lecture 21

Question 1

3 determinants of dominance

Answer 1

earned, association, birthright

Question 2

Benefits of dominance

Answer 2

enhanced reproductive success, increased access to food

Question 3

Elephant seals-benefits of dominance study

Answer 3

dominant males are able to produce much more offspring than females; other subordinate males may not be getting any matings at all

Question 4

Territoriality

Answer 4

behavior where an individual defends a particular area that is used for feeding, mating, and rearing young

Question 5

Costs and benefits of territoriality

Answer 5

Benefits: longer-lasting food supply, increased access to mates, greater opportunity to rear offspring
Costs: time and energy; may miss reproductive opportunity while defending a territory; you want to maximize the benefit/cost ratio

Question 6

Altruism

Answer 6

an individual acts in a way that decreases its own offspring production while increasing the fitness of another

Question 7

Hamilton’s inequality

Answer 7

rB>C

r: measure of genetic similarity

Question 8

Inclusive fitness

Answer 8

sum total of direct and indirect fitness (effect of one’s behaviors on the increased reproduction of relatives who share some of your genes)

Question 9

Alarm calling in Belding’s ground squirrels

Answer 9

found that one year old and adult females call the most; males don’t tend to call; females only tend to call when near to close relatives such as daughter, granddaughter, mother, or sister- call for those who share highest percentage of your genes in order to maximize inclusive fitness by increasing indirect fitness

Question 10

Cooperative courtship in wild turkeys- How closely related do they have to be to be beneficial for subordinate males?

Answer 10

male turkeys form associations to increase overall inclusive fitness; if males on their own can produce 2 offspring; dominant males with a subordinate can produce 6 and subordinates can produce 1; using rb>c, solve for r- c/b= 1/4=.25

Question 11

Relatedness in Hymenopterans

Answer 11

Queen is related to male and female offspring by .5; workers related to workers by .75; workers related to brothers by .25; workers should invest more in female brood because share more genes, while queen wants to invest equally because she shares equal amount with male and female offspring

Question 12

Resource allocation in Hymenopterans

Answer 12

conflict between the 1:1 allocation sex ratio for males and females wanted by the queen and the 3:1 ratio desired by the workers who share 75% of genes with female offspring but only 25% with male

Question 13

Resource allocation-stuffing behavior

Answer 13

initial stuffing occurred in close temporal proximity to when the foragers returned which prevented male offspring from consuming foraged items which were instead distributed among the queen, workers, and developing brood