Ethology Flashcards
2 Cross-reared gallah instinctual behaviors
Food begging
Alram calls
3 behaviors cross-reared gallahs learned from cockatoos
Contact calls
Food preferences
Slow, sweeping wing beats
3 instincts
Sign stimuli
Fixed action pattern
Innate releasing mechanism
Example of a sign stimuli
Gravid female fish sees red dot on male and initiates courtship dance
Fixed action pattern
Sign stimuli activate patterns that continue to conclusion regardless of external stimuli
- Goose tapping egg on course even if its taken away
Innate Releasing mechanism
System that responds to a stimulus to produce a fixed action pattern
3 examples of IRM
Movement pattern of birds determines fear response in geese
Cuckoos lay eggs in reed warbler nest and chick pushes other eggs out
Fish trick birds to feed them
5 IRMs in babies
Suckling Grasping Rooting Morrow Swimming-- up to 6 months
Codebreaking
Activation of an FAP by another animal
- Beetle getting food from ant
Explain sexual cannibalism in preying mantis
Cut inhibitory connections cause subesophogeal ganglion to send excitatory messages downstream. Causes animal to do several competing activities at once
Where is the internal pacemaker located in crickets
Optic lobe–> severing it breaks down circadian rhythm
Suprachiasmatic nucleus
Mammalian internal clock located in hypothalamus
What effects both central and peripheral clocks
Direct light
How does the central clock control circadian rhythms
Humoral and neuronal signals
Chronobiotic property
Exogenous melatonin from pineal gland is excreted at night. Effects the eye and other entrainment pathways
Progression of foraging patterns according to lunar cycle
Continuous day/night foraging–> supply is short
Continuous nocturnal foraging
Daylight foraging–> food is plentiful
Infanticide patterns with lunar cycle
Less infanticide with more light/dark cycles since mating
Anolis Carolineus
Females are sexually receptive every 10-14 days, mediated by prostaglandin release
What are the daily, monthly and yearly cycles
Daily circadian
Monthly lunar
Yearly hibernation
Great migration
Rift Valley–> Salinity and water changes in the soil make the grass dry and salty
Blue and coal tits
Blue live in oak trees and coals live in pine
Coal tits are slower at foraging for food
Poplar aphids
Position of gall and type of leaf effect amount of young. Late coming galls are further from the plant base and get less sap, so less young
When will birds tolerate or chase away competitors
Wagtails tolerate them when food is plentiful to help them look for predators
Chase them away when food supply is short
Cost of territory holding
Chasing sattelites away is costly in energy so it has to be worth it
Save 600 calories/hr resting over foraging for food
Prior resident effect
Resident will always beat intruder. Familiarity with territory is important
3 examples of Dispersal
Vervet monkeys dissapear more when moving around
Male ground squirrels leave to avoid inbreeding
Male lions leave to avoid mate competition
Migration
Response to periodic changes in environment and shifting needs of lifestyle
2 Reasons to migrate
Maximize exploitation of seasonal bursts of food
Proven reproductive sights
3 options in surviving winter
Stay and survive on foraging and food stores
Hibernate
Migrate
3 benefits of staying for winter
Retain occupancy of good territory
Avoid energy costs of migration
Avoid exposure to new environmental/predatory risks of new territory
4 costs of staying for winter
Energy expenditure of retaining territory and risk of injury
Food/fat stores might not last all winter
Extreme weather may not be survivable
Reduced reproduction opportunity
Deer mice breeding
Short life span so must mate as soon as cost of lactation can be met
North– peak in summer
South– peak in winter
East coast– double peak in spring/fall
Lactational barrier
Not enough food to cover the high energy cost of lactation
2 examples of flight migrations
Arctic turin to antarctica
Multigenerational monarch butterfly migration to mexico
Which direction do most migrations go and why
South–> North
The most lands, plants and chlorophyll are north of the tropic of cancer
2 examples of migration for reproductive purposes and why
Green turtles–> return to natal island because of known reproductive success
Grey whales–> have calves in south because babies dont have blubber and wont survive the north
Piloting
Move to intermediate point where start point can be seen. Move to final point where intermediate point can be seen. Use topology and features to navigate
2 examples of piloting
Dolphins use sea ridges
Cranes use thermals to rise and glide
2 animals that use an internal compass
Eels– drop to sea bed with the tides to conserve energy
Salmon– return to natal river using the flavor of water
Dead reckoning
Combination of clock and compass. Use time and distance to calculate vectors
Celestial compass
Follow the sun by day and stars at night. Need to correct for rotation and lattitude
Snell’s Window
Field of view from underwater looking up. Light is refracted into a cone
5 sources of information from sensory organs
Mechanoreceptors-- wind, currents Chemoreceptors Thermoreception Electrolocation Magnetic forces and gravitational fields
Crypsis
Avoid observation and detection by other animals
4 types if crypsis
Camoflauge
Mimicry
Subterranean lifestyle
Nocturnality
Lygaid bug
Opposite of camoflauge, they display bright colours to ward off predators. Bright ones get eaten less
Batesian Mimicry
Harmless species imitate warnign signals of harmful species. Mimic toxicity colours without producing toxins
Plover predator defense
Move away from nest and pretend to have a broken wing so predator will go for them and not the nest
Vervet monkey warning calls
Vary for different predators.
Eagle– stay in tree core
Leapord– go on limb
Snake– clump together
Unprofitability in hares
Show the fox its white belly so the fox knows he has been seen and to not bother
Stotting
Gazelles leap up and down when they see a predator to show their strength. Predator wont go after the ones jumping the highest
Distance dependant defence hierarchy
Constant vigilance Removal from proximity when predator detected Physical escape strategies Defensive aggression Feigning: play dead
Protean behavior
Disguise your form
