Chapter 42 Flashcards
What does ethology focus on
Specific genetic and physiological mechanisms of behavior
What is the definition of behavior
The observable response of organisms to internal or external stimuli
What is an example of a proximate cause?
Change in day length
What is an example of an ultimate cause?
Effect on reproductive success
what is the definition of fitness
Reproductive success
In innate behavior, what does the releaser do?
Initiates behavior
How does egg rolling response in geese affect fitness and why?
Improves fitness because it increases survival of young
Habituation results in what
Organism ignoring repeated stimulus
Habituation is a form of what type of learning
nonassociative learning. – Decrease in response to stimulus due to repetition.
What is the definition of associative learning.
Association develops between stimulus and response.
What are the two types of associative learning?
Classical and Operant Conditioning
Define classical conditioning
An involuntary response becomes associated positively or negatively with a stimulus that did not originally elicit the response
Name an example of classical conditioning
Pavlov’s dogs.
What is operant conditioning also known as
Trial and error learning
In operant conditioning, an animal’s behavior is _______
reinforced by a consequence
What is the critical period in animals
A time when animals develop species-specific patterns of behavior.
How is imprinting a combination of innate and environmental behavior
Innate ability to imprint, environmental stimulus that is imprinted. Such as a mother goose or a human.
In what organisms is chemical communication common in?
Canines, felines and social insects.
At what times of day does sound carry the farthest?
At dawn and dusk.
Why are female birds less likely to use auditory communication to attract males
Because sound can attract predators.
At what elevation does sounds travel best?
Farther away from the ground.
In the waggle dance performed by a bee, what does the angle of the waggle to the vertical orientation of the honeycomb correspond with?
The angle of the food source from the sun.
how does living in groups reduce predation
Increased vigilance and protection in numbers.
What is the many eyes hypothesis
Individuals in groups spend less time looking for predators and can increase feeding time.
What is the selfish herd hypothesis
Each individual is less likely to be eaten when in larger groups.
payoff is the ____
Amount of energy gained by eating minus amount of energy spent catching prey.
Groups increase in size past optimal pay off until ____
they near pay off for individuals, there is no point in joining group.
A territory is_____
fixed area in which an individual excludes other members of the species.
What is the primary benefit of having a territory
Exclusive access to a resource.
What predicts territory size
The optimality theory. Maximize benefits and reduce costs.
In the game theory, what role do hawks play
Always fight to win, but risk energy.
In the game theory, what do ‘doves’ do
Display but retreat before injury.
How is a stable equilibrium met in hawk/dove game
When there is a mixture of both in a population.
Hawk behavior increases as ____
payoff increases.
altruism is what type of behavior
behavior that benefits others at a cost to self.
Kin selection is
acts of self sacrifice that promote the spread of an organism’s genes.
What is the coefficient of relatedness
Probability that any two individuals will share a copy of a particular gene is ‘r’
What is inclusive fitness
Designates the total number of copies of genes passed on through relatives or offspring.
Kin selection results in
Lowered individual’s fitness but enhances reproductive success of relatives.
What is hamilton’s rule
Coefficient of relatedness x Benefit to recipient is greater than the cost incurred by donor.
What is the most extreme form of altruism
Sterile castes in social insects.
What is eusociality
When workers(females) help queen raise offspring.
What is haplodiploidy.
Females are diploid, males are haploid. So females are more related to their sisters than their own offspring.
What is the only known eusocial mammal
Naked mole rats.
What is fisher’s principle
Natural selection favors production of the rarer sex so that the sex ration is balanced.
What is the more common mating system
Promiscuity.
What is polygyny
One male with a harem of females.
Polyandry is
One female mating with several males.
In monogamy males and females are generally
are generally similar in body size and appearance.
What is the mate guarding hypothesis
Males stay with a female to protect her from being fertilized by others.
Mate assistance hypothesis is the____
belief that males remain with females to help them rear offspring
What percentage of birds have both sexes contributing as parents?
70%
Polygyny is associated with what type of parental care
Uniparental care of young.
What is resource based polygyny
Patchy distribution of resource and female visits of resource.
What is the harem mating structure
Females naturally congregate and male controls area.
What is communal courting.
Males display in a lek, females mate after display.
How common is polyandry
Rare.
Name three examples of polyandry
Golden orb weaver, spotted sandpiper, pipefish.
