Adaption And Communication

Question 1

Proximate - definition

Answer 1

Immediate
Don’t mate with individuals you share a nest with

Question 2

Ultimate

Answer 2

Evolutionary
Avoid deleterious recessive phenotypes

Question 3

Positives of breeding in colonies

Answer 3

Protection
Increased foraging success

Question 4

Cons of colonies

Answer 4

Colonies may attract predators and some colonies are more vulnerable to predators than others

Question 5

Why do birds sing?

Answer 5

Fucntion ; male sing to attract mates and breed
Phylogeny: robin inherited this behaviour from ancestors
Mechanism: change sin day length and hormone levels
Ontogeny: male robin chicks learn the song from adults often their fathers

Question 6

History of bird song

Answer 6

• song is learned in all songbird species (osciles; ca 4000 species)
• Bird song: highly variable behaviour between different songbird species

Question 7

Function of bird song

Answer 7

2 adaptive functions:
- song and territory acquisition
- song and mate choice- males with larger song repertoire mate sooner

Question 8

Reasons for communication

Answer 8

Finding food
Avoiding predation
Territoriality
Social behaviour

Question 9

Aggression behaviours

Answer 9

Throat patches in side blotches lizards

Question 10

Foraging behaviour

Answer 10

The bee waggle dance:
Round dance : close food source
Waggle dance: distant food resource

Question 11

Chemical communication

Answer 11

Trail pheromone:
Leaf cutter ants

they cut leaves, transport
them to their nest, grow fungi and eat the fruits of
the fungi
– travel up to 300m to get their leaves and lay down
trails to find back to their colony
– 1mg of trail pheromone enough to lay a trail around
the globe