parental care

Question 1

parental care is a strategy to improve ____ success, depending on the conditions of their _____.

animal behaviourists evaluate parental care based on ____ to the parents and offspring.

Answer 1

reproductive; evolution

costs and benefits

Question 2

parents can judge offspring by appearance or behavior.

what signals do offspring give?

Answer 2

1. signal of need hypothesis
   - signals advertise on offspring’s levels of need for care
2. signal of quality hypothesis
   - signals advertise on offspring’s quality and condition

Question 3

barn swallow chicks with redder mouths is an honest signal that they are of good __________. brightness may indicate ____. it shows that they are metabolising ____ from thier diets which is associated with enhanced ______ function.

Answer 3

condition; health; carotenoids; immune

Question 4

in low quality, unpredictable environments

in predictable, high quality environments

match.

1) chicks in poor condition begged more, and parents responded more to those in most need.

2) parents paid less attention to begging and attended more to body size and signals of quality to choose who to feed.

Answer 4

1) chicks in poor condition begged more, and parents responded more to those in most need. - in predictable, high quality environments (food is abundant, can afford based on need)

2) parents paid less attention to begging and attended more to body size and signals of quality to choose who to feed. - in low quality, unpredictable environments (food is scarce, need to be more selective)

Question 5

colored gapes not always signal ____, but also enhance _____.

Answer 5

offspring quality; visibility

Question 6

in red mason bee, daughters have higher ___ value and are cared for better. the males are fed much less because they don’t need to ___.

Answer 6

reproductive; raise offspring

Question 7

on average, sex ratio should be 1:1. but conditions can affect this ratio and reproductive value of each sex. what 2 hypotheses explain the skew in sex ratio?

Answer 7

1. local competition hypothesis
   related individuals compete for resources/mates, 1 sex is less valuable to produce
2. local enhancement hypothesis
   1 sex provides resources or enhance mating success of its relatives, then that sex is more valuable to produce

Question 8

on seychelles warblers.

in low quality environments where food is scarce, parents produce more ________ to ________.

in high quality environments where food is abundant, parents produce more ___________ due to __________.

keep __ around if can afford, and if not have ____.

Answer 8

males; reduce competition

females; enhanced offspring care

females; males

Question 9

on seychelles warblers.

females are the primary ___ sex while males are the primary ____ sex.

Answer 9

helping; dispersing

Question 10

what is the trivers-willard hypothesis?

Answer 10

mothers can adjust offspring sex ratio according to their own body condition

if male offspring has high reproductive skew, mothers in good condition will have more males and those in poor conditions will have more females

Question 11

high sibling conflicts lead to________.

Answer 11

siblicide

Question 12

obligate siblicide vs facultative siblicide

Answer 12

obligate siblicide is a fixed and essential part of the species’ survival strategy, while facultative siblicide happens only under specific conditions of resource limitation.

Question 13

nazca boobies exhibit ____ siblicide while blue-footed boobies exhibit _________ siblicide.

Answer 13

obligate; facultative

Question 14

what is reproductive insurance hypothesis?

Answer 14

additional eggs laid as insurance against failure of first egg to hatch

Question 15

additional eggs laid as insurance against failure of first egg to hatch. what hypothesis is this?

Answer 15

reproductive insurance hypothesis

Question 16

in egrets, mother birds lay 3 eggs asynchronously. the first egg has larger quantities of _____, increasing its __________.

last egg to hatch has the greatest likelihood to _______.

egrets exhibit ________ siblicide when parents permit it only when resources are ____.

Answer 16

androgen; combativeness

die

facultative; low

Question 17

what is life history trade-off?

Answer 17

parental strategies not only take into account choice within a present situation, but also must relate to reproductive potential in future.

if parent cannot survive the current batch of offspring, it will lose out all future reproductive output.

Question 18

parental strategies not only take into account choice within a present situation, but also must relate to reproductive potential in future.

if parent cannot survive the current batch of offspring, it will lose out all future reproductive output.

what is this concept called?

Answer 18

life history trade-off

Question 19

birds in north america have shorter lifespan than those in the south. apply the life history trade-off concept.

Answer 19

birds in the south have longer life span –> greater future potential reproductive success. so they will minimise risk to themselves when attacked.

birds in the north will defend their offspring more heavily than themselves as their offspring have greater future potential reproductive success.

Question 20

what is the paternity assurance hypothesis?

Answer 20

males are more likely to offer paternal care when there is higher certainty that they sired the offspring.

Question 21

which species of frog show parental care?

Answer 21

poison dart frogs

Question 22

female bats can discriminate their own young even in caves filled with them, ~4000 pups/m2. they use ___ and ___ cues.

Answer 22

olfactory; vocal

Question 23

cliff swallows can learn to accurately discriminate pairs of nestling calls faster than barn swallow can. true or false?

Answer 23

true.

Question 24

what is interspecific brood parasitism?

Answer 24

when one species lays eggs in another species’ nest

Question 25

when one species lays eggs in another species’ nest, it is called ______.

Answer 25

interspecific brood parasitism

Question 26

reed warblers will accept all eggs in their nest unless ____.

Answer 26

they see a cuckoo or its decoy nearby, then they wil reject the cuckoo egg but sometimes mistakenly reject their own egg

Question 27

what is the mafia hypothesis?

Answer 27

host will accept brood parasites’ eggs to avoid retaliation by parasitic parents

Question 28

host will accept brood parasites’ eggs to avoid retaliation by parasitic parents. what is this hypothesis called?

Answer 28

mafia hypothesis

Question 29

female prinias discriminated egg difference by ___ and not ___.

Answer 29

color; pattern

Question 30

state the gradualist shift hypothesis in parasitic cuckoos

Answer 30

interspecific brood parasitism evolved from intraspecific parasitism

Question 31

most brood parasite specialists don’t target closely related species. The target smaller, unrelated species so their larger offspring are more ikely to be fed. in this case, they are exploiting ________.

Answer 31

sensory bias

Question 32

in a study where blue tits and great tits were cross-fostered, blue tits were not successful in nests of great tits because they are ____. great tits were very successful in blue tits’ nests because they are ____.

Answer 32

smaller; larger

Question 33

interspecific brood parasitism evolved from intraspecific parasitism - is this proven?

Answer 33

no. the closest relatives of obligate nest parasites are non-parasitic