Animal behaviour Flashcards
(25 cards)
What is meant by causation?
physiological mechanisms
What is meant by ontogeny?
development
What is meant by function?
adaptive advantage
What is meant by phylogeny?
evolutionary history
What can be communicated?
- aggression
- sex
- identity
- status
- need
- social information
List the modes of communication
- visual signals
- acoustic signals
- vibrational signals
- chemical signals
- tactile signals
- electrical signals
List the cues revealing autonomic stimulation
- respiration
- urination/defecation
- thermoregulation
- pupil dilation
- yawning
List 4 ways in which ritualised signals differ from cues
- conspicuousness
- redundancy
- stereotypy
- alerting components
What is meant by anisogamy?
unequal gametes –> large numbers of sperm, small numbers of eggs
What is meant by sperm competition?
competition for inseminations between the sperm of rival males
What is meant by runaway sexual selection?
a trait that females find attractive to pass onto sons
Describe what happens in kentish plovers
- males and females both incubate eggs at first
- either sex can desert to start a new nest with new mate
- deserted mate left to raise family
List some species of males that invest more in parental care
- moorhens
- phalaropes
- jacanas
What is meant by polygamy/polygyny?
male animal has more than one mate
What is meant by polyandry?
female has more than one male mate
What is meant by polygynandry?
both males and females have multiple mating partners
What is meant by promiscuity?
individuals of both sexes with mate with multiple individuals of opposite sex
What is meant by coefficient of relatedness?
- probability two individuals share a gene that is identical by descent
- probability of sharing a rare allele
What is the difference between direct fitness and indirect fitness
direct fitness - maximising reproductive success of individual
indirect fitness - maximising reproductive success of other individuals likely to share copies of the gene
What is meant by kin selection?
process by which traits are favoured due to effects in fitness of relatives
What is hamilton’s rule?
altruism will be favoured if
r*B-C>0
Describe sterility in bees
workers rarely reproduce themselves but instead help their mother produce offspring
males develop from unfertilised eggs –> haploid
females develop from fertilised eggs –> diploid
Describe cooperative courtship in wild turkeys
- male turkeys form coalitions
- one dominant male, one subordinate male
What are the direct benefits of cooperation?
- by-product benefits - e.g. cooperative hunting increases food intake
- reciprocity - repeated interactions between individuals
- enforcement - cost of not cooperating extremely high
- deception - animals may cooperate by mistake (manipulate signals)
