Lecture 9 - Mathmatical and theoretical insights into animal behaviour Flashcards
(37 cards)
what do you need to make predictions?
theory
what is the inclusive fitness theory?
“The social behaviour of a species evolves in such a way that in each distinct behaviour-evoking situation the individual will seem to value his neighbours’ fitness against his own according to the coefficients of relationship appropriate to that situation.”
- underpins everything we do in animal behaviour
who came up with the inclusive fitness theory?
w.d hamilton
what is direct fitness?
increasing the reproductive success of the individual
what is indirect fitness?
increasing the fitness of relatives
what is hamiltons rule
behaviour is favoured if rb >c
what do c, b and r stand for in hamiltons rule
c-‘cost’ to actor of social behaviour
b-‘benefit’ to recipient of social behaviour
r -genetic relatedness between actor and recipient
would c and b be positive or negative when an individual gives food to a recipient
c is positive- as cost has increased
b is positive - positive because they benefit
would c and b be positive or negative when an individual steals food from a recipient
c is negative - no cost because they gain food
b is negative - negative because they die
what would the values of c and b be if they swim past a recipient
c is zero
b is zero
describe an example of hamiltons rule for ‘helping’
Give food to recipient -
Actor recipient
1 (lose food) 3 (gain food) c is positive b is positive
1<3r
would the behaviour of ‘helping’ be favoured by relatedness?
yes this behaviour is favoured by high relatedness.
e.g. if r = 0.5 (siblings or parent-offspring) then Hamilton’s rule is satisfied because 1 < 1.5
what effect does the behaviour ‘cannibalism’ have on relatedness
Cannibalise recipient
actor recipient
-1 (gain food) -10 (die) c is negative b is negative
Hamilton’s Rule: -1 < -10rThis behaviour is favoured by low relatedness.
e.g. if r = 0.5 (siblings) then Hamilton’s rule is not satisfied because -1 > -5
when are tiger salamanders more likely to develop into cannibals?
are more likely to develop into cannibals if they are in groups containing:
(1) many conspecifics (2) variation in larval size (3) mostly unrelated individuals
what is the essence of game theory?
- normally when an individual makes a decision it is solely about their own behaviour
- the essence of game theory is that ‘your behavioural response should depend on what others in the population are doing’
describe game theory in terms of sex ratios
If others are producing sons, it’s better to produce daughters as this will maximise number of grand-offspring.
If the sex ratio is even (1F:1M) it’s better to produce an even ratio of sons and daughters.
= Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS)
example of species that can choose which sex to produce?
- haplodiploidy in insects - fertilised eggs produce females and unfertilised produces males
- some reptiles produce different sexes depending on the temperature their eggs are incubated at
has the ESS phenomena been seen in humans before?
after the world war the population was female biased - there was recorded a surge in baby boys then born
what are the fitness values of the sexes at an even sex ratio?
At an even sex ratio sons and daughters give equal fitness returns. The even sex ratio is an:
Evolutionarily Stable Strategy (ESS)
what effect does a female bias have?
then there is more females for the males to mate with so the sons can produce more offspring and is more valuable o the parent because they are passing on more of their genes and increasing fitness - therefore parents will want to produce more males and eventually the sex ratio will balance out - opposite for an excess of sons
what theories did john maynard-smith introduce?
- game theory and pairwise interactions
2 examples of pairwise contests
The Hawk-Dove Game
The Hawk-Dove-Bourgeois Game
describe the hawk and dove in pairwise interactions
Hawk- Never shares, always fights
Dove - Will share, never fights, retreats if opponent fights
what do you have to do modle the hawk dove theory
have to assign fitness pay off to each strategy
value of resource = v
cost of fighting to loser = c