Economic decisions

Question 1

aposematism

Answer 1

toxic animals have warn ing signs so they are not preyed upon

Question 2

mimicking poisons animals colouring

Answer 2

saves energy cause they don’t actually have the toxin in them, its just colouring that protects them

Question 3

cryptic camoflauge

Answer 3

very costly bc animals are so limited to a certain space

Question 4

torpor

Answer 4

animals can bring their heart rate down at night, almost like hibernation, use circadian cycles

Question 5

seasonal rhythms

Answer 5

some animals have rhythms such as migration, hibernation

Question 6

physiological adaptions for hibernation

Answer 6

metabolism drops by 95%
reduce breathing to 1 breath every 30 mins
reduce heart beat 3-4 every min
drop care body temp- 2-4 degrees c
no food or water for 9 months

Question 7

squirrels hibernation?

Answer 7

selective evolutionary pressure so that they don’t have to find food in winter, it comes with big risks though

Question 8

hunting

Answer 8

animals have to adapt, good hunters have evolved… ie can hunt in winter

Question 9

migration

Answer 9

always living in seemingly optimal conditions

Question 10

food storage

Answer 10

essential skills animals must do to survive winters, ie spend all of fall gathering and hiding seeds

Question 11

if an animal is very good at a specific behaviour it does not mean that it is necessarily smarter than other animals

Answer 11

TRUE

Question 12

4 features of economic decision making

Answer 12

1- appetitive behaviour
2- consummatory reaction
3- aversion
4- freedom from stimulus

Question 13

appetitive behaviour

Answer 13

Ghrelin high (hormone that makes you hungry)
searching for food, triggered by internal drive, variable in form, open ended (trial and error) LEADS TO SEARCHING

Question 14

consummatory reaction

Answer 14

prey capture and feeding, stimulus is triggered, usually act of feeding or mating… ect

Question 15

aversion

Answer 15

Leptin is high (satiety hormone, inhibits hunger)
reduced internal drive
refractory phase, dont want to eat any more

Question 16

freedom from stimulus

Answer 16

rest phase, drive starting to increase again

Question 17

searching for food is triggered by

Answer 17

internal drive (ghrelin)

Question 18

foraging decsions

Answer 18

not fully driven by internal drive, there are complex cost/benefit associated with it

Question 19

cost/benefits associated with external environment

Answer 19

quality of food
quantity of food
effort to get food
risk to get food

Question 20

efficient foragers

Answer 20

NS may favour them
individuals maximise energy intake
minimise fluctuations in energy
maximise energy intake during certain periods

Question 21

decisions foragers have to make

Answer 21

what type of food to eat?
where and how long to search for food (predation vs predator avoidance)
what type of search path to use

Question 22

economics load carrying

Answer 22

more the animal carries= energetically costly
BUT more time it spends looking= costly so need to find optimal to make trip worth while take into account travel time as well

Question 23

marginal value thm

Answer 23

The marginal value theorem is an optimality model that usually describes the behavior of an optimally foraging individual in a system where resources are located in discrete patches separated by areas with no resources.

Question 24

economics of prey choice

Answer 24

the trade off bw food choice and the cost/benefit it brings

Question 25

profitability P (in prey choice)

Answer 25

P=E/h
E= energy value
h= handling time

Question 26

generalist vs specialist

Answer 26

crabs (or any organisms) that eat anything where as specialist only eats 1 type

Question 27

shore crab example

Answer 27

if crab encounters small muscle first, it should only eat it if the gain from it is greater than the gain from rejecting it and searching for bigger muscles is greater

Question 28

generalist

Answer 28

might be due to lack of bigger muscles so it costs to long to search for them, therefor eats small muscles but of encounters bi ones will eat them

Question 29

specialist

Answer 29

time to find bigger prey brings benefits

Question 30

main components of optimal foraging theory

Answer 30

1) economics of load carrying

2) economics of prey choice

Question 31

formula for optimal foraging

Answer 31

S1> E1*h2/E2-h1 if the animal has to wait more than S1 they should become a generalist

Question 32

constraints that effect optimal foraging behaviour

Answer 32

1) physiological constraints
2) motivational constraints
3) ecological constraints
4) Life history constraints

Question 33

Moose example and its constraints

Answer 33

moose = very large and needs lots of energy and also requires a lot of salt
requirements of salt and grass effect how it forages and grazes

Question 34

on a graph the optimal foraging is where…

Answer 34

all graphs intersect and the space bw them