Lecture 38

Question 1

What is behavioral ecology of animals?

Answer 1

The science of studying animal behavior and how it is controlled by the (development, evolution, survival, and reproductive success )of a specific species

Question 2

Cranes fly, every x, thousands of kilometers from grounds in y and a to further nesting grounds.
They stop periodically to rest and feed, and they call as they fly

Answer 2

Cranes fly every spring, 100’s of kilos from wintering grounds in North Africa and North America to further nesting grounds.
They stop periodically to rest and feed, and they call as they fly

Question 3

What is behavior ecology used for?

Answer 3

It is essential to solving critical problems from conservation of endangered species to controlling the emergence of infectious diseases

Question 4

What are mechanistic questions?
What about survival value q’s?
And what are both of these questions grounded on?

Answer 4

Mechanistic q’s can be answered by describing how an animal is biologically organized and equipped to carry out behavior (biologically, anatomically, etc)
Survival value q’s describe how the behavior of animal helps it (exploits resources, avoid predators, reproduce AKA WHY)
Both q’s are grounded on the fact that behavior, in relation to environmental stimuli has, at the very least, a partial Genetic basis

Question 5

Describe an experiment with snakes that show that behavior has a genetic basis

Answer 5

Inland snakes which are aquatic ear frogs and fish, while the coastal snakes live on land and east slugs.
If the 2 populations are cross-bred, the hybrid will eat slugs, while the inland will not.
This is due to coastal snakes possessing odor receptors on the roof of the mouth, they use tongue flicks to recognize prey and eat slugs.

Question 6

Describe experimenr on black cap bird to show inheritance of behavior

Answer 6

This bird flies at night, using its compass which they can use by looking at the stars.
One population set always flies SW, other SE.
They are put in a cage (stars exposed on top) with paper and their legs inked to record their motion.
The hybrid flies in between, somewhat South

Question 7

Give an eg of a study by humans to show some behavior is inherited. (Genetic)

Answer 7

Twins that are separated at birth raised under different environmental conditions have been shown to have similar food preferences and activity patterns

Question 8

What is fixed action patterns?

What dl investigators think about FAP now?

Answer 8

Behaviors that are stereotyped, or are performed the SAME WAY EVERY TIME
Eg; touch hot surface, move hand away
Baby smiling every time they are exposed tow a face sized mask
Investigators beleive that there are many behaviors, who were THOUGHT to be FAP, can actually develop after practice

Question 9

How is chick pecking a learning phenomenon?

Answer 9

Initially at birth, the chick pecks quite randomly and has poor accuracy.
After 2 days, when it recognizes that the beak is the source of food, they peck more accurately

Question 10

What is associative learning?

Answer 10

A change in behavior that involves an association between 2 events

Question 11

What is an unconditional response?

Answer 11

A response that occurs naturally, without outside interference
Eg; birds stop eating monarch butterfly after repeatedly getting sick from eating them
Conditional is the opposite, outside interference to condition the animal to behave a certain way (dog experiment, saliva food and ringing bell)

Question 12

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 12

A paired presentation of 2 different types of stimuli AT THE SAME TIME to an animal causing them to form an association between them

Question 13

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 13

When A stimulus response connection is strengthened (higher level of conditioning, more brain activity)
(Give an animal an award, such as food or affection when teaching a trick)
Reward is not necessarily immediate

Question 14

Give an eg of an experiment of operant conditioning?

Answer 14

Skinner experiment with caged rats
Every time the rat presses the lever in cage, a cube of sugar is given
After a while, when the rat wants sugar, they press the lever

Question 15

Describe the raggiana bird of paradise

Answer 15

The raggiana bird of paradise is dimorphic
Males are larger than females and have beautiful orange fluke plumes
The males gather and they begin to call. When females join them, the males raise their orange plumes, shake their wings, and hop from side to side while continuing to call.
Then they stop and lean forward to show off the beautiful feathers

Question 16

Why do the females prefer males thst have longer orange plumes?

Answer 16

For communication, also, normally males with longer tails tend to be parasite free, although even if fake orange plum is attached and male is parasitic, the female gets tricked.
This is sexual selection as an adaptive behavior

Question 17

Give eg of animals that use auditory communication as a form of animal communication

Answer 17

Bats. They find their way in dark caves by using a series of sound pillows to listen for the echoes and judge if they are close to a wall or prey
Moths also hav ethe ability to detect them and will undergo invasive procedures to prevent themselves from being caught.
This is an effective and fast form of communication
Can be modified by loudness, pattern,duration, and repetition.

Question 18

Explain chemical communication and give an example

Answer 18

A form of communication using pheromones (chemical signals used to pass signals between members of the same species)
Female moths secrete pheromones from special abdominal glands, which are detected by receptors of male moth by their antenna.
The antenna is Extremely sensitive, so that only female moth of SAME SPECIES can be detected

Question 19

What is visual communication and give eg

Answer 19

Visual signals used by species to commmunicste (mostly those that are active during the day)
Plumage of a male of raggiana

Question 20

What is tactile communication?

Answer 20

Communication when one animal touched another
Eg; gull child peck the parents beak to induce the parent to feed them
Bees do the waggle dance to indicate the source of food using sounds and visual communications

Question 21

How do bees communicate?

Answer 21

Using waggle dance.
Bees have 2 compasses,
1 to locate sun when outside
Other when inside hive using gravity.
Bees outside go outside and locate the food in comparison to the sun, dance (and sing)at an angle to the sun (food sun angle) then they dance (the longer they dance the father away it is from food)
(Outside 2 communications Auditory and visual)
Inside the hive, they do the waggle dance also but use the compass of GRAVITY (TACTILE, Visual, and auditory)