Behaviour + Sexual Selection Flashcards
What is altruism?
acting to increase another individual’s fitness at the cost of one’s own
What is inclusive fitness and what are the types?
sum of individuals’ direct and indirect fitness
direct: genes passed through individual’s reproduction + survival
indirect: genes passed through helping others’ reproduction + survival
What is kin selection?
alleles are favoured through altruism between relatives
What is sexual selection?
individuals with favourable traits having higher reproductive success versus individuals without them
What is Bateman’s principle?
the sex that invests the most in reproduction (typically females) becomes the limited resource that the opposite sex competes for
What is the difference between intrasexual and intersexual competition?
intrasexual is competition among same sex for mating privilege, whereas intersexual is the ability to attract opposite sex
What is monogamy?
- single pair bond
- shared parental care
What is polygyny?
- multiple females with one male
- females provide parental care
- defendable resources
What is polyandry?
- multiple males with one female
- male provides parental care
- low male reproductive rate
What is promiscuity?
- no pair bonds
- no parental care
What are the DIRECT benefits of carefully choosing a mate?
- correct species are chosen
- access to safe/good territory
- access to stable food sources
- gains good parent for offspring
- gains a fertile mate
What are the INDIRECT benefits of carefully choosing a mate?
- good genes for offspring
- runaway selection: males with favoured traits produce sons with favoured traits
