Exam 1 Review

Behavior

The nervous system’s response to a stimulus and is carried out by the muscular or hormonal system

Behavioral ecology

The study of the ecological and evolutionary basis for animal behavior: integrates proximate & ultimate explanations

Ethology

The scientific study of animal behavior, particularly in natural environments

Behavior helps an animal… (List 4)

(1) Reproduce, (2) Communicate, (3) Survive, (4) Maintain homeostasis

Proximate causation

Refers to “how” explanations; refer to the immediate mechanisms that trigger a behavior, like hormones, neural processes, and environmental stimuli

Ultimate causation

Refers to “why” a particular behavior evolved; explores its historical context and how it contributes to survival and reproduction

Fixed action pattern

a sequence of unlearned, innate behaviors that is unchangeable and cannot be reversed; it is usually carried to completion

Innate behavior

a developmentally fixed behavior that is under strong genetic influence

Learning

The modification of behavior based on specific experiences

Signed stimulus

An external cue that triggers a fixed action pattern

Explain the stickleback experiment

Male sticklebacks attack intruders with red undersides; the red belly is the key trigger stimulus, and the attack behavior of the male sticklebacks is the fixed action pattern

Kinesis

a simple change in activity or turning rate in response to a stimulus

Taxis

An automatic, oriented movement toward or away from a stimulus

Migration

A regular, long-distance change in location guided by environmental stimuli (change in light, temperature, position of the sun/moon/north star, etc.)

Circannual rhythm

Biological cycles that occur approximately once a year; migration, seasonal courtship

Circadian rhythm

The body’s 24-hour clock that affects the body’s daily activities like eating and sleeping

Signal

A stimulus transmitted from one animal to another that causes a change in the other animal’s behavior

Communication

The transmission and reception of signals

Animals communicate using what 5 types of signals?

(1) Visual, (2) Chemical, (3) Tactile, (4) Auditory, and (5) Olfactory signals

Nocturnal animals rely heavily on what two signals/senses? Why?

Olfactory (smell) and auditory (hearing) senses because the lack of ambient light severely limits their vision at night

Diurnal animals rely heavily on what two signals/senses? Why?

Visual and auditory senses because they actively use daylight to maximize their visual communication and hunting skills

How do bees socialize/communicate?

With symbolic language. They perform dances to communicate information about a food sources location. (Round dance = food is near) (waggle dance = food is distant)

Stimulus response chain

A sequence of behaviors in which each action produces a stimulus that triggers the next action in the series; all these behaviors must occur prior to mating

Pheromones

Chemical messengers released by animals to communicate with others of the same species leading to various behavioral or physiological responses

Habituation

A simple form of learning that involves loss of responsiveness to stimuli that convey little or no information (Ex: prolonged exposure to a scarecrow stop scaring the crows away because they become hibatuated)

Imprinting

A behavior that is distinguished from other learning by a phase called a sensitive period. includes learning and innate components and is generally irreversible.

Sensitive period

A limited developmental phase marking the only time when imprinting can occur & certain behaviors can be learned

Altricial

A young bird or other animal hatched or born in a state where it is unable to feed itself immediately and is very reliant on their parent

Precocial

A young bird or other animal hatched or born in an advanced state where it is able to feed itself immediately.

Spatial learning

A more complex modification of behavior based on experience with the spatial structure of the environment

Cognitive mapping

An internal representation of spatial relationships between objects in an animals surroundings (relating landmarks to each other)

Explain the digger wasp’s experiment

A female digger wasp uses visual landmarks to locate her nests. Niko Tinbergen moved the pinecones a few feet to one side of the nest to see if the female digger wasp would head towards the landmark which would indicate her nest. She ended up heading towards the center of the pinecone ring instead of her nest, meaning she relies on the landmark to mark the spot where her nest is.

Associative learning

Animals associate one feature of their environment with another

Ex: a bird avoiding eating all colorful butterflies after having a bad experience with a monarch butterfly

Classical conditioning

A type of associative learning in which an arbitrary stimulus is associated with a reward or punishment

Ex: Pavlovs experiment with the dog + bell = salivate

Operant conditioning

A type of associative learning in which an animal learns to associate one of its behaviors with a reward or punishment

Ex: Predator learns to avoid a specific type of prey associated with a painful experience

Cognition

The process of knowing that includes awareness, reasoning, recollection, and judgement

Problem solving

The process of devising a strategy to overcome an obstacle (can be learned by observing other individuals)

Social Learning

Learning through the observation of others and forms the roots of culture

Culture

A system of information transfer through observation or teaching that influences behaviors of individuals in a population

(Can alter the behavior and influence the fitness of individuals)

Cross fostering

Young from one species is placed in the care of adults from another species

Cross fostering mouse experiment

California mice pups were placed in the care of adult white-footed mice, and white-footed mice pups were placed in the care of adult California mice, to examine how a species' behaviors can change when raised by a different species. The results demonstrated that white-footed mice pups experienced behavioral changes that were learned rather than innate. For example, white-footed mice pups raised by California mice showed increased aggression in neutral territory—a learned behavior acquired through social interaction and environmental factors like parental care—but showed no change in aggression toward an intruder. Because innate behaviors are unlearned, natural responses strongly influenced by genetics, no amount of environmental change or social learning can alter them. Consequently, the fact that white-footed mice maintained their baseline low aggression toward intruders even after being raised by highly aggressive California mice highlights how strongly this behavior is genetically wired.

Regulatory gene

A gene that controls the behavior of a species

Master regulatory gene

A single gene that controls the expression of multiple downstream genes

Explain the lacewing experiment

Researchers observed that multiple independent genes are responsible for governing different components of their courtship song. Specifically, these genes control the standard repeating unit and the vibration volleys. When two lacewings are crossed, their unique genes form a hybrid offspring, with each parent contributing half of the genetic material responsible for their distinct courtship song. Therefore, when two parents with different courtship songs reproduce, their offspring will be a hybrid that displays a mixture of both sets of parental genes. For example, the Chrysoperla johnsoni parent has a standard repeating unit that occurs after approximately 4 notes, and a volley period longer than that of Chrysoperla plorabunda. In contrast, C. plorabunda has a much shorter volley period and a standard repeating unit after only 1 note. They may produce a hybrid with a standard repeating unit of only 1 note but a longer volley period, clearly demonstrating a mixture of the genes inherited from its parents.

The blackcap migration experiment

Demonstrated that bird migration has a genetic basis. Young Blackcaps raised in captivity, without learning migration from adults, still displayed migratory behavior. Different populations showed different preferred migration directions, even under similar conditions. This suggests that genes influence the timing and direction of migration, although environmental factors can also affect migration.

Natural selection

An evolutionary mechanism where organisms with advantageous, heritable traits survive, reproduce, and pass those characteristics on to their offspring

Optimal foraging model

Views foraging behavior as a compromise between the benefits of nutrition and the costs of obtaining food

Foraging

Food obtaining behavior that includes recognizing, searching for, capturing, and eating food items.

Trade-off

A situation where gaining an advantage in one trait comes at a cost to another

Monogamous relationship

One male mates with one female (The pair are very similar in terms of physical appearance)

Polygamous relationship

An individual of one sex mates with several individuals of the other sex; usually sexually dimorphic

Sexually dimorphic

The male and females look different in terms of physical/morphological appearance

Polygyny

One male mates with many females

Polyandry

One female mates with many males

How does parental care affect mating behaviors?

The needs of offspring influence the evolution of mating systems. Mating behavior results from sexual selection, which includes attracting mates, choosing among potential mates, and competing for mates. When offspring require a lot of parental care, such as a continuous supply of food from both parents, males may increase their reproductive success by staying with one female and helping raise their young, leading to a monogamous mating system. However, when offspring require little parental care and can survive with care from only one parent, males may increase their reproductive success by mating with multiple females, leading to a polygynous mating system. Therefore, the amount of parental care offspring need can influence whether a species is more likely to have one mating partner or multiple mates.

Intersexual selection

Members of one sex chooses mates based on certain traits

Intrasexual selection

Members of the same sex compete against each other for mates

Agonistic behavior

A ritualized contest that determines which competitor gains access to a mate/resource, includes aggression, submission, and avoidance

Explain the zebra finch experiment

In the zebra finch experiment, female offspring inherit a preference for ornamented males because their mothers successfully mated with ornamented males and produced offspring. These females engage in mate-choice copying and social learning by observing mating interactions between a male and a female and later choosing or rejecting the same male based on the observed female’s choice. In this case, the females observe their mothers choosing their fathers, allowing them to learn which physical characteristics to prefer in a mate. Female offspring with ornamented fathers develop a clear mate preference because their fathers’ ornaments are associated with successful mating. In contrast, female offspring raised without an ornamented father do not develop this preference because they observe that males can successfully reproduce regardless of whether they possess ornaments. This demonstrates that successful reproduction is possible even in the absence of male ornaments.

Game theory

Evaluates alternative strategies where the outcome depends on each individual’s strategy and the strategy of other individuals

Frequency-dependent selection

The success of each strategy depends on the frequency of all of the strategies

Applying game theory to frequency dependent selection in side-blotched lizard

The reproductive success of each male morph depends on how common the other morphs are. Orange males are large and aggressive and defend large territories with many females, allowing them to outcompete blue males. Blue males are smaller and less aggressive, but they defend their mates against yellow males. Yellow males do not defend territories and instead mimic females to sneak matings. This creates a rock-paper-scissors cycle: orange defeats blue, blue defeats yellow, and yellow defeats orange. When one morph becomes common, another morph gains an advantage, allowing all three morphs to remain in the population. This is called negative frequency-dependent selection because a morph's fitness depends on the frequency of the other morphs.

Describe Hamilton’s rule

Animals increase the genetic fitness In subsequent generation by assisting close relatives and not just its offspring, siblings may help other siblings or parents to produce more.

Kin Selection

This is a specific type of natural selection that favors altruistic behaviors towards relatives.

Inclusive fitness

An individual's ability to pass on its genes to the next generation, not only through its own offspring but also by helping relatives who share some of those genes.

Altruism

Selflessness behavior, doing something that helps another without expecting anything in return

Reciprocal Altruism

Altruistic behavior towards unrelated individuals can be adaptive if the aided individual returns the favor in the future

(If favor is not returned in the future, the aided invidiual will face some sort of punishment)

Social Learning

Learning through the observations of others and forms the root of culture

Explain the Vervet Monkey Case Study

Grown vervet monkeys produce distinct alarm calls for different types of predators. When this alarm call is made, the other vervet monkeys repeat the noise so all of them can take caution depending on what predator it is. Vervet monkey culture involves learning and sharing behaviors within a social group, especially communication methods that help the group survive. The infant monkeys observe this, then mimic the others and begin to give their own calls when there is no predator. In this case, the grown vervet monkeys do not reciprocate the sound, which teaches the infant vervet moneys that the alarm calls should only be used when a real predator is present. Through this process, infant vervet monkeys learn to distinguish between genuine alarm calls and false alarms by observing the reactions of adult monkeys. This demonstrates social learning, as the infants learn appropriate behaviors by observing and imitating others and then adjusting their behavior based on the responses they receive.

Ecology

The scientific study of the interactions between organisms and the environment; reveals the richness of the biosphere

Organismal ecology

Studies how an organism’s structure, physiology, and (for animals) behavior meet environmental challenges

Population ecology

Focuses on factors affecting how many individuals of a species live in an area

Community ecology

Deals with the whole array of interacting species in a community

Ecosystem ecology

Emphasizes energy flow and chemical cycling among the various biotic and abiotic components

Why are interactions key when it comes to ecology?

These interactions determine distribution of organisms and their abundance.

Hierarchical levels of biological organization in order from smallest to largest:

(1) Molecule, (2) Organelle, (3) Cellular, (4) Tissue, (5) Organ, (6) Organ system, & (7) Organism level

Population

A group of individuals of the same species living in an area

Community

A group of populations of different species in an area

Ecosystem

The community of organisms in an area and the physical factors with which they interact

Biogeography

Looks to understand what limits geographic distribution of species

The abundance and distribution of organisms in an ecosystem is determined by?

Biotic and abiotic factors

Biotic factors

Living factors (predators, competition with livestock/other herbivores, parasites/disease)

Abiotic factors

Nonliving factors (rainfall, drought, temperature, water availability, sunlight, wind, rocks, soil/productivity)

Dispersal

Movement of individuals away from centers of high population density or from their area of origin depending on suitable habitat and resource distribution

Habitat selection

Preference for open, productive habitats with grasses and access to shelter

Explain the sea urchin-limpet experiment

In this experiment, we are shown two species: the sea urchin and the limpet. Looking closely, we can see that sea urchins are the main consumers of seaweed compared to limpets. There is visible competition between the two species, which leads me to believe that sea urchins dominate the area because of how much seaweed they eat. This demonstrates predator-prey interactions and shows how they can affect population ecology. As the sea urchin population increases, the seaweed population decreases. The same is true for limpets: as their population increases, the seaweed population decreases. When the populations of sea urchins and limpets decrease, the seaweed population increases. It is also noticeable that as the seaweed population approaches its maximum capacity of 100%, its growth slows down drastically, suggesting that it is beginning to be affected by limited resources.

Density

The number of individuals per unit area or volume

Dispersion

The pattern of spacing among individuals within the boundaries of the population

Clumped dispersion

Individuals aggregate in patches, may be influenced by resource availability and behavior

Uniform dispersion

Individuals are evenly distributed, may be influenced by social interactions such as territoriality

Random dispersion

The position of everyone is randomized & independent of other individuals; occurs in the absence of strong attractions or repulsions

What two factors influence the spacing of individuals in a population?

Environmental and social

Emigration

The movement of individuals out of a population

Immigration

The influx of new individuals from other areas

Demography

The study of the vital statistics of a population and how they change over time

Life table:

An age-specific summary of the survival pattern of a population

Cohort:

A group of individuals of the same age

Survivorship curve

A graphic way of representing the data in a life table

Type I Survivorship Curve

Low death rates during early and middle life, then an increase among older age groups (care for young)

Type II Survivorship Curve

The death rate is constant over the organism’s life span