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Exam study > Behavioural ecology > Flashcards

Behavioural ecology Flashcards

1
Q

Personality

A

Individual consistency in behavioural tendencies across time and contexts

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2
Q

Common persoanlity traits

A

aggression, boldness, activity levels

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3
Q

Behavioural syndromes

A
  • Consistent differences in a suite of correlated behaviours that are carried across contexts
  • Consistency in 2 or more traits (as opposed to personality which is consistency in one trait)
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4
Q

Limitations to adaptive plasticity in behaviroual syndromes

A

More aggressive females (funnel web spiders) tend to attack prey more quickly, attack conspecific territorial intruders and engage in higher, sometimes maladaptive sexual cannibalism (females eat males before they have a chance to mate)

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5
Q

Life histories

A

Personality traits (e.g. boldness, activity, aggressiveness) often positively associated with food intake rates/productivity/ growth/time to reproduction/etc.

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6
Q

Example of behaviroul syndrome

A
  • great tits
  • Fast explorers tend to be more aggressive and less neophobic (‘bolder’)
  • Proactive-reactive scale
    -Aggressive-boldness syndrome
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7
Q

What is the trade-off for funnel web spiders behaviroual syndrome?

A

Trade-off between stopping conspecific intruders (coming into your web eating your food), however, will not be able to reproduce if you kill males spiders before copulating

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8
Q

Evolutionary implications for funnel web spiders trade off?

A
  • If only less aggressive females mate (don’t eat males) this behavioural syndrome will be favoured in selection – reducing genetic variation
  • Implications for growth
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9
Q

maladaptive behaviour of funnel web spiders

A

The female funnel web spiders are too aggressive, and so they attack potential mates and reduce their reproductive outcomes

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10
Q

when traits are correlated, they should be studied together, as a package, rather than an isolated unit

A
  • You miss important behaviours if you only focus on one and ignore behaviours that are correlated with it
  • For example, if you only consider mating behaviour in female spiders, and not aggression, you may misinterpret why females attack/kill their mate before copulating
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11
Q

genetic basis of inheritance of behaviours

A

Natural selection can only work on genetic differences and so for behavior to evolve there must be behavior alternatives in the population and these differences must be heritable

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12
Q

genetic variation in quantitative traits

A

Degree by which individual phenotypes are determined by their genotype – the degree of determination or heritability

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13
Q

controlling for the environment to test if differences are genetic

A
  • cross-fostering experiment
  • common garden
  • population crosses - hybrids should be intermediate
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14
Q

heritability

A

extent to which phenotypes are determined by the genes transmitted from the parents

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15
Q

three key predictions of the sexy sons model of mate choice

A
  • Genetic basis– offspring will have increased fitness due to being more attractive
  • All females will tend to express the same preference (agree on the most attractive male)
  • Over time selection will occur for males enabling these preferred traits even when they do not increase fitness in other ways
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16
Q

What is the main difference between the good genes model and the sexy sons model?

A
  • The same as the sexy son’s model
  • However, it adds one more component – a general viability benefit (increases survival)
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17
Q

How do models of genetic compatibility differ from the sexy son and good genes model of mate choice?

A
  • Females find different males attractive
  • Try to avoid inbreeding
  • No matter how attractive a peahen may find a male, or no matter if his tail is the longest, she will not mate with her brother
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18
Q

What would constitute good evidence for the genetic compatibility hypothesis?

A

Look at interaction between males and females (do females prefer one male or several)

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19
Q

sensory exploitation

A

Tuning into pre-existing biases (e.g. look like a food choice so females are attracted to you)

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20
Q

sensory trap

A

Males are able to use sensory exploitation to trap females and mate with them (e.g. sound like a bat, which causes females to freeze, and then males can mate with the female)

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21
Q

phenotypic plasticity

A

The property of a given genotype to produce different phenotypes in response to distinct environmental conditions

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22
Q

reaction norm

A

describes the relationship between phenotype and the environment

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23
Q

genetic basis of phenotypic plasticity

A

Different genotypes respond differently and selection acts on this interaction called the ‘genotype by environmental interaction’

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24
Q

example of phenotypic plasticity - discontinuous

A
  • alternative male reproductive phenotypes (length of forceps) in European earwig
  • There comes a point when the environment favors a shift to the alternative phenotype
  • Minor males (short forceps) have a higher fitness than major males (with long forceps) at a smaller body size – where the functions intercept is where the individuals should switch its morph
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25
Q

what can phenotypic plasticity do

A
  • Increase niche breadth
  • Fuel sexual selection
  • Provide a refuge from predators
  • Maximize the fitness of sexes
  • Divide labor within social groups
  • Shape social environments
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26
Q

issues in conservation that can be addressed with behavioural studies

A
  • reproductive barrier
  • recognition and responses to introduced predators
  • effect of population density
  • predicting consequence of environmental change
  • siblicide (offspring fight and die) in population growth
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27
Q

example of how individuals can be more important than others

A

elephant matriarch

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28
Q

How can behavioral ecology inform us about conservation issues?

A

Understanding what critical tolerance limits are, how long these limits can be tolerated for, and how this affects reproduction and the amount of suitable habitat available is crucial

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29
Q

pied babbler and climate change effects

A
  • Due to an increase in heat dissipation and a decline in foraging efficiency, individuals steadily lose body mass at high temperatures
  • If the duration and intensity of heatwaves increase, individuals may not be able to maintain sufficient body condition to enable reproduction
  • Potential for large population decline due to lack of recruitment during very hot breeding season
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30
Q

marginal value theorem

A

The organism exploits a resource or something about gaining a resource

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31
Q

diminishing returns

A
  • The benefit of the resource is affected by the activity of the organism exploiting it – yielding ‘diminishing returns’
  • Puffin and sand eels – easy to catch the first sand eel, but hard to catch the 8th sand eel when there are already 7 in your mouth
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32
Q

optimal foraging in honeybees

A
  • When they go to a flower, they fill up their crop with nectar which is taken back to the hive
  • As the bee gets heavier, the cost of flying increases
  • The more flowers they visit, the more their flight uses up the nectar/energy of the last flower
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33
Q

prey switching is determined by

A
  • Handling time
  • Energy value
  • Searching time
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34
Q

prey switching predictions

A
  • Predator should always eat the profitable prey when they are available
  • When profitable prey are abundant predators should suddenly switch to specialize on this alone
  • The abundance of less profitable prey should have no effect on the decision to specialize – should ignore non-profitable prey (no matter how abundant they are, so long as profitable prey is available)
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35
Q

sexual dimorphism

A

Distinct differences in size or appearance between the sexes in addition to the sexual organs themselves

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36
Q

mechanisms of sexual selection

A
  • intrasexual (within a given sex)
  • intersexual (between sexes)
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37
Q

intrasexual selection examples

A
  • pre-mating: male mating competition
  • post-mating: sperm competition
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38
Q

intersexual selection examples

A
  • pre-mating: female mate choice
  • post-mating: cryptic female choice
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39
Q

anisogamy

A

difference in gamete size - female gametes larger than male gametes

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40
Q

Can variation in the degree of anisogamy influence the strength of selection?

A

Sexual selection should be much stronger in species where one sex has a much higher capacity to mate – strong potential for competitive exclusion

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41
Q

parental investment

A

investment in present offspring that increases survival at the cost of investment in future offspring

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42
Q

operational sex ratio

A

Ratio of fertilizable females to sexually active males at any given time

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43
Q

sex role reversal in insects

A
  • Males produce food gifts in the ejaculate
  • Food abundant: sexual selection acts more strongly on males (females chose males with largest gift)
  • Food scarce: females compete for males and their food gifts
  • Males are less available to mate, there is not enough food for them to get, they can now afford to be picky
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44
Q

intrasexual selection

A

Competition among members of the same sex for access to mates

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45
Q

intersexual selection

A

Members of one sex choose mating partners among individuals of the other sex

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46
Q

direct benefits of evolution of sexually selected traits

A

Individuals (usually females) benefit by preferentially choosing mates that provide resources that improve the choosing individuals reproductive success

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47
Q

Sexy sons model

A

Females benefit by preferentially mating with attractive males that bestow their (male) offspring with genes that improve attractiveness

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48
Q

Good genes model

A

Differs from sexy son model in that choosy females obtain intrinsically good genes that improve offspring viability

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49
Q

Evidence for sexy sons model

A

In Drosophila, grandsons sired by males that were consistently attractive to females are themselves 30% more successful at securing mates

50
Q

complementary genes

A

Females benefit by preferentially mating with genetically compatible males

51
Q

sperm competition

A

Competition between the sperm from two or more males for the fertilization of a given set of ova

52
Q

Sperm expenditure and the ‘risk’ and ‘intensity’ of sperm competition

A
  • As the number of competitors increases above 2, each additional unit of expenditure a male makes yields progressively lower reproductive returns
  • Your chances of success will not improve linearly as you invest more
53
Q

cryptic female choice

A

Non-random fertilization biases resulting from female behavior, morphology or physiology that occur during or after coupling

54
Q

Why exercise post-mating choice?

A
  • Females may not have a choice in coupling
  • Mates may be encountered sequentially
55
Q

mechanisms of cryptic female choice

A
  • physiological (e.g. ovarian fluid affects sperm function)
  • behavioural (e.g. positioning of eggs)
  • morphological (e.g. differential sperm storage)
  • mechanical (e.g. muscular control over sperm uptake)
56
Q

example of how to test for cryptic female choice

A
  • flour beetles use ‘tarsi’ (hair on legs) to stimulate females
  • when tarsi are removed, fertilisation success is nil
  • when tarsi are unmanipulated, fertilization success increases as rate of rubbing increases
57
Q

sexual conflict

A

When males and females have conflicting optimal fitness strategies concerning reproduction

58
Q

example of sexual conflict

A
  • Been weevil
  • Penis has spines which damage the female during copulation
  • Extent of genital damage proportional to copulation duration
59
Q

genetic basis of sexual conflict

A
  • intralocus sexual conflict - Genes at the same locus (or loci) have different fitness optima in males and females
  • interlocus sexual conflict - Genes at different locus (or loci) have different fitness optima in males and females
60
Q

example of intralocus sexual conflict

A
  • We assume genes for tail length reside at the same loci for both males and females
  • Any further elongation in tail favours males through sexual selection, but is costly to females because natural selection acts against having longer tails without having the compensating benefit
61
Q

sexually antagonistic coevolution theory

A

Theory says that the outcome of antagonistic male female interaction should remain relatively unchanged in an arms race because any persistence trait is matched perfectly by resistance

62
Q

example of sexually antagonistic coevolution theory

A
  • seed beetles
  • male penis causes considerable damage to female
  • corresponding differences in resistance of female (protective tissue) to persistence of male (damage)
63
Q

Chase-away model of sexually antagonistic coevolution theory

A

Males exploit a pre-existing bias for a particular male trait that eventually leads to the elaboration of the trait beyond what is good for the female

64
Q

example of chase-away model

A
  • Godaya fish
  • Female exhibit innate sexual preferences for males with terminal yellow bands
  • females have reduced foraging efficiency (yellow bands look like prey)
65
Q

game theory

A

Concerned with theories which claim to identify the selective forces responsible for the evolution of particular traits, or groups of traits

66
Q

types of strategies of game theory

A
  • pure strategy (all members have same strategy)
  • alternative strategies ( 2 strategies)
  • pure conditional strategy (one strategy performed on the condition that…)
  • mixed strategy (two conditions to the tsrategy, same for all members)
  • conditional strategy (On the condition of A, do X, and on the condition of B, do Y)
67
Q

fitness

A

number of offspring an individual recruits to the next generation

68
Q

measuring condition

A
  • Body size
  • Residual mass controlling for size
  • Lipid content
  • Muscle mass
  • Performance
69
Q

what is condition

A

anything that increases the efficiency of traits essential for viability will increase the available expenditure of costly traits for reproduction

70
Q

sex allocation

A

Sex allocation is the division of parental resources to male versus female reproduction in sexual species

71
Q

what does sex allocation theory explain

A

Why equal numbers of sons & daughters are produced & highlights situations that select for deviation from this norm

72
Q

primary sex ratio

A

sex ratio at fertilization

73
Q

secondary sex ratio

A

sex ratio at time of hatch or birth

74
Q

tertiary sex ratio

A

sex ratio at a later stage of life, such as at age of first reproduction or “adult” stage

75
Q

population sex ratio

A

the ratio of males to females in a population

76
Q

offspring sex ratio

A

no. of sons or daughters / total offspring

77
Q

Fisher’s equal sex ratio of 1:1

A
  • The sex ratio will evolve to 1:1 male to female offspring if:
    -Males and females are equally good at producing male and female offspring, at all ages and sizes
  • Mating is at random
  • It is a large population that is thoroughly mixed
78
Q

local mate competition

A

Should produce female bias so that there is enough males in offspring to inseminate all females (one mother)

79
Q

local resource competition

A

When individuals of one sex are philopatric and experience competition over access to local resources, the sex that disperses from the natal area will be favoured

80
Q

local resource enhancement

A

in cooperatively breeding species, the adaptive value of sons vs daughters depends upon the costs and benefits for parents of receiving help

81
Q

primary defences

A

Operate before a predatory launches an attack and function to prevent pursuit

82
Q

examples of primary defences

A
  • visual crypsis
  • warning colouration
  • mimicry
83
Q

secondary defences

A

Operate after an attack is initiated and increase prey’s chance of survival

84
Q

adaptations of predators (coevolutionary arms race)

A

if prey evolve great ways of defending themselves, predators must equally evolve great traits to overcome these defenses in order to survive

85
Q

predator-prey interaction sequence

A
  • encounter
  • detection
  • recognition
  • approach
  • evasion/attack
86
Q

non-lethal effects of predators on prey

A
  • activity patterns
  • foraging behaviour
  • reproductive behaviour
    -dispersal
  • anti-predator behaviour
  • habitat use
87
Q

Countershading colouration

A

Animals tend to be darker on top and lighter on the ventral surface (e.g. shark)

88
Q

disruptive colouration

A

Markings that create the appearance of false edges and boundaries and hinders the detection or recognition of an object, or part of an object’s true outline and shape

89
Q

when is disruptive colouration most effective

A
  • Some patches stand out from the background while others blend in (differential blending)
  • Adjacent patch elements are highly contrasting (maximum disruptive contrast)
90
Q

masquerade

A

Avoid predation by being misidentifies as inedible objects such as twigs, leaves, stones, etc. (e.g. leafy sea dragon)

91
Q

Eyespot function (predator-prey interactions)

A

deflect attack to other parts of the body

92
Q

selfish herd theory

A

predators attack closest prey therefore individuals on edges of the group experience highest risk

93
Q

risk dilution theory

A

the larger the group, the lower the risk to the individuals (being attacked by a predator)

94
Q

why are predators less successful at attacking large groups?

A

confusion effect: inability of predators to single out and attack individual prey within a group

95
Q

benefits of grouping

A
  • Cooperation
  • Collective detection (many eyes)
  • Predator swamping
  • Communal defense
  • Enhanced foraging
  • Reduced locomotion
  • Transmission of information about detected threat through group
96
Q

costs of grouping

A
  • Competition
  • Aggression
  • Parasitism
  • Increased detectability
97
Q

Illusions

A

Stimuli that exists at the extremes of what our visual system has evolved to handle’

98
Q

Ebbinghaus illusion

A
  • the importance of context, the central target appears larger when surrounded by smaller inducer objects
  • e.g. female fiddler crabs more likely to choose mate with small neighbours
99
Q

navigational strategies

A
  • Beaconing (using landmarks)
  • Route following
  • Path integration
  • Cognitive maps
100
Q

path integration

A

A running computation of the present location from the past trajectory

101
Q

Navigational cues

A
  • e.g. sun, moon, landmarks, etc.
  • animals use multiple cues to solve navigational problems - you must be careful to eliminate all possibilities of animals using alternative cues
102
Q

problem with cooperation

A
  • Natural selection favors genes that increase an individual’s fitness, thus selfish behaviors should dominate
  • Soon, everyone will be selfish
103
Q

direct benefits of cooperation

A
  • fitness of actor is increased
  • Reciprocal - bat sharing blood tit for tat
  • reputational - competitive alturism
104
Q

indirect benefits of cooperation

A
  • When cooperation is directed at individuals who share genes with the actor
  • kin selection (hamiltons rule)
105
Q

hamiltons rule

A

rB > C
r = genetic relatedness
B = reproductive benefit
C = reproductive cost

106
Q

how do animals recognise kin?

A
  • environmental cues (e.g. familiarity/shared environment)
  • self-referent phenotype matching
  • shared distinct genetic markers
107
Q

parental care

A

any form of care provided by parents to young

108
Q

forms of parental care

A
  • Preparation of area (e.g. nest, territory, etc.)
  • Care of young in utero/eggs
  • Provisioning of young
  • External care of young
  • Assisting in skill development – learning behaviors
109
Q

example of parental care - matriphagy

A
  • Suicidal maternal care increases the survival of young in spiders
110
Q

benefits of parental care

A
  • Increased survival, development and quality of young
  • Care provided early on can have long-term benefits
  • Ultimately a parents success is defined by the success of its offspring (becoming reproductive adults)
111
Q

costs of parental care

A
  • Parents who invest a lot in one reproductive attempt may be more likely to die or lose condition – limiting their ability to invest in future reproduction
  • Investing a lot in one set of young restricts other breeding opportunities
  • The physical act of caring for young exposes parents to predation
  • Direct mortality
112
Q

example of parental care trade-off

A
  • long tailed skink
  • Parental care only present in one population on Orchid island
  • Predation and risk to young vs adults
  • Predation on breeding females on mainland is strong, but weak on the island
  • Predation on eggs is strong on orchid island but weak on the mainland
113
Q

types of parental care

A
  • Single parent
  • bi-parental/shared care
  • female only care
  • male only care
114
Q

polygyny threshold model

A

When a secondary female on a good territory has higher reproductive success than a primary female on a poor territory monogamy will change to polygyny

115
Q

general rule of parental care

A
  • In species with internal fertilization - female parental care
  • In species with external fertilization - male parental care
116
Q

preferential care

A

When parents preferentially allocate resources to the most valuable offspring

117
Q

reproductive value

A

the number of children a woman of a given age is likely to produce in the future, relative to the average of the population as a whole

118
Q

Human cooperation

A
  • Reciprocity is much more important
  • Cooperation between non-relatives is very common
  • Humans engage much more commonly in complex/highly coordinated group-level cooperation
  • Humans engage in extremely high-risk cooperation (warfare)
  • role of reputation
  • enforcement with punishment
119
Q

what is animal cognition

A

The mechanism by which animals acquire, process , store and act on information from the environment

120
Q

examples of animal cognition

A
  • Spatial memory
  • Recognition
  • Behavioral inhibition
  • Social knowledge
  • Communication
  • Inequity aversion
121
Q

List at least three criteria needed to demonstrate cryptic female choice

A
  • Need to identify that a trait in a female is the reason this is happening
  • Sperm competition must be present
  • Need to show the bias in a trait is independent of anything the male is doing

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