Chapter 51: Animal Behavior

Question 1

behavior

Answer 1

sum of all of an organism’s responses to stimuli

Question 2

phenotype

Answer 2

trait with a genetic component; can be acted upon by natural selection if there is genetic variation

Question 3

ethology

Answer 3

study of animal behavior in natural environments

Question 4

proximate causation

Answer 4

what stimulus leads to the response; short term

Question 5

ultimate causation

Answer 5

what the evolutionary history is of the trait; long term

Question 6

taxis

Answer 6

behavior of moving toward or away from a stimulus

Question 7

fixed action patterns

Answer 7

some trigger leads to a behavior that must be carried to completion

Question 8

communication signal

Answer 8

one animals signal leads to another’s response

Question 9

pheromone

Answer 9

chemical communication between animals

Question 10

innate behavior

Answer 10

traits that are fixed by genotype and development

Question 11

learning

Answer 11

modifying behavior based upon experience

Question 12

habituation

Answer 12

like sensory adaptation; stop responding to stimulus that requires no response

Question 13

imprinting

Answer 13

bonding; many birds ‘learn’ who their mother is during a brief period after birth

Question 14

associative learning

Answer 14

associated one stimulus with another

Question 15

classical conditioning

Answer 15

arbitrary stimulus leads to certain response

Question 16

operant conditioning

Answer 16

trial-and-error learning

Question 17

spatial learning

Answer 17

maintaining an internal ‘map’

Question 18

cognition

Answer 18

reasoning, awareness

Question 19

problem-solving

Answer 19

requires being able to see solutions past obstacles

Question 20

cross-fostering studies

Answer 20

offspring of one species raised by another

Question 21

twin studies

Answer 21

look at identical twins placed with different foster families; useful for demonstrating effects of environment on identical genotypes

Question 22

behavioral variation

Answer 22

genetic variation in a population can lead to behavioral variation; natural selection can act on them

Question 23

evolutionary effects on behavior

Answer 23

genes that lead to traits that lower chances of survival or reproduction are removed from populations

Question 24

optimal foraging

Answer 24

maximize benefit and minimize cost of foraging

Question 25

monogamous

Answer 25

long term pair bonding

Question 26

polygamous

Answer 26

multiple, long term pair bonding

Question 27

polygyny

Answer 27

one male, many females

Question 28

polyandry

Answer 28

one female, many males

Question 29

promiscuous

Answer 29

no pair-bonding

Question 30

mating behaviors

Answer 30

related to the needs of offspring/ parental roles

Question 31

certainty of paternity

Answer 31

parental care related to; males aren’t aware of certainty of paternity, selection has favored males with behaviors that increase likelihood that their energy is spent on their own offspring

Question 32

sexual selection

Answer 32

result of differential mating success when there is competition for males; leads to sexual dimorphism in traits that might not be favored by natural selection

Question 33

sexual dimorphism

Answer 33

difference in male and female characteristics

Question 34

runaway selection

Answer 34

positive feedback on traits that are favored by females

Question 35

agonistic interactions

Answer 35

males physically compete for females; reduces variation among males

Question 36

frequency dependent

Answer 36

favored phenotype frequency dependent changes over time; mathematics game theory deals with this

Question 37

altruism

Answer 37

doing something that lowers your own fitness but increases someone else’s

Question 38

inclusive fitness

Answer 38

fitness (representation of your genes in the next generation) depends on your reproduction and that of your close relatives

Question 39

Hamilton’s rule

Answer 39

rB>C; cost/benefit analysis of altruistic act where r is the coefficient of relatedness

Question 40

coefficient of relatedness

Answer 40

average number of genes shared by the altruist and the recipient