Animal Behavior Exam 2

Key terms and guiding questions for Chapters 5, 6, and 7 of Animal Behavior

Describe and understand the functions of clock mechanisms in physiology and behavior.

Clock mechanisms help regulate biological rhythms such as circadian rhythms, influencing sleep-wake cycles, hormone release, and metabolic processes, thus promoting synchronization with environmental cues.

Identify and predict cues that entrain behavioral rhythms.

These are external signals, often referred to as zeitgebers, that synchronize biological rhythms with the environment, influencing behaviors such as sleep-wake cycles, feeding, and mating.

What determines whether clock mechanisms are depends on Environmental cues not depend on Environmental cues or are partially dependent on Environmental cues?

Whether animal clock mechanisms depend on environmental cues is primarily determined by the evolutionary need for synchronization (entrainment) with the 24-hour solar day, the location of the specific tissue clock (central vs. peripheral), and the strength/predictability of external stimuli (zeitgebers). While almost all animal cells have self-sustained, innate genetic clocks that function autonomously, they are constantly tuned by external environmental factors—primarily light and temperature—to ensure behavioral alignment with the environment.

What are the components of master clocks?

Explain the organizational vs antinational functions of hormones in behavior.

Endogenous

Internal, self‑sustaining rhythms generated by the organism.

Exogenous

External cues that influence or synchronize internal clocks.

Free running cycle

The cycle of activity of an individual that is expressed in a constant environment

Circadian rhythm

A roughly 24‑hour cycle of behavior that expresses itself independent of environmental changes

Zeitgeber

An environmental cue that entrains on organism’s biological rhythm

Pacemaker

The neural or molecular oscillator that drives rhythmic output (e.g., the suprachiasmatic nucleus, SCN).

Circanannual rhythm

An annual cycle of behavior that expresses itself independently of environmental changes

Photoperiod

The number of hours of light in a 24-hour period

Acute stressors

Short-term event that can directly and rapidly affect an animal’s behavior by temporarily elevating glucocorticoid levels

Chronic stressors

Prolonged event that results in chronically elevated glucocorticoid levels, leading to negative physiological effects

How do animals balance behaviors decisions for finding food and avoiding predators? What are the basic principles of optimality in this kind of decision making?

What are the costs and benefits of camouflage?

Compare and contrast Bayesian and Mullerian Mimicry

What is the difference between active and passive social defense?

What are the basic expectations of Optimal foraging theory? Explain the marginal value theorem?

Operant conditioning

A kind of learning based on trial and error, in which an action, or operant, becomes more frequently performed if it is rewarded

Aposematic

Warning coloration in which an organism’s highly visible or vivid coloration signals to potential predators that it is distasteful or dangerous

Dilution effect

When associating in groups makes it less likely that any one individual will be depredated.

Confusion effect

Predators have difficulty targeting prey in large, moving groups.

Selfish heard hypothesis

Individuals minimize predation risk by positioning themselves near others.

Use cost benefit analysis to explain movement and migration choices

Understand and explain mechanisms of dispersal and consequences of the choice to or not to disperse.

What is ideal free distribution theory?

Explain density dependent habitat selection.

What is the evidence for individual and population leave variation in migratory behavior? How does habitat connectivity influence this?

What are the conservation concerns with habitat connectivity and migration? Does it matter if it is short or long distance migration?

How do animals navigate during migration? Does it matter where they are on their route?

What is the evenness for particular origins of migration over evolutionary time?

Optimal foraging theory

A model that predicts how an animal should behave when searching for food

Territory

An area in which individuals exhibit a readiness to defend against intruders

Migration

The round-trip movement of individuals between two relatively distant locations, typically a region where young are reared and a non-breeding location

Resource allocation

the distribution of available resources among various competing needs or projects within an ecosystem or population, influencing how individuals prioritize their survival and reproductive efforts.

Economic defensibility

The trade-off in costs versus benefits for maintaining a territory

Resource holding potential

The inherent capacity of an individual to defeat others when competing for useful resources

Payoff asymmetry

Unequal benefits for individuals occupying a territory or resource.

Sex biased dispersal

When individuals of one sex disperse farther than those of the other

Active dispersal

The one-way, permanent movement of an organism through its own ability from the place it was born to another location

Passive dispersal

When an orginism cannot move on its own from the place it was born to another location and must instead rely on forces like wind or water currents

Orient

The process of aligning movement with environmental cues (e.g., magnetic field, stars).

Navigate

The ability to determine both the location (map position) and the compass direction to a goal

Predator swamping

The movement of migratory individuals together in high densities to confuse predators or reduce the predation risk to the migratory individuals

Bottom up forces

When food and other resources influence behaviorial decisions

Top down forces

When predation risk influences behaviorial decisions