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3
Q

behaviourism? (and examples of behaviourist)

A
  • all behaviours are seen as a response to a stimulus.
  • experimental approach
    understand behaviour to be able to control it and apply it to humans.

examples of behaviourist:
- pavlov: classical conditioning = the association of 2 stimuli.
- skinner: operant conditioning = learning based on the consequences of ones behaviour.

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4
Q

limitations of behaviourism?

A
  • limitations: range of species, methodology is based on learning, thus assuming that all behaviour is learned.
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5
Q

approaches of studying animal behaviour?

A
  1. comparative
  2. ethology
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6
Q

what is the comparative approach?

A

gain insight in behaviour through comparing solutions between groups of species that share common variant on these problems.

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7
Q

closest living relative tot he human species?

A

Bonobos (cousins).

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8
Q

what is the ethological approach in studying animal behaviour?

A

it is studying animals behaving as they do in their natural environment and it is focus on their innate behaviours.

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9
Q

examples of ethologists?

A
  1. Konrad Lorenz (Imprinting)
  2. Tinbergen (Supernormal stimulus)
  3. Karl Von Fish (Waggle dance in bees)
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10
Q

in the ethological approach, what accounts for the variation observed in behaviour?

A

the influence of the situation (i.e., social environment , ecology and fitness)

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11
Q

what is fitness, otherwise reproductive success?

A

the capacity of the phenotype that expresses a certain behaviour to produce ‘stronger’ descendants compared to other phenotypes.

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12
Q

what are phenotypes?

A

the measurable aspect of an individual which can arise from the interaction of genes with the environment.

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13
Q

what is a fitness proxy?

A

something that can be measured easily, quickly, accurately in order to test model prediction or for use in experiments.

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14
Q

what does polygenic mean?

A

influence by many genes

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15
Q

what does the ‘phenotypic Gambit’ mean?

A

the gambit is a behavioural ecology sacrifice of realism and accuracy to be able to measure tractable behaviour.

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16
Q

what is a naturalistic fallacy?

A

assuming that ‘natural’ equates to ‘morally good’ when thinking about human behaviour.

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17
Q

what are challenges of measuring behaviour?

A
  1. measuring fitness is hard
    2.we do not know the genetic basis of a given behaviour.
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18
Q

what are Tinbergen’s 4 questions? mention their level of analysis too.

A

Proximity analysis–immediate causes
1. mechanistic
2. developmental

ultimate analysis–evolutionary forces
3. survival value
4. evolutionary history

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19
Q

what is the mechanistic question of Tinbergen?

A

asks about how something works.
example:
- brain structure chemistry
- physiology and hormones
- molecular mechanisms and gene expression
- external state of environment

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20
Q

what is the developmental question of Tinbergen?

A

asks about how the behaviour has developed during individuals life i.e., ontogeny.
examples:
- learning
genetic predisposition
environmental or social factors.

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21
Q

what is the survival value question of Tinbergen?

A

what does it do for fitness?
examples:
- ultimate causes
- current utility
adaptive significance

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22
Q

what is the evolutionary history question of Tinbergen?

A

what is its phylogenetic history? how did it evolve from its ancestors?
examples:
- how competition from other species influenced its evolution?
- cultural evolution.

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23
Q

what is adaption? how does it evolve?

A

a trait that functions to increase fitness.
it evolves through natural selection.

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24
Q

what is natural selection?

A

the process by which the genotypes with higher survival value/fitness increases in frequency in a population.

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25
Q

what is evolution?

A

the change in frequency of alleles within a population.

26
Q

what is speciation?

A

it is the evolutionary process by which a population evolves to become distinct species.

27
Q

what causes speciation?

A
  1. having a genetic variation that is caused by recombination and/or mutation of the genetic material i.e., DNA

2.change in environment, migration which are all aspects that influence the niche of a species, both biotic and abiotic.

  1. reproductive isolation:
    a. allopatric speciation
    b. sympatric speciation
28
Q

what is allopatric speciation?

A

a gene flow is interrupted when a population is divided into geographically-isolated subpopulations due to a geographical barrier.

bonus:
local adaptations are acquired in each subpopulation and there is a genetic drift from the original population.

29
Q

what is a genetic drift?

A

a change in genes by random sampling of alleles and has nothing to do with fitness differences between individuals.

30
Q

what is sympatric speciation?

A

the formation of new species originating from one ancestral species despite living in the same area.

31
Q

what are isolating mechanisms?

A

specific salient characteristics are selected and develop to maintain isolation

32
Q

an example of isolating mechanism and what it does:

A

Specific mate recognition Systems
preference for characteristics that confer higher reproductive success.

33
Q

what are the principles of competitive exclusion?

A
  1. 2 species cannot share the same niche (Gause’s theorem).
  2. if 2 closely related species co-exist, they must be sufficiently different both reproductively and through partitioning of resources.
34
Q

what is the optimal foraging theory?

A

it is a mathematical model that attempts to predict aspects of animal behaviour, limited by certain constraints.

35
Q

how is the foraging theory tested?

A
  • by experiments and observations.
36
Q

what are the different parameters a predator should consider when choosing a prey?

A

a. energy # calories
b. encounter rate
c. handling time
d. profitability (energy value / handling time)

37
Q

describe John Kerbs experiment with Grate tit birds and the findings.

A
  • bigger worms = more energy
  • handling time is similar
  • thus bigger worms are more profitable

john kerb fluctuated the density of worms

on the conveyor belt (high, low, equal)
at high density, birds waited for the big worms.

38
Q

what is the marginal value theorem?

A

it is a compromise between costs of moving, declining rate of intake and promise of richer picking elsewhere.

39
Q

what does the study by Gary Beloski regarding the nutrients in food demonstrate?

A

there is an observed dietary balance that can be calculated based on the energy needs, gut capacity and a nutrient required by animals e.g., sodium

40
Q

what are the food managing strategies?

A
  1. territoriality
  2. caching
41
Q

what is territoriality?
what are its benefits?
what are its cost?

A
  • defending an area and its resources.
  • benefits: ensure-exclusive access to food supply enables more efficient use of patch e.g., do not return until depleted resource is replenished.
  • cost: takes time and energy to defend, risk of injury.
42
Q

what is caching?

A
  • it is the storing of food by hiding in preparation for period of scarcity.
43
Q

what has been found to be a selection pressure within species and what physiology has been found to differ across species?

A

it introduces a selection pressure for memory.
it has been seen that Hippocampal size differs across species in regards to degree of storing. it is a positive correlation.

44
Q

describe the study by Parvosudov and Clayton (2002):

A
  • studies birds from Alaska = food poor and birds from Colorado = food rich.
  • in bird cages they were given places to -cache sunflower seeds.
  • those from food poor areas had greater volume of hippocampus and were larger containing more neurons.
45
Q

describe the study by Raby et. al., (2007)

A
  • Blue Jays/western scrubs plan to cache
    where they need it.
  • they were given two compartments, one with ground pine nuts which could not be cached and one empty one.
    these were given only once a day and it was either one of them.
    on the sixth day they were given seeds with a caching tray to the previous compartments.
  • the birds cached the seeds in the tray that was attached to the empty compartment.
46
Q

animal strategies in finding food:

A
  1. cooperative hunting
  2. public information
  3. social learning
47
Q

how does cooperative hunting aid animals?

A
  • by capturing prey they would otherwise be unable to by themselves.
48
Q

describe the study by Mittlebach,1984:

A
  • larger groups increase capture rate, until about 4.
  • two possible reasons:
    more flushed
    because prey clump together, when one fish finds prey the others can join and benefit too.
49
Q

what are the male sexual strategies:

A
  1. contest and confrontation
  2. deceit and divergence
  3. insemination and implements
  4. viability and vivacity
50
Q

what is contest and confrontation male sexual strategy?

A
  • aggressive interactions to gain
  • endurance i.e., the ability to remain reproductively active during large part of season.
  • assessment compatibility between male for fight.
  • size and competitive ability
51
Q

genetic polymorphism?

A

a male sexual strategy that claims illustrates two different strategies with equal fitness payoffs.

52
Q

mixed strategies?

A

a male sexual strategy that illustrates that genetically monomorphic, individuals play different ‘tactics’ depending on current payoffs.

53
Q

what are the conditional strategies of male sexual strategies?

A

genetically monomorphic individuals switch in response to conditions/status (more long-term).

54
Q

what is the insemination and implements male sexual strategies ?

A
  • sperm competitions.
  • facilitated by sperm storage
  • ejaculate size
  • mate guard
  • infanticide
  • preventions of insemination by rivals via the use of copulatory plugs.
55
Q

what are the mate choices of males?

A
  • complementarity
  • high fertility
  • age
56
Q

what are ‘direct benefits’ to females based on mate choice?

A

benefits directly experienced by the mother such as parental care, nuptial gifts etc.
larger gifts = longer copulation allowed by female.

57
Q

what are ‘indirect benefits’ ?

A

benefits provided by the male to the female, but that are not experienced directly rather, are experienced by the offspring.
example: good genes.

58
Q

female strategies used to discern the best male:

A

indicator traits: phenotypic proof.
rule of thumb e.g., going for males in the middle of lek is better as those are in less predator prone zone meaning they are dominant to be able to gain a position there.
copying: females observe other female’s preferences and copy them.

59
Q

what are female sex strategies used to increase chances of better quality off springs?

A
  1. multiple mattings to improve father quality
  2. inciting male competition using calls–all females can call but low ranking males cannot.
  3. maternal effect: females may demonstrate preferences between offspring, specifically to those that originate from attractive mates, which can influence their phenotype.
60
Q

what are mechanisms that benefit dominant females compared to less dominant females in regards to reproduction and fertility?

A
  • aggression and harassment by dominant females of pregnant or reproductively active females enhances their reproductive success by contributing to the death of others’ offspring too.
  • reproductive suppression:
    in some species on some individuals can’t reproduce which result to greater benefit to those that do (Bell et. al., ) by having more resources available.
    intersexual conflict can function as a contraceptive, infertility inflicted by behaviours and physiological mechanisms.
61
Q

what is allomothering? what is the benefit of it?

A

caring for offspring of other females.
increase of survival value.

animal behaviour exam revision (2 decks)

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