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Environmental And Evolutionary Biology > Behavioural Ecology > Flashcards

Behavioural Ecology Flashcards

0
Q

What is social behaviour?

A

When two or more animals of the same species interact together ehen performing a behaviour

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1
Q

What is ethology?

A

The study of animal behaviour

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2
Q

What are the 4 main types of social behaviour?

A

Competitive
Co-operative
Selfish
Altruistic

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3
Q

What are the three main types of competitive behaviour?

A

Agnostic
Dominance hierachies
Territorality

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4
Q

What is agnostic behaviour?

A

Comparative tests of strength which can result in injury or death or threat displays which involve complex rituals during which one party submits.

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5
Q

Give an example of a dominance hierarchy

A

The hen pecking order - a linear dominance hierarchy established by contests and maintained by threat displays

Female mating hierarchy in wolf packs - the alpha female prevents others from mating when resources are poor

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6
Q

What is a territory?

A

Any defended area

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7
Q

Give examples of territorial animals

A

Song sparrows have a 3000m2 territory for feeding, breeding and rearing young

Gannets have a few square metres of cliff used for a nest site

Bull sea lions defend a small are a of beach for mating

Red squirrels have a large territory used for breeding

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8
Q

Who won the nobel prize in 1973?

A

Karl von Frisch
Konrad Lorenz
Nikolaas Tinbergen

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9
Q

What were the three main stances in animal behaviour at the beginning of the 20th century?

A

Vitalists - instincts were mystical and inherent
Reflexologists - one dimensionally mechanical
Behaviourists - learning was key to behavioural variations

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10
Q

What did Karl von Frisch do?

A

He worked on the language of bees, he discovered that the waggle dance occurs when the food source is greater than 50m away and the round dance occurs less than 50m away. This is genetically programmed not learnt.

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11
Q

What did Konrad lorenz do?

A

He discovered that birds have a fixed action pattern to key stimuli without any learning. He also discovered imprinting

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12
Q

What did Nikolaas Tinbergen do?

A

He found a way to test hypothesis using dummies enabling an elicitation or an exaggerated response to a supranormal stimuli

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13
Q

What are Tinbergen’s 4 whys?

A

What effect does a behaviour have on an animal’s survival or well being?
What internal and external factors make an animal behave in a particular way?
Why and how did the animal develop such a behaviour?
Why and how was the behaviour evolved in the species?

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14
Q

What are the two main types of causes to a behaviour?

A

Proximate causes - how does it work?

Ultimate causes - why did it evolve?

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15
Q

How does a Fischer’s lovebird make it’s nest?

A

With long strips and no tucking behaviour

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16
Q

How foes a peach-faced lovebird make it’s nest?

A

With short strips and tucking behaviour

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17
Q

How do hybrid lovebirds make their nests?

A

With intermediate length strips, with unsuccessful tucking behaviour in first season and in later seasons with only head-turning behaviour

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18
Q

What is innate behaviour?

A

A behaviour which does not have to be learned, which often occurs in response to a stimulus

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19
Q

Give an example of an innate behaviour

A

Frogs tongues shoot out at the movement of small objects

Male aggression in the threespine stickleback is triggered by the red belly of other males

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20
Q

Why do male sledge warblers have such a large repertoire of songs?

A

Males with higher song repertoires will find a mate more quickly therefore have a higher reproductive success and have a longer time to feed their chicks

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21
Q

What is learning?

A

Modification of behaviour in response to previous experience

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22
Q

Give an example of a learning behaviour

A

Many songbird species exhibit a regional dialect as they learn to call by copying
Ververt monkeys learn to associate alarm calls with specific predators

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23
Q

What is habituation?

A

The form of learning in which animals learn to stop responding to a stimulus that is not associated with any benefit

24
What is imprinting?
Learning limited to a critical period which is usually irreversible
25
Briefly outline Konrad Lorenz' experiment on greylag goose chicks
He removed some chicks from the nest and returned them a few hours after they had hatched. The removed ones followed him
26
What is filial imprinting?
Imprinting confined to the first two days of life
27
What is special about prairie voles?
They exhibit sexual imprinting based on the vasopressin receptor in males
28
What are the two types of associative learning?
Pavlovian conditioning | Operant conditioning
29
What is associative learning?
When animals learn to associate one stimulus with another
30
What is pavlovian conditioning?
Where a conditional stimulus becomes associated with an unconditional stimulus E.g. Pavlov's Dogs
31
What is operant conditioning?
Learning by trial and error where good behaviour is reinforced and bad behaviour is weakened E.g. Skinner's box
32
What is cognitive learning?
Using awareness, reasoning, recollection and judgement
33
Outline the experiment at Oxford university involving Betty
Researcher's were testing New Caledonian crows ability to reach food. There was a food bucket located in a well and they were provided with a bent wire and a straight wire. Betty chose the straight wire and bent it without any period of trail and error
34
Outline the experiment at Oxford University about cognitive learning based on meta-tools
New Caledonian crows were presented with four horizontal tubes. One tube contained out of reach food, in order to get it they had to get the short hook, to get the medium hook to get the long hook to get the food.
35
Outline an experiment based on cognitive learning at the university of Auckland
New Caledonian crows had to use tools in succession whilst innovating new behaviours to reach the food. First they got s short hook off the string, then used this to get the medium hook which was behind bars then got the food.
36
What is optimal foraging?
Maximising energy intake whilst minimising costs of finding food
37
Outline an experiment into optimal foraging using shore crabs
They prefer to eat blue mussels with a high energy intake/handling time Small mussels have a low E Large mussels have a high h They always chose the intermediate mussel which has an optimum e/h ratio
38
Outline an experiment into optimal foraging with the Northwestern crow
They feed on littleneck clams and whelks. The crows were oresented with three size combinations: Small clams and large whelks Small clams and medium whelks Large clams and large whelks Despite the clams always being energetically more favourable the crows consistently chose the larger prey species indicating a general decision rule
39
What are the three main types of mating behaviour?
Promiscous Monogamous Polygamous
40
What is an evolutionary stable strategy?
The strategy that most members of the population adopt and there is no mutant strategy which could give a higher rate of reproductive success
41
What is the mating strategy dependent upon?
Physiological constraints : Fertilisation, Gestation, Lactation Ecological factors : Food availibility, Shelter and protection and Predators and Disease
42
Outline the general breeding strategy of mammals
Mostly polygynous due to: Internal fertilisation Gestation Lactation
43
Outline the breeding strategy of birdsq
Their reproductive success is limited by rate of food delivery. So they normally have biparental care. If the food constraints are removed such as many fruit and seed eaters they are polygynous
44
Outline the breeding strategy of bony fish
Mostly no parental care however if there is it is polygamous dependent on if fertilisation is external(polyandry) or internal(polygyny)
45
What are the two main traits associated with sexual selection?
Male weaponry | Ornaments
46
What is intrasexual selection?
Selection between the members of the same sex (usually male-male) which has resulted in large body size and weaponry
47
What is intersexual selection?
Between members of opposing sexes, usually where the male chooses the female which has led to the evolution of male exaggerated traits
48
What is the Bateman gradient?
The sexual selection gradient which shows that female reproductive success is not based upon the number of mates
49
What happens to the bateman gradient in a sex role reversed species?
It reverses
50
Give an example of a sex role reverses species
The deep snouted pipefish
51
In intersexual selection what traits do females look for?
Direct benefits such as access to resources | Indirect benefits such as a strong immune system
52
What do female threespine sticklebacks look for in a mate?
Good nest sites - Direct benefit | Bright red necks indicating higher parasite resistance - Indirect benefit
53
What is inclusive fitness?
The total effect of an organism proliferating it's genes, including throug siblings etc.
54
What is an important factor in inclusive fitness?
The coefficient of relatedness between individuals
55
Give an example of inclusive fitness behaviour
Female Belding ground squirrels produce a high pitched alarm call upon sight of predators, which warns their neo-natal group however attracts the predator to them Social insects in which workers entirely forego reproduction
56
What is reciprocal altruism?
When one favour is given and expected to be returned. This can occur between unrelated individuals however only in stable social groups
57
Give an example of reciprocal altruistic behaviour
Vampire bats Animals that don't feed that night rub the belly of ones that did. The donor then regurgitates some of it's food dramatically increasing the recipients time till starvation point however only slightly decreasing their time till starvation

Environmental And Evolutionary Biology (7 decks)

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