49. Animal Behavior

Pheasants do not feed their chicks. Immediately after hatching, a pheasant chick starts pecking at seeds and insects on the ground. How might a behavioral ecologist explain the ultimate cause of this behavior?

Ants carry dead ants out of an anthill and dump them on a "trash" pile. If a chemical from a dead ant is applied to a live ant, other ants will carry it, kicking and struggling, from the anthill, until the substance wears off. Which of the following explains this behavior?

Which of the following is a fixed action pattern?

Watching squirrels in the park, you start to wonder why they act so oddly. One squirrel bit the tail of another. Which of the following is a question about the proximate cause of this behavior?

Which of the following is an example of a circannual rhythm?

Which of the following well-known sayings best summarizes the idea of reciprocal altruism?

What signals might be best employed by a nocturnal forest animal seeking to identify its territory?

Imagine a population of birds in which first-year birds can either find a mate and raise an average of three offspring or stay in their parents' territory and help the parents raise two more offspring than the parents would have been able to raise without any help. Based on the theory of kin selection, we would expect that __________.

What is the main premise of sociobiology?

Pheromones are examples of __________.

Honeybees have a remarkable way of transferring information about the location of a food source to other members of the hive. The worker bees conveying this information use __________ communication to relay this information.

Graylag geese learn to follow their mothers. This is an example of __________.

How would you expect the behavior of a male fruit fly lacking the fru gene to differ from that of a normal male?

An aquaculture facility hatched salmon eggs and released young fish into a river leading to the ocean. The fish fed and grew in the ocean, and in a few years they returned to the facility. Because the number of returning fish was low, a scientist suggested adding a chemical to the river that would __________.

The enhanced reproduction, through apparently altruistic behavior, of related individuals with common alleles is referred to as __________.

Altruistic behaviors can be understood, in part, by considering the coefficient of relatedness (r) between the individuals involved. Assume that an individual mammal has the option to raise its own offspring, other genetic relatives, or a combination of offspring and other genetic relatives. From a genetic point of view, which of the following represents the least successful option?

The coefficient of relatedness between two brothers is __________.

Which of the following statements best defines an altruistic act?

Altruistic behavior __________.

Male prairie voles are monogamous. They are attentive to young and aggressive toward intruders. This appears to be related to __________.

A blackcap warbler from a captive migratory population is mated with another blackcap warbler from a captive nonmigratory population. The lab-reared offspring exhibit a modest amount of migratory restlessness. This behavior, which is intermediate between that of the two parents, could be interpreted as evidence for which of the following statements?

When Drosophila were exposed to a particular odor and electric shock at the same time, they started to avoid the odor. This is an example of __________.

One way to determine whether food preferences have a genetic basis is to __________.

In __________, an animal learns to associate one of its behaviors with reward or punishment.

What kind of learning is thought to form the origin of culture?

In cross-fostering experiments, offspring of two species are switched early in development and reared by the opposite species. They are then compared with similar offspring reared by their own species. What is the point of this experimental design?

Animal behavior is governed by complex interactions between __________.

Which of the following best illustrates optimal foraging?

Off in the distance, on the side of a mountain, you spot four female deer and a single male deer. If this reflects the mating system of this species, it would be an example of what type of mating system?

In some species, it is difficult to distinguish the sexes based on external characteristics. Which type of mating behavior is likely to occur in such species?

Which of the following questions could best be answered by applying game theory?

When animals engage in __________, they often perform displays that make them look as large and dangerous as possible.

Which of the following is true of innate behaviors? a. Their expression is only weakly influenced by genes. b. They occur with or without environmental stimuli. c. They are expressed in most individuals in a population. d. They occur in invertebrates and some vertebrates but not mammals.

Complete this map, which reviews the genetic and environmental components of animal behavior and their relationship to learning.

What do proximate explanations of behavior focus on? a. how displays and other types of behavior have changed through time, or evolved b. the 'adaptive significance' of a behavior c. genetic, neurological, and hormonal mechanisms of behavior d. appropriate experimental methods when studying behavior

According to Hamilton's rule, a. natural selection does not favor altruistic behavior that causes the death of the altruist. b. natural selection favors altruistic acts when the resulting benefit to the recipient, corrected for relatedness, exceeds the cost to the altruist. c. natural selection is more likely to favor altruistic behavior that benefits an offspring than altruistic behavior that benefits a sibling. d. the effects of kin selection are larger than the effects of direct natural selection on individuals.

Although many chimpanzee populations live in environments containing oil palm nuts, members of only a few populations use stones to crack open the nuts. The most likely explanation for this behavioral difference between populations is that a. members of different populations differ in manual dexterity. b. members of different populations have different nutritional requirements. c. members of different populations differ in learning ability. d. the use of stones to crack nuts has arisen and spread through social learning in only some populations.

What do ultimate explanations of behavior focus on?

Female spotted sandpipers aggressively court males and, after mating, leave the clutch of young for the male to incubate. This sequence may be repeated several times with different males until no available males remain, forcing the female to incubate her last clutch. Which of the following terms best describes this behavior? a. polygyny b. polyandry c. promiscuity d. certainty of paternity

Pheasants do not feed their chicks. Immediately after hatching, a pheasant chick starts pecking at seeds and insects on the ground. How might a behavioral ecologist explain the ultimate cause of this behavior? a. Pecking is an innate behavior. b. Pheasants learned to peck, and their offspring inherited this behavior. c. Pecking by newly hatched chicks is the result of trial-and-error learning. d. Pecking is a result of imprinting during a sensitive period.

A behavior is considered adaptive if it increases an individual's fitness. How is fitness measured? Select True or False for each statement. T/F strength T/F body size T/F speed T/F number of viable offspring

A region of the canary forebrain shrinks during the nonbreeding season and enlarges when breeding season begins. This change is probably associated with the annual a. addition of new syllables to a canary's song repertoire. b. crystallization of subsong into adult songs. c. sensitive period in which canary parents imprint on new offspring. d. elimination of the memorized template for songs sung the previous year.

A male redwing blackbird will chase predatory birds away from his breeding territory during nesting season. Which hypothesis best explains his behavior? a. He is acting for the good of the species. He may die, but other birds of his species will be saved. b. He knows this will increase his fitness, so he chases away the predator. c. He carries a gene that causes fathers to protect their offspring, which increases inclusive fitness. d. He has imprinted on the offspring in his nest, so he knows that they are his.

Why does altruism seem paradoxical? a. Sometimes altruistic behavior is actually selfish. b. Altruism does not actually help others. c. Alleles that cause an organism to behave altruistically should be selected against since these alleles should lower the organism's fitness. d. Animals behave altruistically to help the species, but sometimes their behavior harms the species.

Although many chimpanzees live in environments with oil palm nuts, members of only a few populations use stones to crack open the nuts. The likely explanation is that a. the behavioral difference is caused by genetic differences between populations. b. members of different populations have different nutritional requirements. c. the cultural tradition of using stones to crack nuts has arisen in only some populations. d. members of different populations differ in learning ability.

Some airports have attempted to scare geese off by playing goose alarm calls over loudspeakers. This tactic kept the geese away initially, but soon the geese ignored the alarm calls. How would you explain this outcome? a. The alarm calls are a social signal that geese ignore unless they can see the other geese. b. The geese became imprinted on the alarm calls. c. The geese used spatial learning to navigate the environment of the airport. d. The geese became habituated to the alarm calls when no danger was present.

Is it true that all organisms forage optimally? Why or why not?

Which of the following is not required for a behavioral trait to evolve by natural selection? a. In each individual, the form of the behavior is determined entirely by genes. b. The behavior varies among individuals. c. An individual's reproductive success depends in part on how the behavior is performed. d. Some component of the behavior is genetically inherited.

Almost all the behaviors of a housefly are innate. What are some advantages and disadvantages to the fly of innate behaviors compared with behaviors that are mainly learned?

The male cuttlefish in the chapter-opening photo can rapidly change their skin colors (under nerve control) to flash warning patterns to rivals. Predict the proximate and ultimate causes of this behavior.

In Module 35.3, you learned that Norway rat offspring whose mothers don't interact much with them grow up to be fearful and anxious in new situations. Suggest a possible ultimate cause for this link between maternal behavior and stress response of offspring. (Hint: Under what circumstances might high reactivity to stress be more adaptive than being relaxed?)

Propose an evolutionary hypothesis to explain the observation that some bird populations do not migrate if people supply food for them in feeders.

A chorus of frogs fills the air on a spring evening. The frog calls are courtship signals. What are the functions of courtship behaviors? How might a behavioral ecologist explain the proximate cause of this behavior? The ultimate cause?

Hamilton's rule states that an altruistic allele could spread in a population if Br > C, where B represents the fitness benefit to the recipient, r is the coefficient of relatedness between altruist and recipient, and C represents the fitness cost to the altruist. If r=0.5 between the altruist and the recipient, what would the ratio of costs to benefits have to be for the altruistic allele to spread? a. C/B > 0.5 b. C/B > 0 c. C/B < 0.5 d. C/B < 0

Crows break the shells of certain molluscs before eating them by dropping them onto rocks. Hypothesizing that crows drop the molluscs from a height that gives the most food for the least effort (optimal foraging), a researcher dropped shells from different heights and counted the drops it took to break them. a. The researcher measured the average drop height for crows and found that it was 5.23 m. Does this support the researcher's hypothesis? Explain. b. Describe an experiment to determine whether dropping molluscs from an optimal height is learned or innate.

Evolutionary biologist Hopi Hoekstra and colleagues have hypothesized that the burrow-digging behavior of mice (and the resulting shape of their underground burrows) is heritable—innate and not learned. Design an experiment to test this hypothesis.

The tendency of individuals to choose mates who are like themselves is called                   . a. natural selection; b. sexual selection; c. assortative mating; d. the founder effect; e. random mating

Scientists studying scrub jays found that it is common for 'helpers' to assist mated pairs of birds in raising their young. The helpers lack territories and mates of their own. Instead, they help the territory owners gather food for their offspring. Propose a hypothesis to explain what advantage there might be for the helpers to engage in this behavior instead of seeking their own territories and mates. How would you test your hypothesis? If your hypothesis is correct, what kind of results would you expect your tests to yield?

J. B. S. Haldane once remarked that he'd be willing to lay down his life to save two brothers or eight cousins. Explain what he meant.

Researchers are very interested in studying identical twins who were raised apart. Among other things, they hope to answer questions about the roles of inheritance and upbringing in human behavior. Why do identical twins make such good subjects for this kind of research? What do the results of such studies suggest to you? What are the potential pitfalls of this research? What abuses might occur in the use of these data if the studies are not evaluated critically?

Mass strandings of whales occur on beaches near military exercises where sonar is used, raising concerns about the effects of human-generated underwater sounds on animal behavior. Scientists are collecting behavioral data on several species of whales to find out how sonar affects them. Whales communicate with one another using sound. What is one benefit and one cost to whales of using sound to communicate underwater?

SCIENTIFIC THINKING Jane Goodall's work revealed that in areas of abundant food, chimpanzees may live in groups of several dozen individuals. State a hypothesis about the chimpanzee mating system that could be tested by observing one of these groups. What data would you collect to test your hypothesis? How would you interpret the results? (Note: A sexually mature female chimpanzee undergoes a hormonal cycle about 36 days long that is reflected in easily observed changes in the appearance of her genital area. Females are most sexually receptive, and males are most attracted to them, for about a week during the middle of the cycle.)

Mass strandings of whales occur on beaches near military exercises where sonar is used, raising concerns about the effects of human-generated underwater sounds on animal behavior. Scientists are collecting behavioral data on several species of whales to find out how sonar affects them. Researchers followed tagged blue whales to observe how they respond to simulated military sonar—using sound levels much lower than those typically used during military exercises. Analyze the sample of data below for one individual blue whale and summarize the behavioral effect of the sound exposure.

Mass strandings of whales occur on beaches near military exercises where sonar is used, raising concerns about the effects of human-generated underwater sounds on animal behavior. Scientists are collecting behavioral data on several species of whales to find out how sonar affects them. Using the graph, estimate the number of minutes of foraging per hour before and after the sound exposure. Then predict the effect of sonar on the fitness of blue whales. Explain your reasoning.

Mass strandings of whales occur on beaches near military exercises where sonar is used, raising concerns about the effects of human-generated underwater sounds on animal behavior. Scientists are collecting behavioral data on several species of whales to find out how sonar affects them. Predict why the whale foraged at a depth of 100–170 m. a. The whale learned to forage at this depth from its mother. b. The whale had an innate instinct to feed at this depth. c. The whale's food was most plentiful at this depth. d. The whale could not dive any deeper than this depth.

Mass strandings of whales occur on beaches near military exercises where sonar is used, raising concerns about the effects of human-generated underwater sounds on animal behavior. Scientists are collecting behavioral data on several species of whales to find out how sonar affects them. The researchers also measured the speed and direction of whale swimming in response to the sound exposure. Whales increase their speed and swim away from the direction of sound. Design a study to test the hypothesis that this behavior leads to beach strandings. Note that you will not receive permission to conduct the study if your actions are likely to cause strandings to occur.

Mass strandings of whales occur on beaches near military exercises where sonar is used, raising concerns about the effects of human-generated underwater sounds on animal behavior. Scientists are collecting behavioral data on several species of whales to find out how sonar affects them. There are debates about what action the military should take to avoid harming the whales. How could you apply cost–benefit analysis to address this problem?