BIOL 410 Animal Behavior – Exam 2 Study Guide

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering Lectures 10 through 17 from the BIOL 410 Animal Behavior Exam 2 Study Guide, including resource selection, reproduction, mating systems, parental care, communication, and social behaviors.

Douglas Johnson’s Four Orders of Resource Selection

A hierarchical framework categorizing habitat and resource selection into four distinct spatial scales: first-order (the geographic range of a species), second-order (the home range of an individual or social group), third-order (the use of specific habitat patches within the home range), and fourth-order (the procurement of specific food items or resources within a patch).

Parthenogenesis

A form of asexual reproduction in which an embryo develops directly from an unfertilized ovum without any genetic contribution from a male.

Androgenesis

A form of reproduction in which offspring develop exclusively from male nuclear genetic material, with maternal nuclear contribution eliminated or absent.

Anisogamy

A reproductive system characterized by the union of two gametes of differing size and form, typically a large, immobile egg and a small, motile sperm.

Isogamy

A reproductive system characterized by the fusion of gametes that are identical in size and general morphology.

Fisherian Runaway

A sexual selection model where a female preference for an arbitrary male trait becomes genetically correlated with that trait, driving rapid, self-reinforcing coevolution until limited by natural selection.

Intrasexual Selection

Sexual selection driven by competition among individuals of the same sex (typically male-male competition) for access to mating opportunities.

Intersexual Selection

Sexual selection driven by mate choice, where individuals of one sex (typically females) select mates of the opposite sex based on specific phenotypic traits or displays.

Sexual Conflict

Evolutionary conflict arising when the reproductive interests of males and females diverge, leading to sexually antagonistic coevolution over mating rates, parental investment, or fertilization.

Pre-copulatory Mechanisms

Mechanisms of sexual selection that operate prior to copulation, such as territory defense, physical combat, courtship displays, and mate assessment.

Post-copulatory Mechanisms

Mechanisms of sexual selection that operate after copulation has occurred, including sperm competition and cryptic female choice.

Monogamy

A mating system where one male and one female form a pair bond and mate exclusively or predominantly with each other for a breeding season or life.

Polyandry

A mating system in which one female mates with multiple males during a single breeding season.

Polygyny

A mating system in which one male mates with multiple females during a single breeding season.

Polygyny Threshold Model

An ecological model proposing that a female will choose to pair polygynously with an already-mated male if his territory quality exceeds that of an unmated male by a margin sufficient to ensure equal or higher female reproductive success.

Lekking

A mating system in which males gather on a communal display ground (a lek) solely to display to visiting females, who visit solely for copulation and receive no direct resources or parental care.

Hotspot Hypothesis

A lek hypothesis proposing that males cluster at display sites where female encounter rates or travel densities are naturally high.

Hotshot Hypothesis

A lek hypothesis proposing that subordinate or less attractive males cluster around exceptionally attractive males ('hotshots') to increase their chances of intercepting females.

Female Preference Hypothesis

A lek hypothesis proposing that females prefer to visit clustered aggregations of displaying males because it lowers search costs and facilitates direct comparison of potential mates.

Polygynandry

A mating system in which multiple males mate with multiple females, typically accompanied by social bonds and collective or shared parental care.

r-Strategists (Parental Care)

Organisms that emphasize high reproductive output by producing large numbers of offspring while investing minimal or no parental care per individual.

K-Strategists (Parental Care)

Organisms that allocate high parental investment into a small number of offspring to maximize individual survival and competitive ability.

Semelparity

A life history strategy characterized by a single, massive reproductive episode in an individual's lifetime, typically followed by death.

Iteroparity

A life history strategy characterized by repeated bouts of reproduction over an individual's lifetime, which may occur continuously or seasonally.

Parent/Offspring Conflict

An evolutionary conflict of interest where offspring are selected to demand more parental investment than parents are selected to give, balancing current offspring fitness against future parental reproduction.

Precocious Offspring

Offspring that are hatched or born in an advanced, mobile state capable of independent locomotion and self-feeding shortly after birth.

Altricious Offspring

Offspring that are hatched or born in a helpless, underdeveloped state (often blind, hairless, or immobile) and require extensive parental provisioning to survive.

Signal

Any physical, acoustic, chemical, or behavioral trait shaped by natural selection specifically to convey information to a receiver and modify its behavior.

Cue

An incidental, unspecialized feature or byproduct of an organism's presence or activity that conveys information to a receiver but did not evolve for that purpose.

Channel

The physical sensory medium (e.g., visual, acoustic, chemical, tactile) through which a signal travel from sender to receiver.

Signal-to-Noise Ratio

The ratio of the magnitude of a communication signal to the background environmental noise that interferes with or degrades the signal.

Message vs. Meaning

The message refers to the specific information encoded and transmitted by the sender within the signal, whereas the meaning refers to how the receiver interprets that information and reacts based on its context.

Discrete vs. Graded Signals

Discrete signals are all-or-none communication acts that do not vary in structural form or intensity, whereas graded signals vary continuously in intensity, pitch, or duration to communicate gradations of motivation or threat.

Ritualization

The evolutionary process by which an incidental non-communicative movement or physiological action is modified, exaggerated, stereotyped, and emancipated into an effective communicative signal.

Zahavi’s Honest Signaling Hypothesis

The principle proposing that signals remain reliable and honest indicators of phenotypic or genetic quality because they carry production or maintenance costs that only high-quality individuals can bear.

Tactile Communication

A communication channel involving mechanical contact, touch, or substrate vibrations directly perceived by mechanoreceptors.

Reciprocal Altruism

An evolutionary mechanism whereby an individual incurs a temporary fitness cost to assist an unrelated individual, with the expectation that the recipient will return the favor at a later time (e.g., regurgitated blood sharing in vampire bats).