Exam Flashcards
If a female bird prefers males who are heavily red coloured, why do we still see males who are pink or orangish in colour?
This is because individual variation creates a buffer against selection in changing environments. In a particular environment, it could be best for a female to mate with a slightly pink male. This variation provides raw material for selection which can be very important when species are threatened by climate change or introduced species. This is because those factors can cause changes to occur very quickly in their environment and therefore populations with many individual phenotypes have a better chance of coping with these changes. This is because some individuals will get mates and be able to reproduce.
What is the niche variation hypothesis?
This hypothesis states that if a niche is incredibly variable, then that population should also be variable as they can exploit the difference niches. If a niche is narrow, then there shouldn’t be as much variation in the population.
Describe what is meant by the following four situations:
A) Genetic variation (no plasticity)
B) Behavioural plasticity (no genetic variation)
C) Genetic variation & plasticity (no genetic variation IN the plasticity)
D) Genetic Variation, plasticity and genetic variation in the plasticity
A) There is variation between individuals but no plasticity within individuals - as the environment changes, each individual will have the same response (regardless of size of response, it will be the SAME response)
B) There is behavioural plasticity but no genetic variation - each individual has the same genotype but they are plastic in their responses (how much food they consume, etc)
C) There is both genetic variation and plasticity, but their responses are consistent to the changes in the environment (one individual will always have a higher response and one will always have a lower response - regardless of environmental changes)
D) There is also genetic variation in plasticity - this means some individuals behaviour can change a lot when the environment changes and some may not change much at all
What is animal personality?
Consistent between-individual differences in behaviour across time and/or contexts
How is animal personality measured?
You measure an animal twice (or more) in a particular assay and see if there is a correlation in their performance in those two tests - tests could be the same thing (new toy twice etc) or could be between contexts (how does it perform in feeding test versus sociality test?)
What are the five axes in behavioural variation?
Boldness, aggressiveness, neophobia, exploratory behaviour and sociability
What is a behavioural syndrome?
A suite of correlated behaviours expressed either within a behavioural context or across different contexts
What is physical cognition?
The ability of an animal to take in information, process, retain and act on it: e.g. tool use in crows
What is spatial cognition?
The ability of an animal to remember where it is and where it wants to be (using landmarks, for example)
What is social cognition?
The ability of an animal to behave as though it can interpret the knowledge of another individual
What is the social intelligence hypothesis?
That complex cognition and enlarged brains evolved in response to challenges associated with social complexity
What are the five main reasons for biodiversity loss?
Loss of habitat, overexploitation, introduced species, pollution and global climate change
What happens to populations when they become rare?
COMPLETE
What is fitness?
The quantitative representation of an individual’s reproductive success
What happens with fitness in small populations?
Animals in small populations do not come across each other in the same way as higher density populations and thus genetic drift randomly fluctuates the allele frequencies in a population. This has greater effects in smaller populations as there is greater chance of alleles being lost entirely or fixed and this decreases the genetic diversity of a population.
