ALS 4574 - Exam 3 Review

Animal Cultural Transmission

The process of information or behavior being passed within a group through learning and imitation, not genetic inheritance.

Mimicry

The act of copying the behavior of another individual.

Innovation

The creation of a new behavior or solution to a problem by an individual.

Social Learning

Learning that occurs through interaction with or observation of other individuals.

Tool Use

The manipulation of an external object to achieve a goal.

Alarm Call

A vocalization produced by an animal to warn others of danger.

Mobbing Behavior

A group behavior in which individuals collectively harass a potential predator.

Inclusive Fitness

The reproductive success of an individual plus the reproductive success of its relatives, weighted by the degree of genetic relatedness.

Genetic Selection

The process by which genes become more or less common in a population due to differential survival and reproduction.

Cultural Selection

The process by which certain behaviors or traditions become more or less prevalent within a group.

Migration

The seasonal movement of animals from one region to another, typically for feeding, breeding, or to escape harsh environmental conditions.

Banding/Tagging

A method used by scientists to study animal movement by attaching a unique identifier (band or tag) to an animal, allowing for later identification and tracking.

Radio-tracking

A technique involving attaching a radio transmitter to an animal, allowing researchers to track its movements using radio receivers.

Satellite Detection

Utilizing satellites to track the movements of animals equipped with satellite transmitters, enabling the monitoring of long-distance migrations.

Global Positioning System (GPS)

A satellite-based navigation system used to determine the precise location of an animal fitted with a GPS tracking device.

Phenotypic Dichotomy

The existence of two distinct forms of a trait within a population, in this context, referring to the difference between migrating and non-migrating individuals.

Allomimetic Behavior

Behavior where an animal imitates the behavior of another species. (While mentioned, the text does not elaborate on its specific role in migration).

Social Facilitation

Increased performance or learning of a behavior due to the presence of others performing the same behavior.

Drafting

A technique, observed in birds flying in V-formation, where individuals behind the leader experience reduced wind resistance, conserving energy.

Harmattan

A scorching east wind in the western Sahara desert that can pose a significant threat to migrating birds.

Hippocampus

A region of the brain associated with memory and spatial navigation; shown to increase in size in migratory warblers after their first migration.

Celestial Bodies

Astronomical objects such as the sun and stars, used by some animals for navigation during migration.

Magnetic Fields

The magnetic field of the Earth, which some animals can sense and use for directional orientation during migration.

Polarized Light

Light whose waves are oscillating in a single plane; some animals are believed to use the polarization patterns in the sky for navigation, especially on cloudy days.

Allopatric Speciation

Speciation that occurs when biological populations of the same species become vicariant — isolated from each other to an extent that prevents or interferes with genetic interchange.

Brain-to-Body Mass Ratio

The ratio of the mass of an animal's brain to its total body mass, often considered a rough correlate of intelligence.

Cognitive Buffer Theory

The hypothesis that larger brains facilitate the construction of novel behavioral patterns through general cognitive processes like innovation and learning, providing a buffer against environmental challenges.

Consolation

Affiliative behavior directed towards a victim of aggression by a third party, often interpreted as a sign of empathy.

Convergent Evolution

The independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time, often as a result of similar ecological pressures.

Corvids

A family of birds that includes crows, ravens, rooks, jackdaws, jays, magpies, treepies, choughs, and nutcrackers, known for their intelligence.

Cultural Intelligence Theory

The idea that social learning and the ability to acquire cultural skills are significant drivers of intelligence and provide benefits over individual exploration.

Delayed Gratification

The ability to resist an immediate reward in order to obtain a larger or more valuable reward in the future.

Emotional Contagion

The tendency for emotions to spread between individuals, such that one individual's emotion triggers a similar emotional state in others.

Empathy

The capacity to understand or feel what another being is experiencing from within their frame of reference.

Episodic Memory

The ability to recall specific past events, including details of what happened, where it happened, and when it happened.

Foresight

The ability to anticipate future events or consequences of actions.

General Intelligence Theory

The concept that intelligence evolved to solve a variety of cognitive challenges in an animal's social or ecological environment.

Interspecific Communication

Communication between different species.

Mirror Test

A behavioral technique used to determine whether an animal possesses the ability of self-recognition.

Parrots

An order of about 398 species of birds, known for their strong, curved bills, upright stance, strong legs, vivid colors, and in some species, their ability to mimic sounds or human speech.

Spatial Awareness

The ability to be aware of oneself in space and to understand the relationship between different objects in that space, crucial for tasks like remembering food hiding locations

Speciation

The evolutionary process by which new biological species arise.

Crop Milk (Pigeon Milk)

A regurgitated, milk-like secretion produced in the crop of pigeons and doves (both male and female) to feed their young (squabs).

Gestation

The period of development of the embryo and fetus in the uterus of viviparous mammals, from fertilization until birth; pregnancy.

Monozygotic Polyembryony

A reproductive trait, seen in armadillos, where a single fertilized egg divides into multiple genetically identical embryos.

Neurogenesis

The formation of new neurons in the brain.

Oviposition

The process of laying eggs, especially by birds.

Parturition

The action of giving birth to young; childbirth.

Placenta

A flattened circular organ in the uterus of pregnant eutherian mammals, nourishing and maintaining the fetus through the umbilical cord.

Placentophagia

The act of a mammal eating its own placenta after giving birth.

Prolactin

A hormone released from the anterior pituitary gland that stimulates milk production after childbirth or hatching.

Supernormal Stimulus

An exaggerated version of a stimulus that elicits a stronger response than the natural stimulus.

Weaning

The process of gradually accustoming an infant mammal to take nourishment other than by suckling its mother.

Altricial

Describes young animals that are born or hatched in a relatively undeveloped and helpless state, requiring significant parental care.

Camouflage

Adaptations in an animal's appearance (e.g., color, pattern) that allow it to blend into its environment, providing protection from predators or aiding in hunting.

Critical Sensitive Period

A limited time window early in an animal's life during which it is biologically prepared to learn specific behaviors or form attachments, such as imprinting.

Filial Imprinting

The process by which a young animal forms a social attachment to its parent or a substitute during a critical period.

Imprinting

A rapid, early learning process by which a young animal establishes a strong social attachment and develops a preference for a particular individual or object.

Irreversible

In the context of imprinting, the characteristic that the learned attachment or preference is generally permanent and cannot be easily changed or unlearned.

Neonatal Handling

The act of physically touching or manipulating newborn animals, which can have physiological and behavioral consequences.

Parental Recognition

The ability of parents to identify their own offspring among others, often relying on sensory cues like scent, vocalizations, and visual signals.

Precocial

Describes young animals that are relatively mature and mobile at birth or hatching and require less immediate parental care than altricial young.

Sexual Imprinting

The process by which an individual learns the characteristics of its own species that will later direct its sexual behavior, often by imprinting on its parents.

Species Preference

A tendency to associate with and favor members of a particular species, which can be influenced by imprinting.

Tactile Stimuli

Sensory input received through physical touch, which plays a crucial role in social bonding and development.

Vocalizations

Sounds produced by animals for communication, including calls used for recognition between parents and offspring.

Mimicry

The act of imitating the behavior, appearance, or sounds of another individual or species.

Neoteny

The retention of juvenile characteristics or behaviors into adulthood.

Play Behavior

Voluntary activity that appears to have no immediate practical purpose but can contribute to physical, social, and cognitive development.

Role Reversal

During play, individuals temporarily switch typical social roles or behaviors.

Self-Handicapping

A behavior during play where a dominant individual intentionally reduces its own advantage to allow a subordinate to participate more equally.

Sexual Imprinting

A critical period early in an animal's life where it learns to recognize the characteristics of its future mates.

Social Learning

The process of acquiring new behaviors, knowledge, or attitudes through interaction with and observation of others.

Systemizing (S)

The drive to analyze, construct, and understand systems or patterns.

Teaching in Animals

Active and intentional behavior by an experienced individual that facilitates learning in another, typically younger, individual, often at a cost to the teacher.

Baleen

Plates made of toughened skin that hang from the upper jaw of baleen whales, used for filtering food from the water.

Blowhole

A single or double opening on the top of the head of cetaceans used for breathing air.

Cerebral Cortex

The outer layer of the brain, associated with higher-level cognitive functions; a high degree of folding is often linked to advanced intelligence.

Clan (Orcas)

A group of orca pods that share common vocalizations or "calls."

Cultural Transmission

The process by which behaviors, knowledge, or traditions are passed from one individual to another through social learning, rather than genetics.

Echolocation

A biological sonar used by some animals, including dolphins and toothed whales, to navigate and find food by emitting sounds and interpreting the returning echoes.

Ecotype

A distinct form or race of a plant or animal species occupying a particular habitat, often with genetic and behavioral adaptations to that environment.

Melon

A bulbous structure on the forehead of toothed whales, composed of fatty tissue, believed to aid in focusing sound for communication and echolocation.

Matrilineal

Relating to or based on kinship with the mother or the female line. In orcas, pods are structured around a female and her offspring.

Odontoceti

The suborder of Cetacea that includes toothed whales such as dolphins, porpoises, belugas, narwhals, and killer whales.

Pod

A cohesive social unit of cetaceans, often consisting of related individuals.

Rostrum

The snout or beak-like projection of the head in some animals, such as the arched upper jaw of baleen whales.

Mysticeti

The suborder of Cetacea that includes baleen whales, which filter feed using baleen plates instead of teeth.

Vocal Learning

The ability to modify vocalizations based on experience and the sounds heard from other individuals.

Vestigial

Representing a degenerate or rudimentary structure in an organism, having lost its original function over evolutionary time (e.g., hind limb and pelvic girdle in baleen whales).

Musth

A periodic physiological and behavioral condition in male elephants characterized by a surge in reproductive hormones (like testosterone), increased aggression, and specific physical signs such as temporin secretion and urine dribbling.

Social Order

The established patterns of behavior and relationships within a group that contribute to stability and reduce conflict, often maintained through dominance hierarchies.

Dominance Hierarchy

A social ranking within a group of animals, where individuals higher in the hierarchy have greater access to resources and mates, reducing the need for constant fighting.

Graviportal

A type of locomotion seen in very large, heavy animals like elephants, characterized by having pillarlike legs with thick, heavy bones adapted for supporting great weight.

Subungulates

An informal group of mammals that share some ancestral traits with ungulates (hoofed animals), including elephants, hyraxes, and sea cows.

Polyphyodont

A pattern of tooth replacement where an animal has multiple sets of teeth throughout its lifetime, continuously replacing older or worn teeth.

Hindgut Fermenters

Herbivorous animals that have a large cecum and large intestine where microbial fermentation of plant material occurs, aiding in digestion.

Matriarchal Society

A social structure where females, particularly older and related females (matriarchs), hold the primary leadership roles and form the core of the family groups.

Kinship/Bond Groups

Larger social units in elephant populations composed of two to four closely related family groups that travel and interact together.

Temporin

A hormone-rich substance secreted from the temporal gland (located on the side of an elephant's head) during musth.