animal behavior

fall 2014, UW

101 cards·by xyzy

Study this deck

Altruism

o Helping other animals survive and reproduce, to your own disadvantage

Direct Fitness

How much you reproduce

Indirect Fitness

How much your relatives reproduce from your help

Inclusive Fitness

Hamilton's idea that combines indirect and direct fitness

Kin Selection

Helping relatives from how close they are to you: r B > C

What does the "r" is kin selection mean?

Relatedness (coefficient of relatedness)

What does the "B" in kin selection mean?

Benefit (extra # offspring the recipient has)

What does the "C" in kin selection mean?

Cost (# of fewer offspring the altruist has)

Haplodiploidy

System in which fertilized eggs are female and unfertilized eggs are male

Haploid

Unfertilized --> male

True or False: Eusociality caused haplodiploidy

False, but it favors eusociality because sisters helping each other is advantageous for these creatures

How would you show in an equation how related you are to your full sister?

(mom's genes)(your genes from mom)+(dad's genes)(your genes from dad) = (.5)(.5)+(.5)(.5)= 0.5

How would you show in an equation how related you are to your full sister if you are a eusocial ant?

(mom's genes)(your genes from mom)+(dad's genes)(your genes from dad) = (.5)(.5)+(1)(.5)= 0.75

Diploid

Fertilized --> female

Why does eusociality help the population survive better than raising their own children?

Female workers are sterile but are close enough to pass the same genes, so it helps more to aid one sister & they're more related than kids

Darwinian Theory

All living things descended from a common ancestor through a natural process of diversity and change by ecological niches

Ecological Niche

way of living

Darwin's Three Concepts

Adaptation, phylogeny and natural selection

Adaptation

characterizations adapted through an animal's way of living

Example of Adaptation

Mimicry (behaves in a way to fit in)

Defensive Mimicry

hide from predators (ex. patoo, fawn, tree frog)

Aggressive Mimicry

to capture prey (ex. angler fish, ant-looking spider)

Phylogeny

Descent with modification

Example of Phylogeny

Communication Signals (threat signals or signals of display)

Name 3 threat signals

puffing up feathers, waving claws, open mouth threat, tense mouth threat

Example of display signal

balloon flies created more and more elaborate gifts for getting females, even though it served no actual purpose

Natural Selection

evolution as history/a process, how they become adapted to an environment

Artificial Selection

Breeding for a certain trait (dogs)

Problem with Haplodiploid Hypothesis

Animals like bats could be unrelated but still help each other because they expected payment in return

TBaK: Why do the buffalo take long to mount an attack on the lions/why are the buffalo not equally brave?

Altruism is not automatically expected

TBaK: Which buffalo(s) may lead the attack?

The top bull (usually the biggest) who might be the calf's dad

TBaK: why SHOULDN'T the buffalo attack the lions?

Even if either side might have an advantage they risk injury

TBaK: if not all the buffalo were equally brave, why did many get involved attacking the lions? (2 reasons)

Kin selection (being related to the calf) and it benefits all group members to intimidate the lions from attacking

Lemmings: what theory supports the hypothesis that suicidal lemmings are altruists?

Group Selection

Lemmings: what's wrong with saying the lemmings are altruists?

The trait for altruism would die with the lemmings, they're actually just trying to get food and trying to survive

Feeding Chases: the penguin chicks are ensured food despite leopard seals eating their parents bc natural selection: True or False?

False. It's a group selection argument at the expense of their own chicks. They usually recognize their chicks but sometimes make mistakes.

True or False: after infanticidal males appeared in langurs, the average male would have more offspring than the average female

False, each parent has one mom and one dad

True or False: after infanticidal males appeared in langurs, the total number of surviving offspring per year would increase

False, more kids are born but fewer get to grow

True or False: after infanticidal males appeared in langurs, infanticidal males would leave more offspring than non-infanticidal males

True, they start kids earlier even though some may also be killed

True or False: after infanticidal males appeared in langurs, the average male would leave more offspring than the average male before infant

False, present day males have more offspring than pre-infanticidal males

Darwinian puzzle

why a trait would help a single individual reproduce better, rather than the species as a whole that may reduce the species fitness

Adaptation

Traits that "won" in natural selection

Adaptationists

study how adaptation contributes to reproductive success

Intelligent Design Theory

Group Selection

Unpopular idea that selection acts on the level of larger groups and not individuals

Direct Selection

Helping descendant kin (children, grandchildren)

Kin (indirect) Selection

Helping non-descendant relatives (cousins, aunts, uncles, siblings, etc.); parents are already expected for primal care

Behavioral Strategy

Hamilton's Rule

Theory of Descent with Modification

Cooperation

Postponed Cooperation

Reciprocity

Maladaptive Altruism

Adaptive Altruism

Spite

Deceit and manipulation

Prisoner's Dilemma

Nondescendent Kin

By-Product Hypothesis

Sensory Exploitation

What's wrong with the term "sensory exploitation"?

Honest Signal

Novel Environment Theory

Net Benefit Theory

Illegitimate Signalers

Pheromone

Eavesdropping

Illegitimate Receivers

Differential Reproductive Success (RS)

Leaving behind others of the population due to positive genetic differences (grow to have long necks to get higher leaves)

Problems with Group Selection

Fails to predict correctly (lemmings kills off what would seem like altruistic behavior)

Heredity

Parents passing characteristics to babies

How did Digger Bees find mates and why did this behavior occur?

They would only mate once so they would find new virgin females -- reproduce better

How are hypotheses in behavioral biology tested?

Getting the expected results during observation

Why would males disperse from their natal groups? (2 reasons)

Preventing inbreeding and breeding with colonies that could be breeding later than their own

Meerkats: what is the conflict between foraging and vigilance?

Head up for vigilance and head down for foraging, can't do both

Meerkats: is alarm calling altruistic?

They're less likely to be predated, so no

Meerkats: why is it surprising that baby-sitters are typically unrelated to the kids they help?

Most cases with helpers only help related through kin selection

Meerkats: True or False: the guards are sent in to protect

False, they decide independently with no one in charge

Meerkats: True or false: the helper serves as a tutor

False, the helpers don't actually teach, they just watch over them

Meerkats: True or false: there is competition for reproduction and they'll kill infants of subordinates

True, they don't just have one litter for the entire team

Meerkats: True or false: each adult does its share of nursing chores

False, no one is in charge of shares, it's just something they do

Meerkats: why do they roll over the millipede so many times?

To get rid of the insect's poison

Meerkats: why do meerkats live in groups?

They can't survive on their own

Bee-eaters: who helps whom?

They only help relatives

Bee-eaters: how do you evaluate how much the bee-eaters help?

Measure number of offspring raised to fledgling w/ number of helpers

Bee-eaters: why is sibling rivalry serious here?

Survival is food-dependent and parents have more kids than they can raise usually. The older ones usually stronger/ensures strongest

"Dark Side of Hamilton's Rule"

flipped to B > r C to explain selfish behavior (bee-eater chicks)

Hamilton’s Rule: make up numbers that would satisfy the equation for the case of Belding’s ground squirrel alarm calls.

full sister surviving from .6 to .9, altruist's survival from .6 to .5: r =.5, B=.3, C=.1; .15 > .1

Eusocial

cooperative care with divisions of labor with sterile castes

What insects are examples of eusocial individuals?

hymenopterans: ants, bees, wasps, termites, etc.

Which hymenopteran(s) are no haploid-diploids?

termites and weevils

What non-insect species is eusocial?

Naked mole rats (or snapping shrimp)

Interspecific

signals between different species

Intraspecific

signals between the same species

Batesian Mimicry

Conning to look dangerous

Mullerian Mimicry

honest signal sharing to show that they're dangerous

How does the sabre tooth blenny deceive?

It looks like a cleaner fish, but eats the fish and swims away

Example of mutualism?

Cleaner fish and clients, hanging out in spots and waiting for them

Four types of animal communication

Info about external world (food and predators), identity (inter/intraspecific), dynamic signals (social interaction), assessment

Neophobia

Slugs give off many colors to look foreign and scare off other animals