lecture 25

Question 1

Honesty: communication in leaf-cutting ants

Answer 1

ants recruit other cutters and minims (bacteria) that protect against parasitoids and help maintain the ants’ pheromone trails

Question 2

Honesty: honeybees-waggle dance

Answer 2

signaler bee gives the dance which is honest communication towards the receiver worker bees, which can then find the food source

Question 3

Honesty: Toad calls

Answer 3

the frequency of toad call is a function of body size; small males can’t produce the call of larger males, which are preferred by females, so this is example of honest communication due to signals that can’t be faked; small toads were also more likely to be attacked, especially when they gave high pitched call (typical of small toads)

Question 4

Side-blotched lizards: expensive honest signals

Answer 4

honest signals that improve mating success are energetically costly; after running on a treadmill, males are not able to maintain their threat posture as long and generate fewer pushup displays

Question 5

Deceit

Answer 5

the sender receives a fitness benefit while the receiver’s fitness is reduced; most likely to occur when the interests of the signaler and receiver diverge

Question 6

Conditions under which deception occurs

Answer 6

1. Receiver registers something (Y) from a signaler
2. The receiver responds in a way that benefits the signaler and is appropriate if Y means X and 3. It is not true that X is the case (receiver misinterprets signal as being something that normally benefits them, when really it is not what it thinks it is)

Question 7

Deceit: Cuckoos

Answer 7

the calls of a cuckoo chick closely resemble those of an entire brood of reed warblers, so the begging intensity is similar to the intensity of the entire nest of other hatchlings; one cuckoo chick is able to get warbler to parents to feed it as much or more than the entire brood of warbler chicks

Question 8

2 constraints on deception

Answer 8

1. Game theory: evolutionary arms race between deceitful signalers and discriminating receivers
2. Signals as handicaps: receivers only attend to costly signals, which can only be produced by honest senders

Question 9

Sage Grouse: costly displays

Answer 9

the birds that do the most struts, which are done to attract mates, are burning the most calories; more energy expenditure required to secure more matings

Question 10

House finches-signaling with carotenoids

Answer 10

males with brighter colors are preferred by females; carotenoids give birds color and can’t be synthesized, so they are honest indicator; brightness is correlated with foraging ability and sexy sons

Question 11

Forced vs. unforced honesty

Answer 11

forced honesty when there is the potential for conflict and when there is not overlap of reproductive interests between those in conflict (male deer fight over access to females, and strength is their forced honesty); unforced honesty when there is a complete overlap of reproductive interests (ground squirrels- costly calls are made to protect those who share their genes)

Question 12

Clever Hans

Answer 12

horse that was believed to be able to count/do math, but really was just responding to subtle cues expressed by trainer

Question 13

Insightful behavior in non-human animals

Answer 13

take animal outside of normal context and present with novel challenge to see if animal responds in clever way, which would suggest it is thinking about it’s actions; Kohler did study with monkeys by placing banana out of reach, monkey responded by stacking boxes so that it could reach banana; crow study- hung meat on string hanging from tree, crows pulled string down, stepped on it and ate meat; beaver study- placed metal barrier around base of tree and beavers made a ramp so it could go above barrier to reach the wood/chew the tree

Question 14

Tool use: Chimpanzee termite fishing

Answer 14

chimps have to find sticks that are suitable for sticking to termites; put stick down termite hole and pull it up covered with termites; must know what kinds of sticks would work

Question 15

Tool use: sponging in dolphins

Answer 15

dolphins use sea sponges to protect their nose for when they go down into the sand to dislodge flounder; evidence of cultural transmission from mother to daughter

Question 16

Tool use: new caledonian crows

Answer 16

they make an assortment of tools for retrieving food, manipulating twigs and plant stems into hooks and spears; this seems to be inherited

Question 17

Tactical deception

Answer 17

when an individual uses an honest act from their normal repertoire in a different context to mislead familiar individuals; cooperative hunters may use deceit in such a way that indicates anticipation of consequences; ex. lions: cooperative hunting, two lions in the open with an antelope move into the woods and so the antelope naturally moves away from these two lions and crawls into a ditch, where two other lions were waiting in anticipation of where they knew the antelope would go

Question 18

Communication behavior: 2 possibilities of what goes on in the mind of animals producing communication signal

Answer 18

1. there is no intent to influence behavior of others, signals are produced without conscious control and are involuntary and inflexible responses to stimuli
2. there is intent to influence the behavior of others, signals are produced with conscious control and are voluntary and flexible responses to stimuli; there are various possible levels of intentionality

Question 19

Vervet monkey alarm calls

Answer 19

They have distinct alarm calls associated with different predators, so the calls provide info on what to watch out for; they learn these calls as they age and the repertoire of calls expands

Question 20

Diana monkey alarm calls

Answer 20

have different alarm calls for their two main predators: leopards and hawk eagles; sexual dimorphism in calls

Question 21

Putty nosed monkey alarm calls

Answer 21

not only provide info on type of predator but also give info on what others should do in response to predator

Question 22

Social gerbils

Answer 22

give three distinct warning calls depending on how close the predator is; rhythmic call when far away, intense call when predator moves closer, and whistle call when startled by a close predator

Question 23

Honeybee study with various feeders scattered about

Answer 23

one of the feeders was placed on a canoe that drifted around a pond; the bees that found that feeder came back and did a waggle dance but the other workers ignored them and thought their sister was giving a mistaken call since not likely to find food source in middle of pond

Question 24

Alex the parrot

Answer 24

he could categorize colors and shapes and was also able to count

Question 25

Complex cognition: 4 branches

Answer 25

insightful behavior, causal reasoning (tool use), tactical deception, intentional communication

Question 26

Causal reasoning/tool use

Answer 26

tool use suggests that the animal makes a connection between cause and effect

Question 27

intentional communication behavior

Answer 27

branch of complex cognition dealing with the use of various signals to represent more than simple alarm, and give info on type of predator and how to react