Lecture 10 Flashcards
What is behavioural variation likely underpinned by?
Genetic variation (So behavioural variation usually indicates that there will also be genetic variation)
(This is why generally, conservation biologists wish to maintain behavioural diversity in wild populations)
What is the problem if a population all behaves the same?
Because it likely means that there is very little genetic variation which means that they won’t be able to respond to changes and therefore they won’t be able to evolved
What does behavioural variation impact?
Effect population size, a key determinant of viability (so no. Of reproductive individuals in a population)
What is behavioural diversity in wild populations degraded by?
. Habitat fragmentation
. Pollution
. Over harvesting
. Human presence in wilderness areas
How does habitat fragmentation degrade behavioural diversity?
It restricts ability to migrate creating inbreeding and reduces genetic diversity. Fast exploring personality often linked to dispersal ability. Fragmentation can produce a behavioural skew within the population
How does pollution degrade behavioural diversity and what is it especially an issue in?
It is especially an issue in fish, it is a big issue for mating as well as other things. They can interact with behavioural type and fish with different behavioural types will respond to pollution differently. So, it will change the composition of behavioural type
How does overharvesting degrade behavioural diversity? Give an example
In particular bolder and more active individuals often grow at a faster rate (bigger) and take more risks during harvesting.
E.g. at the fish net for leading to preferential capture and behavioural skew and variation m. So the bold ones will come up to the net and they will get caught whereas the shy ones won’t
How does human presence degrade behaviour diversity?
In wilderness areas: often shy individuals become stressed and become disadvantaged relative to bold individuals
Captive bred animals are often behaviourally distinct from wild animals. How? What does this contribute to?
Usually more shy, biker and more exploratory. This may contribute to the low success of reintroductions. So, often the animals that do well in zoos do not do well in nature so when you release them they will do poorly
Give an example of where behavioural diversity has been important in reintroduction
Dominant and aggressive captive brown trout grow faster when reintroduced to the wild but smaller fish are more mobile and can exploit fast flowing habitats. So in some micro habitats for the brown trout the aggressive individuals will do well and the small and less aggressive individuals will do well in different microhabitats. So, in the long term for the population to survive then you probably need a mixture
What is personality research is contributing to? how does it do this?
Predicting invasion likelihood of potentially invasive species.
Natural history traits associated with high boldness, aggression and exploration may be important.
So, you can look at correlations between personality traits and things such as natural history traits such as specialisations that determine invasion likelihood.
Sexual selection is a big part of conservation as well, why do conservations managers really need to know whether it is happening in the animals that they are working on?
It can impact the success of introductions
How is dimorphism linked to introduction?
Dimorphism is associated with a low success of introduction/ they have a low chance of establishing
Why do they think that dimorphism is associated with a low success of introduction?
They think this is because there is high sexual selection they tend to be more flashy and so they get picked off by predators
What is ‘turn over rate’?
Is when an organism goes extinct locally, but it migrated back and establishes itself
