B3.2 Behaviour Flashcards
(99 cards)
1
Q
How can you define the term behaviour?
A
The way in which an animal responds to internal or external stimuli
2
Q
What is internal stimuli?
A
Things happening inside the body
3
Q
What is external stimuli?
A
Things happening outside the body
4
Q
What are two indications within a mate that it is of good reproductive quality?
A
It is healthy and well adapted to its environment
5
Q
What is reproductive quality?
A
The ability of an individual to produce healthy offspring
6
Q
What does courtship behaviour help an animal do?
A
Choose a mate
7
Q
Who is often displaying during courtship behaviour?
A
The male
8
Q
Why are male birds often brightly coloured?
A
To advertise that they are a high-quality choice (e.g. the brighter they are the more healthier they are)
9
Q
Why are female birds usually well camouflaged?
A
So that she can care for her young without being spotted by a predator
10
Q
What are three types of mating strategies?
A
- mating for life (only looking for a new partner if they die)
- only pairing up for a breeding season
- groups of females breeding with one dominant male
11
Q
For how long do animals look after their young?
A
Until they have grown and developed enough to look after themselves
12
Q
What do female mammals do while their offspring are young?
A
Feed their young on milk and teach them how to find food and avoid predators
13
Q
What do birds do while their offspring are young?
A
Sitting on them in a nest to keep them warm and bringing them food
14
Q
Why do animals care for their young until they have grown up?
A
It increases the chances that their offspring will survive and that the parents’ genes will carry on into future generations
15
Q
What is an evolutionary strategy?
A
Any process that affects how a species changes over time and spreads
16
Q
Why can parental care be a successful evolutionary strategy?
A
- helps make sure more offspring survive
- the more offspring there are, the more likely it is that there will be offspring that adapt to changes in conditions
- this means the species can evolve and spread
17
Q
What does innate mean?
A
Behaviour that doesn’t have to be learnt, inborn
18
Q
What is a reflex?
A
An automatic response to a stimulus
19
Q
Why is innate behaviour beneficial?
A
It increases the chances of an animal surviving, reproducing and passing on their genes
20
Q
What is innate behaviour controlled by?
A
Genes
21
Q
Who founded the science of ethology?
A
Niko Tinbergen
22
Q
What is ethology?
A
The study of animal behaviour
23
Q
What did Niko Tinbergen notice from his investigation into herring behaviour?
A
Chicks pecked at their parents beaks, to make the parent regurgitate food for the chick
24
Q
Why do herring chicks peck at their parents beaks?
A
Because there’s a red spot on it
25
How did Tinbergen find out if the herring chicks were pecking at the red spots?
He made cardboard models of gulls' heads, using different colours for the spot on the beak, and then presented the cardboard models to the young gull chicks
26
Why is imprinting useful?
It makes sure the young stay close to their mother so that they can be protected and learn how to find food
27
Who made an experiment to test imprinting?
Konrad Lorenz
28
What is imprinting?
The process in which young animals bond with or become attached to animals and moving objects they see immediately after hatching or birth
29
What is learning?
A change in behaviour as a result of experience
30
When does imprinting happen?
In a very short window of time very early in the animals life
31
How long does imprinting last?
Into adulthood
32
Are woodlice vertebrates or invertebrates?
Invertebrates
33
Where can you find woodlice?
Under rotting logs and in dark, damp places
34
Why do woodlice pick damp, dark places?
To stay hidden from other animals that may eat them
35
How do woodlice find dark,damp places?
Through innate behaviour
36
What is a way of investigating animal behaviour?
Choice chambers
37
What is habituation?
Ignoring a repeated stimulus
38
Who discovered classical conditioning?
Ivan Pavlov
39
How did Pavlov get dogs to salivate when they heard a bell?
- dogs producing saliva is an innate behaviour when they smell food
- Pavlov rang a bell before giving a dog food
- the dog pricked up its ears when it heard the bell, but didn't salivate before it got the food
- this was repeated several times
- the dog started to associate the sound of a bell with food
- the dog produced saliva when it heard the bell
40
What is classical conditioning?
A process in which learning causes a reflex action to happen in response to a different stimulus
41
What is operant conditioning?
A process in which an animal changes its behaviour as a result of experiencing rewards or unpleasant consequences
42
What type of conditioning is used to train animals?
Operant conditioning
43
What is training?
Changing an animals behaviour by giving it rewards or punishments
44
What is communication?
The exchange of information between organisms
45
What are three ways animals use to communicate?
- visual signals
- sound
- chemical substances
46
What type of communication does courtship behaviour use?
Visual signals
47
What type of visual signals do mammals use to communicate their mood?
- gestures
- facial expressions
- body language
48
What do birds use sound for?
- to keep other birds out of their territory
| - to attract females
49
What are pheromones?
Hormone-like substances that diffuse into the air and influence the behaviour of others
50
What is social behaviour?
Behaviour between members of the same species
51
Why is social behaviour useful?
It can improve survival chances
52
How does social behaviour improve survival chances?
- individuals in the group can take on different tasks, such as watching for predators or searching for new food sources
- they have a better chance of defending territory
53
Who was the first person to begin to understand how gorilla society worked?
Dian Fossey
54
How did Diane Fossey get partially accepted into the Rwandan mountain gorilla's group?
By imitating their behaviour
55
What did Diane Fossey discover about gorillas?
- they had complex family relationships
- they weren't violent
- the meanings of their calls
56
Who carried out research on chimpanzees in Tanzania in the 1960s?
Jane Goodall
57
What did Jane Goodall discover about chimpanzees?
- they make and use tools to obtain food
| - they hunt together as a group
58
What do flowers rely on in order to spread their pollen?
Insects
59
How do flowers attract insects?
- by producing brightly coloured chemicals in their petals
| - by producing chemical scents that spread out in the air
60
How do insects find flowers?
By moving in the direction where there is the greatest concentration of flower produced chemicals
61
Why do plants produce brightly coloured fruits?
So that animals like birds know they are ready to eat and so eat the fruit with the seeds. The seeds are then dispersed with the animals' waste
62
How do plants protect themselves against being eaten?
They produce chemicals that harm insects
63
What do Acacia trees in Africa do to deter herbivores when they're attacked?
It produces distasteful, poisonous chemicals
64
How do Acacia trees warn other trees about insect attacks?
They produce a gas called ethene that diffuses through the air to other nearby trees
65
What is evolution?
The change in a species over time
66
What is co-evolution?
How two species change together over time
67
What is pollination?
The transfer of pollen from one plant to another, enabling fertilisation
68
What is an example of co-evolution?
Pollination
69
Why do insects that recognise the signals of flower scent and colour have a survival advantage?
They are more likely to find food
70
Why do plants that have flowers that attract more insects have a survival advantage?
They are more likely to be pollinated
71
How does co-evolution between two species work?
- species A changes
- the members of species B best suited to those changes survive
- changes to species B are dependent on species A
- this happens over and over again so they both co-evolve
72
What is an example of co-evolution that arose from plant chemical defences?
Grey kangaroos being able to eat quite high levels of poison because the plants in the dry grasslands of Australia make poison in their leaves
73
What is Ardi?
A 4.4 million year old, human like, female animal fossil from an extinct species
74
What is Lucy?
A human like, fossilised species from 3.2 million years ago
75
What two scientists discovered the species Homo habilis in the 1960s?
Mary and Louis Leakey
76
How old are fossils of the species Homo habilis?
Between 2.4 and 1.4 million years old
77
Who found the fossil of Homo erectus?
Richard Leakey
78
When was a homo-erectus fossil discovered?
1984
79
What fossils did tools start being found with?
Homo habilis and erectus
80
How can you identify the time period stone tools come from?
By identifying the date of the layer of rock or sediment they are found in. An assumption is made that the tool is the same age as the layer of rock or sediment
81
How old are the oldest stone tools found so far?
2.6 million years old
82
What would the oldest stone tools found be used for?
Skinning animals and cutting up meat
83
When did modern Homo sapiens first appear in Africa?
200 000 years ago
84
When did modern Homo sapiens spread out of Africa?
60 000 years ago
85
What is an Ice Age?
A time of very cold periods called "glacials" and "interglacials"
86
Why did Homo sapiens only cross from Africa 60 000 years ago?
There was an ice age so a lot of water would have been locked up in ice and sea levels were much lower, so it would have been easier to cross from Africa to Yemen
87
Why did people move from Africa 60 000 years ago?
To hunt and gather food
88
What did a cold period 25 000 years ago produce?
A land between Siberia and North America
89
What were the effects of climate becoming more stable after the Ice Age on humans?
People showed the first signs of settling down and starting to grow crops
90
What are mitochondria?
Tiny organelles in cells which release energy from food
91
Who does nuclear DNA come from?
Both the mother and the father
92
Where does mitochondrial DNA come from?
The cytoplasm of the egg cell
93
Why does DNA change over time?
Because of mutations
94
How many times faster does mtDNA mutate in comparison to nuclear DNA?
100 to 1000 times faster
95
What happens to tissues and cells after death?
Tissues start to decay and chemicals in cells break down
96
Why is mtDNA used instead of nuclear DNA to identify fossils?
Each cell contains many mitochondria but only one nucleus, so there is likely to be a greater abundance of mtDNA than nuclear DNA
97
What is used to track evolution from fossil material?
mtDNA
98
Who does mitochondrial DNA come from?
The mother
98
Who is African or mitochondrial Eve?
The only woman who's mtDNA has an unbroken female-female line from her generation to the present. People all seem to have evolved from her
