Quiz 1 Flashcards
A technique in which the observer records an individual’s current activity at a preselected moment in time.
Instantaneous sampling
An individual whose niche is substantially narrower than its population’s niche
Individual specialist
Employed to explain the HOW something works or how it developed
Proximate questions (causal / developmental)
A patch where the most preferred cue is present but the habitat quality is low (can become a population sink)
Ecological trap
Movement of animals over a large distance to find better conditions in a given season
Migration
Measures the proportion of variance in a trait attributable to genetic variance
Heritability analysis
Female birds place their eggs in the nest of other individuals
Brood parsitism
The observable properties of an organism
Phenotype
Present at birth and do not require learning; results from the nervous system.
Innate behaviors
A way of measuring heritability by examining the role of environment variance
Parent-offspring regression
The application of animal behavior to solve wildlife conservation problems.
Conservation behavior
The sociobiological notion that genes are the units upon which natural selection acts
“Selfish gene” approach
The process by which population density has an effect on the per capita rate of population change.
Density dependence
Any change in genetic structure
Mutation
Management plans are modified based on the results of well-designed experiments that collect data on factors or variables that are demonstrably important
Active adaptive management
Based on sex allocation theory; in species where male quality is essential for mating, females in good body condition can allocate more energy into producing males.
Sex ratio manipulation
Individuals that are dominant occupy the highest-quality patches first, then as the resources become scarcer, dominant individuals force subordinate to occupy patches of lower quality
Ideal despotic distribution
Particularly suitable for studying small-spatial-scale decisions, whereas translocation experiments are appropriate for larger spatial scale decision
Playback experiments
The tendency for individuals to move towards a predator to gain various types of information
Predator inspection
Two copies of an allele are necessary for the expression of the trait
Recessive
If there is high winter mortality because of starvation or hypothermia, the population entering the breeding season will be smaller than the summer carrying capacity, can lead to negative relationship between abundance and habitat quality
Winter-regulated population
Provide a way to investigate the responses that emerge from various decisions individuals make in response to the environmental variability
Individual-based models (IBMs)
A gene variant; one of two or more alternative forms of a gene.
Allele
Grew out of ethology - researchers examine the ecological bases of animal behavior focusing on the behavior’s cost and benefits
Behavioral ecology
Instantaneous sampling done on groups of individuals
Scan sampling
The response of an organism to stimulus; whenever an organism is engaged in an activity - voluntary or involuntary
Behavior
The “rules” that animals follow
Behavioral mechanisms
Biologists use historical data or data from uncontrolled experiments to come up with “best guess” management.
Passive adaptive mangement
A patch where habitat quality is high but the preferred cues are absent or the less preferred cue is present.
Undervalued resource
An animal is captured in one location, marked, and moved to another location; the time is takes to get back to the origin is measured.
Temporary translocation
A change in the frequencies of alleles of a population over time.
Evolution
The movement between two successive breeding areas or social groups
Breeding dispersal
Occurs when an animal learns NOT to respond to some stimulus
Habituation
Individual’s have two copies of each gene, such genes remain distinct entities and they segregate fairly during the formation of eggs or sperm
Mendel’s 1st law
The study of animal behavior in natural environments, seeking to determine the proximate and ultimate bases of behavior
Ethology
A measure of the magnitude of an effect (the importance of a particular relationship)
Effect size
Any sampling method in which all occurrences of a specified inter(action) of an individual or specified group are recorded during each sample period.
Focal animal sampling
Such records are the result of unconscious sampling decisions, often with the observer recording “as much as he can” or whatever is most readily observed
Ad libitum sampling
The use of behavioral assays to identify toxic chemicals
Ethotoxicology
The focus of observation is an interaction sequence rather than a particular individual.
Sequence sampling
An instructive behavioral reflex; performed perfectly the first time and generally run through to completion.
Fixed reaction pattern (FAP)
Combines the results of previously published studies to provide an overall effect size of a particular treatment
Meta-analysis
Mating between relatives; higher risk of retaining harmful alleles
Inbreeding
When pairs of chromosomes line up during cell division, sections of one may “cross over” and swap positions with sections of the other.
Genetic recombination
Allows for fast and more accurate estimates of habitat quality, based on the performance of other individuals of the same or different species
Public information
Which genes the individual possesses
Genotype
If there is little winter mortality, population abundance will be higher than the carrying capacity the following breeding season, generating a surplus of individuals that may not be able to reproduce because of lack of territory
Summer-regulated population
Predicts a proportional distribution of individuals between patches
Ideal Free Distribution (IFD)
Individuals are attracted to members of other species
Heterospecific attraction
More than one gene is responsible for the expression of some behavior
Polygenic
Offspring remain at their natal area and share the home range or territory with their parents
Natal philopatry
The distance from which a particular landscape element can be perceived
Perceptual range
Swimming together in a group
Shoaling
The change in an individual’s reproductive success associated with what behavior the individual displays
Fitness
The movement between the natal area or social group and the area or social group where breeding takes place.
Natal dispersal
Entails visiting several areas, revisiting some, and then choosing the areas judged to be the highest quality
Comparison
The general phenomenon whereby an animal’s experience in its natal habitat induces a preference for a post-dispersal habitat with similar qualities
Natal habitat preference induction (NHPI)
Originally developed for studying spontaneous behavior in children; samples whether a behavior occurs at least once or not at all.
One-zero sampling
The quality of the cue in the ecological trap is enhanced over the source habitat; more animals will be likely to setting in the trap than the source.
Severe trap
A common measure of effect size; the larger it is, the stronger the effect
Correlation coefficient (r)
Found in a variety of reptiles; a difference in temperature influences the sex of the offspring.
Temperature-dependent sex determination
The extent to which a combination of landscape elements enhances or limits the movement between habitat patches
Functional connectivity
The process of humans choosing certain varieties of an organism over others by implementing breeding programs that favor one variety over another
Artificial selection
The external stimulus the triggers the FAP motor response.
Sign stimulus
Assuming that fitness decreases with population density, this model allows us to infer empirically patterns of population regulation based on density estimates between habitats that are qualitatively and/or quantitatively different and adjacent.
Isodar model
A way to measure effect size when comparing the responses of two treatments or of two groups
d-score
Occurs through everyday activities without an obvious, immediate reward.
Latent learning
hypotheses about evolution that are created using morphological, behavioral, and/or molecular traits
Phylogenies
Animals arrive at a location, decide whether to accept or reject it as a place to live, and in the even that they reject it, continue their search
Sequential search
Occurs when variations of a trait that best suit an individual to its environment, and are heritable, increase in frequency over evolutionary time.
Natural selection
Traits associated with the highest relative fitness in a given environment
Adaptations
A means of measuring heritability by finding a selection differential
Truncation selection experiment
Movement of animals over a small to medium distance to establish home ranges
Dispersal
Employed to explain WHY we see the diversity of behavior
Ultimate questions (evolutionary/current adaptive utility)
Made after a cue that was added makes both source and ecological trap look the same; animals are expected to settle equally in both habitats
Equal-preference trap
The formal study of non-human behavior
Animal behavior
The application of scientific principles to conserve and manage wildlife populations.
Wildlife management
Individuals are attracted to conspecifics and elect to settling in areas near them
Conspecific attraction
A single copy of the allele is all that is necessary for that trait to be expressed
Dominant
Occurs when some mental connection occurs following the presentation of stimuli
Associative learning
Combines principles of ecology, sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and other theoretically based disciplines to the maintenance of biodiversity.
Conservation biology
