Chapter 53

Question 1

lek

Answer 1

display ground where male animals compete for/defend small display areas as a means for demonstrating territorial prowess an winning opportunities to mate

Question 2

imprinting

Answer 2

rapid form of learning in animal behavior in which animal learns during brief critical period to make a particular response to some object or organism which is maintained for life

Question 3

individual fitness

Answer 3

component of inclusive fitness resulting from an organism producing its own offspring

Question 4

conspecifics

Answer 4

individuals of same species

Question 5

releaser

Answer 5

sensory stimulus that triggers performance of stereotyped behavior pattern

Question 6

polygyny

Answer 6

mating system in which one male mates w/ multiple females

Question 7

homing

Answer 7

ability to return over long distances to specific site

Question 8

Hamilton’s rule

Answer 8

for an apparent alturistic behavior to be adaptive:

C < r*B

Question 9

energetic cost

Answer 9

difference between energy an animal expends in performing a behavior and energy it would have expended had it resisted

Question 10

proximate cause

Answer 10

immediate genetic, physiological, neurological and developmental mechanisms responsible for behavior or morphology

Question 11

habitat

Answer 11

particular environment in which an organism lives

Question 12

eusocial

Answer 12

pertaining to social group that includes nonreproductive individuals (e.g. honey bees)

Question 13

polyandry

Answer 13

mating system in which one female mates with multiple males

Question 14

suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN)

Answer 14

two clusters of neurons just above the optic chiasm that act as the master circadian clock

Question 15

circannual rhythm

Answer 15

rhythm of growth or activity that recurs on yearly basis

Question 16

opportunity cost

Answer 16

sum of benefits an animal forfeits by not being able to perform some other behavior during time when it it is performing a given behavior

Question 17

fixed action pattern

Answer 17

genetically determined behavior performed w/o learning, stereotypic (performed same way every time), and not modifiable by learning

Question 18

inclusive fitness

Answer 18

sum of individual’s genetic contribution to subsequent generations both via production of its own offspring and via influence on survival of relatives who aren’t direct descendants

Question 19

communication

Answer 19

signal from one organism/cell that alters the functioning or behavior of another organism/cell

Question 20

circadian rhythm

Answer 20

rhythm of growth or activity that recurs about every 24 hrs

Question 21

ultimate cause

Answer 21

evolutionary processes in ethology that produced an animal’s capacity and tendency to behave in particular ways

Question 22

ethology

Answer 22

approach to study of animal behavior that focuses on studying many species in nat’l environments & addresses ?’s about evolution of behavior

Question 23

risk cost

Answer 23

increased chance of being injured or killed as a result of performing a behavior, compared to resting

Question 24

optimal foraging theory

Answer 24

application of a cost-benefit approach to feeding behavior to identify the fitness value of feeding choices

Question 25

kin selection

Answer 25

component of inclusive fitness resulting from helping survival of relatives containing same alleles by descent from a common ancestor

Question 26

sensitive period

Answer 26

life stage during which some particualr type of learning must take place or which it occurs much more easily than at other times (e.g. song learning in birds)

Question 27

cost-benefit analysis

Answer 27

approach to evolutionary studies that assuems an animal has limited amt. of time and energy to devotte to each of its activities, and that each activity has fitness costs & benefits

Question 28

altruism

Answer 28

pertaining to behavior that benefits other individuals at a cost to individual who performs it

Question 29

haplodiploidy

Answer 29

sex determination mechanism in which diploid individuals (from fertilized eggs) are female and haploid individuals (from unfertilized eggs) are male