exam 3 gpt flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering animal behavior, movement, predation, population stability, and harvest management principles from the wildlife management exam study guide.

Ethology

The study of the biological and evolutionary basis of animal behavior.

Behavioral ecology

The study of how ecological constraints influence behavior and how behavior affects population and community dynamics.

Innate behavior

Behavior influenced by inherited biological tendencies rather than acquired solely through experience.

Learned behavior

Behavior influenced by experience; actual animal behavior often blends learned and innate components.

Habitat use

The proportion of time spent in a particular habitat during a fixed period.

Habitat selection

Disproportionate use of habitat compared with its availability; it occurs at multiple spatial scales.

Habitat preference

The habitat an animal would choose if all habitats were equally available.

Habitat availability

The habitat accessible to an animal; serves as the reference against which habitat use is compared.

First-order selection

Habitat selection concerning the geographic range of a species.

Second-order selection

Habitat selection concerning the placement of an individual's home range within the broader geographic range.

Third-order selection

Habitat selection concerning specific locations or patches used within an individual's home range.

Home range

The area included in the daily, seasonal, and annual travels of an individual.

Territory

The defended portion of an animal's home range.

Territoriality

Behavior involved in claiming, signaling, and defending a territory.

Floating population

Non-territory-holding individuals that may replace established territory holders when openings arise.

Lek

A courtship-display gathering or area.

Dispersal

The movement of animals into unfamiliar locations.

Natal dispersal

Movement from the birth or hatch home range to the location where the individual first reproduces.

Breeding dispersal

Movement to a new home range between successive reproductive events.

Migration

Movement used to exploit favorable resources, often between seasonal areas.

Latitudinal migration

Movement across geographic latitude, often occurring in a north–south direction.

Elevational migration

Movement between different elevations as seasonal conditions change.

Migratory Bird Treaty Act (1918)

A major legislative protection framework established to conserve migratory birds.

Flyway System

A management framework for migratory gamebirds containing state and federal components, where each flyway possesses a council of participating states.

WHSRN

Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network; a conservation framework dedicated to protecting shorebirds and their habitats.

Courtship behavior

Often ritualized stimulus–response sequences that lead to mating with the correct species at the appropriate point in the annual cycle.

Photoperiod

The length of the daylight portion of the day, serving as a seasonal cue for reproductive readiness.

Endocrine glands

Glands responsible for hormone secretion and the regulation of physiological and behavioral activity.

Gonads

Reproductive organs (ovaries and testes) that produce gametes and sex hormones.

Gametes

Reproductive cells, such as eggs and sperm.

Habituation

A process occurring when wildlife becomes accustomed to non-natural components of its environment.

Imprinting

A special kind of lasting learning occurring during a brief, critical period of early development.

Predation

An ecological interaction where animals kill and eat other animals.

Apex predator

A predator that occupies the top trophic levels of a food web.

Mesopredator

An intermediate-level predator that can be affected or limited by apex predators.

Limiting factor

Any factor that reduces or restricts population growth or abundance.

Regulation

Negative-feedback dynamics that tend to move a population toward an equilibrium density.

Suppression

A reduction in prey abundance below what it would otherwise be, potentially holding it below carrying capacity ($K$).

Carrying capacity ($K$)

The number of individuals that an environment can sustain under modeled circumstances.

Functional response

An increase in the average number of prey eaten per predator as prey abundance increases; often levels off as predator feeding saturates.

Numerical response

An increase in the overall predator population size in response to increasing prey abundance.

Per-capita recruitment rate

The rate of new individual additions to a population per individual per unit of time, depicted by the recruitment curve.

Per-capita predation rate

Prey deaths attributable to predation per prey individual per unit of time in a plotted relationship.

Equilibrium (Predator-Prey)

A population density at which the relevant per-capita recruitment and per-capita predation rates balance.

Stable equilibrium

An equilibrium point where a nearby disturbance is followed by movement back toward the equilibrium.

Unstable equilibrium

An equilibrium point where a nearby disturbance is amplified, causing the system to move away from the crossing.

Harvest management

The practice of deciding how much wildlife may be legally taken using regulations while addressing ecological uncertainty and long-term sustainability.

Season length/dates

The specific time interval during which hunting is legally permitted.

Bag limit

The maximum number of animals an individual hunter can legally take under specified rules.

Possession limit

The maximum number of harvested animals an individual may legally possess at any one time.

Allowable method of take

The specific legal equipment or techniques permitted to harvest wildlife.

Harvestable surplus

Population growth that is available for harvest while maintaining the modeled population objective.

Maximum sustainable yield (MSY)

The largest sustained harvest predicted by the simple logistic surplus-production model, having a theoretical maximum at $N = \frac{K}{2}$.

Doomed surplus

Animals existing above a seasonal threshold of security that are predicted to die from natural mortality even in the absence of harvest.

Threshold of security

A seasonal population level below which individuals are more likely to survive; abundance above this level constitutes the doomed surplus in Errington's framework.

Compensatory mortality hypothesis (CMH)

A hypothesis predicting that harvest mortality substitutes for deaths from natural causes, offering complete compensation below a threshold kill rate in the idealized model.

Additive mortality hypothesis (AMH)

A hypothesis predicting that harvest deaths add directly to non-hunting mortality, with non-hunting mortality operating independently of density and hunting kill rates.

Partial compensation

A harvest outcome where hunting mortality causes natural mortality to decline somewhat, but total mortality still increases.

Adaptive management

A management approach that operates in the face of uncertainty, emphasizing structured learning and reducing uncertainty over time.

Adaptive harvest management (AHM)

The application of adaptive management to setting harvest regulations via competing population models, monitoring, and regular updates to model weights.

Environmental variation

A source of management uncertainty caused by fluctuating and unpredictable ecological conditions.

Partial controllability

A management uncertainty where regulatory decisions and actions do not produce the exact intended harvest effect.

Structural uncertainty

Uncertainty regarding which underlying biological or mathematical model best describes how the ecological system operates.

Partial observability

A source of management uncertainty stemming from the inability to measure true population states and ecological processes perfectly.

Model weight

A quantitative value reflecting the current level of empirical support given to a competing biological model, updated according to predictive performance.