exam 4 animal behavior

yang spring 2025

social behaviors are categorized into four types based on whether the act is b____ or c____.

beneficial, costly

in social behavior, the actor and recipient are the _____ _____.

same species

a behavior that benefits both the actor and the recipient (_____ _____)

mutual benefit

an example of c_____ _____ is when several unrelated pairs of birds lay eggs in a communal nest and all adults share parental duty.

cooperative breeding

c_____ c_____ d_____ are defined as pre-mating routines completed by multiple males, where the alpha male gets to make with the female if they are successful.

cooperative courtship dances

behavior that costs the actor but benefits the recipient (_____)

altruism

behavior that costs the actor by exploiting the recipient (_____)

selfishness

an example of selfishness is the (often size dependent) act of (_____)

cannibalism

a behavior that costs the actor to decrease the fitness of the recipient is known as (_____)

spite

intraspecific brood parasitism, like coots sneaking eggs into their neighbor’s nests as brood parasites is an example of what social behavior (altruism, spite, exploitation, selfishness)

selfishness

group defense behavior, like meerkats harrassing predators as a group, is an example of what social behavior (altruism, mutualism, mutual benefit, selfishness)

mutual benefit

four classes of social behavior (m_____ _____, s_____, a_____, s_____)

mutual benefit, selfishness, altruism, spite

three theories for the evolution of altruism (r_____, k_____ _____, g_____ _____)

reciprocity, kin selection, group selection

in evolution of altruism, _____ is the idea that altruistic behavior can be beneficial if the recipient pays back to the actor

reciprocity

reciprocity is expected in small social groups with good m_____ and r_____ interactions

memories, repeated

the idea that organisms are just vehicles for their genes; genes can promote their own propagation and will increase in frequency in the population (_____ _____)

selfish gene

genes can propagate _____, through generating offspring, or _____, through offspring generated by relatives

directly, indirectly

direct fitness + indirect fitness = _____ fitness

inclusive

_____ fitness is the reprductive success of an individual

direct

_____ fitness is increased reproductive success of relatives, made possible by an individual’s action

indirect

selection for traits (e.g. altruistic behaviors) that increases indirect fitness of an individual is known as k_____ _____

kin selection

hamilton’r rule says _____ behavior decreases an individual’s direct fitness but can increase its indirect fitness

altruistic

_____ _____ is the theory for altruism that has the most empirical support because it generates testable predictions

kin selection

social groups should be composed of _____ individuals (prediction for kin selection)

related

altruistic behavior should be biased towards _____ (prediction for kin selection)

kin

low relatedness should lead to _____ within-group conflict (prediction for kin selection)

higher

high relatedness groups should be more cooperative and consequently more ____ (prediction for kin selection)

successful

in evolution of altruism, _____ _____ explains the idea that indirect benefit gained from helping relatives outweighs the cost in direct benefit (rB > C)

kin selection

altruistic behavior without a _____ _____ (direct + indirect) to the individual is unlikely to evolve

net benefit

in evolution of altruism, _____ _____ explains the idea that benefit gained from the success of the group outweighs the cost for the altruistic individual

group selection

the _____ hypothesis proposes that females are diploids, and males are haploids that develop directly from unfertilized eggs (1)

haplodiploidy

In haplodiploidy systems, relatedness between _____ are different from diploid organisms

individuals

the _____ hypothesis proposes when an individual can be certain that future siblings will be full siblings (via parental monogamy), a new sibling increases inclusive fitness to the same extent as new an offspring (2)

monogamy

the _____ hypothesis proposes that the high level of altruism and division of labor in eusocial colonies are results of group selection (3)

superorganism

given the evolution of eusociality and the three hypothesis (haplodiploidy, monogamy, and superorganism), which hypothesis is most supported?

monogamy