Sensory Ecology Flashcards
What is sensory ecology?
The study of how organisms acquire, signal, and respond to information about their environment to make adaptive decisions.
What is the primary source of information for most animals in sensory ecology?
Light.
How do different animals perceive the color spectrum?
Differently.
What is echolocation?
Active detection, localization, identification, and avoidance or capture of targets using echoes of emitted sound.
Which animals commonly use echolocation?
Most bats, toothed whales, porpoises, and a small number of terrestrial mammals and birds.
In what environments has echolocation evolved?
In environments where vision is of limited use.
What adaptation do many animals have in response to echolocation?
Many have tympanic ears tuned into frequencies emitted by bats that prey on them.
What is tactile communication in social animals?
Building and maintaining relationships.
Seismic signals are used by orb-web spiders, where females mistake courting males for prey unless they use distinct vibrations on the web, delaying female attack by approximately 300 seconds.
How do ants communicate chemically?
Ants use pheromones to communicate within colonies.
Scouting ants lay trails for others to follow, and scent marking occurs in mammals with specialized glands in the skin for secretion.
How do sharks and rays use electrical communication?
They use weak electrical pulses to locate prey.
Animals emit electrical pulses that bounce back and are detected by electroencephalographs. Prey counteradaptations include cuttlefish freezing response, reducing electric potential, making them difficult to detect.
