Pillars of Behavioural Ecology

Question 1

Proximate Causation

Answer 1

“How” Questions

Question 2

Ultimate Causation

Answer 2

“Why” Questions

Question 3

4 questions

Answer 3

Causation: How does it work?
Ontogeny: How did it develop?
Function/Adaptative Significance: What is it for?
Phylogeny: How did it evolve?

Question 4

4 questions applied to bird song

Answer 4

How does it work? – Changes in day length make changes in bird’s hormones, affecting certain regions of the brain (HVC, RA, nXIIts, sarynx, song) which affect singing behaviour.
How does it develop? – For development, birds need to hear their parents sing. Need acoustic stimuli in a critical period of life in order to produce song.
What is it for? – Birds sing to attract mates, and repel predators.
How did it evolve? – We don’t know. Ancestors could’ve been able to sing, and it was retained in some generations. Or three different independent evolutions.

Question 5

Three Pillars

Answer 5

Levels of Analysis
Costs & Benefits, Trade-offs, Optimization
Game Theory

Question 6

Optimality

Answer 6

Minimizing Costs, Maximizing Benefits

Question 7

Profitability of Prey

Answer 7

Energy Value / Handling Time

Question 8

Species with short handling times and long search times should be…

Answer 8

Generalists (wide range of diet)

Question 9

Species with longer handling times and short search times should be…

Answer 9

Specialists (choosy)

Question 10

How can prey make themselves less profitable?

Answer 10

Increased handling time: anti-predator defenses, toxins
Increased search time: camouflage, polymorphism

Question 11

Variables in Optimality Theory

Answer 11

Decisions, Currency, Constraints

Question 12

ESS

Answer 12

Evolutionary Stable Strategy – resists invasion, is a Nash Equilibrium
No one can do better by adopting a different strategy.

Question 13

Hawk/Dove

Answer 13

Two animals want a resource (V), winner’s fitness increased by V.
Hawks: escalate and fight until injured or opponent retreats
Doves: display, retreat if opponent escalates
If they escalate, one or both are injured. Injury reduces fitness by C.

Dove is not an ESS
Hawk is an ESS if 1/2(V-C) > 0, ie. if V>C
Mixed strategies occur where V<C.

Question 14

Nash Equilibrium

Answer 14

A set of strategies, such that no player has incentive to change that strategy given what other players are doing. (A way to behave that everyone would want to adopt!)