Animal Behavior Final Exam

Movement is a prelude to life sustaining behaviors including:

finding food

avoiding predators

finding a mate

avoiding competition

Random movement

Movement that cannot be predicted by an animal’s previous movement or by assessing the surrounding environment

Search

Movement to find a goal

Navigation

Guided movement from one location to another

Homing

Movement with the goal of reaching a known resource, such as shelter, that is used as the central place within an animal’s home range

Migration

The act of moving to and returning form a habitat or region

Orientation

Deducing the cardinal direction or facing/moving in a particular direction

Sources of Navigational Information

Genetically fixed

Individual learning

Multi-modal (Visual cues, auditory cue, ect.)

Ways animals sense time and space

Idiotheic cues

Allotheic cues

Path Integration

Triangulation

Triangulation

Finding that source of a stimulus by perceiving it form two directions

Path integration

The ability to track an outward path and calculate the shortest possible route back to the starting point

Idiotheic cues

Internal cues

vestibular senses, counting steps, ect.

Allotheic cues

External cues

landmarks, compass, ect.

landmark

a significant environmental feature in a stable location that can be used for orientation

calibrates orientation

Compass

Physiological or mechanical device that allows the assessment of directio n

Mostly relies on the earth’s magnetic field

Kinesis

The most basic changing of direction or velocity in response to stimuli

Doesn’t involve orientation

Undirected search

needs simple sensory systems

Taxis

A movement that is directed with respect to a stimulus such as an object, a light, or an odor sources

Combines orientation with kinesis

Positive= attractive stimuli

Negative= repulsive stimuli

Menotaxis

Moving at an angle relative to the stimulus, rather than directly toward or away from it

often seen when using landmarks

Colony Drift

A eusocial organism gets lost and mixed into a new colony

Counterturning

Each change in direction is balanced by a turn in the opposite direction

Why should animals measure distance?

When landmarks are absent or rare

Step counting

Assessing distance via number of steps

Visual flow

The rate at which the landscape moves across an animal’s eyes

Speed cells

A type of odometer cell that fire more rapidly the faster the animal is traveling

It is known that animals measure distance based on

experimental evidence of path integration in the desert ant in the 80’s

Dispersal

Unidirectional (never go back)

Seen in juveniles

prevents competition with kin

doesn’t require animal to “know” any specific way they need to go

Asymmetric dispersal of males and females prevents inbreeding

Migration

The same individual or sequential generations return to the original location

Migration requires the animals to:

Remember a previously traveled route

Learn a route form an experienced adult

Find and follow this route on its own

Know direction and distance

True or False

Migration is always seasonal.

False

Stopover points

Important stops in migration for resting, refeuling, and spatiotemporal adjustments (orientation)

how animals get food:

Sit and wait predation

Cooperative hunting

Mimicry and luring

Optimal foraging theory

A behavioral ecology model that helps predict how an animal behaves when searching for food

Strategy for providing the most benefit for the lowest cost

3 Elements of defense against a predator

Avoid detection

Evade Capture

Fight Back

Crypsis

a behavior, color, or shape that makes an animal difficult for predators to find

Strategies to accomplish avoiding detection

Crypsis

Strategies to accomplish avoiding capture

Aposematism

Mimicry

Vigilance

Zig Zag running

Flash behavior

Stotting

Waive

Strategies to accomplish fighting back

Venom

Sting Pain

Soldiers

Mobbing

Camouflage

Color or shape that helps to hide an animal from visual predators when it is on the normal substrate

Types of Camouflage

Countershading

Disruptive coloration

Background matching

Counter shading

Gradation form light underside to dark dorsal surface

Disruptive coloration

Coloration that obscures and animal’s shape

Background matching

Matching environmental pattern and color

Aposematism

Warning coloration

Mullerian Mimicry

unpalatable evolve to share similar warning signals

Batesian mimicry

Harmless species evolve to resemble unpalatable species

Vigilance

Awareness that an animal has of its surroundings and potential predators

Soldiers

morphologically unique social defense specialists

Stotting

stereotypes, hopping upwards movement used by the prey to advertise its readiness to take on a predator in a chase

LD50

Lethal dose required to kill 50% of some model organism

LC50

Lethal concentration required to kill 50% of a model organism

Would more potent venom have a lower or higher LD50?

Lower LD50

Mating system

How mates are chosen and how mating is carried out

__ have a higher parental investment than _____

Females;Males

Parental investment

Any energy expenditure needed to produce successful offspring

Isogamous

producing gametes that are all the same size

Anisogamous

producing gametes of two different sizes

Why and how did anisogamy evolve?

Anisogamy evolved as a reproductive strategy where organisms produce two types of gametes, typically sperm and eggs, with differing sizes. This differentiation enhances reproductive success by increasing the chances of fertilization and survival of offspring.

Form of disruptive selection

Bigger gametes can’t move around as easily but have higher nutrition

Smaller gametes can be more motile but provide low nutrition

Simultaneous hermaphrodites

simultaneously produce large and small gametes

Sequential hermaphrodites

Change from sex to another over time

Protandrous hermaphrodites

Animals that are first male, then female

Protogynous hermaphrodites

animals that are first female, then male

Hermaphrodite

a animal that can produce both large and small gametes

Male

Dioecious animals with the sex producing gametes being smaller

Female

Dioecious animals with the sex producing gametes being larger

____ reproduction is expected to be more adaptive in environments that change little form gneration to generation

Asexual

____ reproduction is expected to be more adaptive in environments that are in constant change

Sexual

Cost of meiosis

only 50% of the genes are expressed in an offspring, rather than the 100% found in asexual reproduction

True or false

The sex that has higher parental investment tends to be the more choosier

True

Sexual dimorphism is a result of __ __

Sexual selection

Sexual selection

A type of natural selection related to mate choice and/or competition for mates

Intrasexual selection

Selection pressure of individuals within a sex on other individuals within that sex

Results in features that attracts mates

Runaway selection

A type of intersexual selection in which one sexy chooses mates based on a characteristic of another sex, resulting in an extreme of that trait over many generations

Factors that affect mate choice in animals

What the mate possesses (territory)

The perceived genetic quality of the mate

Non-gamete offering provided by the mate (nuptial gift)

Nuptial gift

Items besides gametes exchanged during mating

Courtship feeding

When the nuptial gift is food eaten by the mate

Sexy son hypothesis

Females should prefer to mate with males that will produce sons that will be attractive to future females

Social mate

Affiliated with its mate for a substantial period of time

May help rear young

Genetic mate

Contributor of genes to an offspring

May or may not be the same at the social mate

Monogamy

Animal that mates with just one individual

Polygamy

Animal that mates with more than one individuals

Polyandry

Multiple males per female

Ploygyny

Multiple females per male

Monogamy evolved because:

Finding a mate is difficult

Offspring survival require more intense care than one parent can provide

Polygyny evolved because:

Finding mates is easy

Offspring survival does not require care from more than one parent

Serial monogamy

Allows for the parental care benefits of monogamy , but the genetic benefits of polygamy

Lek

A group of 2 or more males that display together to attract a mate

Promiscuity

The mating of multiple males with multiple females outside of a societal structure

Luteinizing hormone (LH)

Associated with receptivity

LH surge occurs before ovulation

Primes female sexual behavior

Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH)

Gonads produce testosterone and estrogen in response to FSH and LH

In mammals with ovaries, FSH and LH levels range throughout the cycle (Peaking when eggs are fully mature)

Sperm Competition

One of the earliest forms of sexual selection

Competition among sperm after they have been released

Much of mate choice reflects the ___ quality of the potential mate

genetic

Inbreeding depression

Caused by deleterious recessive traits that are shared by choosing a close relative as a mate

What is parental care and why is it such an important part of parental investment?

Behavior directed at feeding, protecting, and in some cases teaching offspring

Parental care is a type of parental investment that requires a lot of energy for the parent to provide for the offspring

When and where different types of parental care evolve

Uniparental care comes from those who don’t require a lot of care for young.

Biparental care comes from those who do require more care for the young than what one parent can provide.

Nest building

Enhances parental care by providing a safe and secure environment for offspring.

Types of parental care conflict

When offspring become old enough to care for themselves, the parent sees no purpose to keep wasting energy for care. Types of conflict are: begging, weaning, and infanticide

Alloparenting

Care provided by individuals other than biological parents

Intra- same spp.

Inter- diff spp.

Insurance egg hypothesis

Female birds lay more eggs then can be supported, as insurance against juvenile mortality

Costs and benefits to sociality

Costs: Disease transmission and more conspicuous to predators

Benefits: group defense, group hunting, group care of young

Group selection

A theory in evolutionary biology that suggests natural selection can act on groups of organisms, rather than just on individuals, promoting traits that benefit the group as a whole.