Question 1

Wandering albatrosses produce young that need a long period of parental care. Both males and females provide this care, so you would predict that the most likely mating system found in albatrosses is

Accepted Answer

Monogamy is the most likely mating system for wandering albatrosses because both parents are involved in the long-term care of their offspring, which is characteristic of monogamous species where pairs form strong bonds and share parental duties.

Question 2

Polygyny is a mating system in which

Accepted Answer

Polygyny is a mating system where a male mates with several females. This is common in many animal species and contrasts with monogamy, where an individual mates with only one partner.

Question 3

A eusocial mammal society would be characterised by

Accepted Answer

Eusociality is characterized by overlapping generations within a colony of adults, cooperative care of young, and a division of individuals into reproductive and non-reproductive castes.

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT an explanation for the evolution of co-operative behaviour?

Accepted Answer

The answer of Which of the following is NOT an...

Question 5

Dominance hierarchies in chickens provide an example of

Accepted Answer

Dominance hierarchies in chickens are an example of social behaviour, where individuals within a group establish a ranking system, often referred to as a "pecking order," that dictates access to resources and mates. This hierarchical structure is a fundamental aspect of the social organization in many animal species, including chickens.

Question 6

Eusocial societies

Accepted Answer

Eusocial societies are characterized by a reproductive division of labor, where only certain individuals reproduce while others perform different tasks such as foraging or caring for the young.

Question 7

Honeybees communicate the accurate location of food sources to their nest mates via

Accepted Answer

The answer of Honeybees communicate the accurate location of food...

Question 8

Which of the following does NOT help to explain the evolution of co-operative societies?

Accepted Answer

Sexual selection primarily explains how certain traits become more common because they increase an individual's chances of mating and reproducing, rather than explaining the evolution of cooperative societies. Cooperative behaviors are more directly explained by concepts like inclusive fitness, kin selection, and indirect fitness, which involve individuals acting in ways that benefit their relatives or group, even at a personal cost. Selection favoring parental self-interest can also contribute to cooperative behaviors, as parents may act in ways that ensure the survival and success of their offspring.

Question 9

According to the theory of kin selection, if r is a measure of the relatedness between individuals and b and c are respectively the benefit and cost to the donor, then a donor can be expected to help another individual only when

Accepted Answer

Kin selection theory posits that an individual may help another, even at a cost to itself, if the benefit to the recipient, weighted by their relatedness (rb), exceeds the cost to the donor (c). This is encapsulated in the inequality rb - c > 0.

Question 10

Ethology is

Accepted Answer

Ethology is the scientific and objective study of animal behavior, particularly under natural conditions, focusing on the behavioral patterns that animals exhibit.

Question 11

Explanations of animal behaviour fall into two classes. These are

Accepted Answer

Explanations of animal behavior are broadly categorized into proximate explanations, which deal with the immediate causes and mechanisms of behavior (how it happens), and ultimate explanations, which address the evolutionary reasons behind a behavior (why it happens).

Question 12

Learning in animal behaviour

Accepted Answer

All the choices accurately describe aspects of learning in animal behavior. Learning involves a permanent change in behavior based on experience (A), is beneficial because it allows animals to adapt to changing environments (B), offers the capacity to modify behavior (C), and is evidenced by observable changes in behavior over an individual's lifetime (D).

Question 13

Maturation effects are

Accepted Answer

Maturation effects refer to changes in behavior that occur as a result of aging, rather than through learning or experience. These are natural developmental processes that happen as an organism grows older.

Question 14

Animals obtain their food in diverse ways. However foraging behaviour of animals has a common feature which is

Accepted Answer

Animals exhibit foraging behaviors that are aimed at maximizing their survival, which involves making choices that enhance their energy intake while minimizing risks such as predation. This principle is a fundamental aspect of the optimal foraging theory.

Question 15

Natural selection has favoured numerous anatomical, physical and behavioural characteristics that are defence mechanisms against predators. This includes

Accepted Answer

The answer of Natural selection has favoured numerous anatomical, physical...

Question 16

Defensive mimicry is used by many animals to avoid predators. An example of defensive mimicry is

Accepted Answer

Defensive mimicry involves one species evolving to resemble another species that has a defense mechanism, such as being toxic, to avoid predation. Choice D accurately describes this concept, where non-toxic species mimic the appearance of toxic species to deter predators.

Question 17

When populations of the same species become isolated for extended periods of time, they can experience different ecological conditions. This can result in changes to individual's responses to stimuli. Such changes can be experimentally demonstrated to

Accepted Answer

When populations are isolated and experience different ecological conditions, changes in responses to stimuli can have a genetic basis, as these changes can be subject to natural selection and passed on to future generations.

Question 18

Foraging behaviour is influenced by many factors. Which of the following is NOT such a factor?

Accepted Answer

Chromatin immunoprecipitation is a laboratory technique used for the study of protein-DNA interactions, which is unrelated to the factors influencing foraging behavior in animals.

Question 19

How is the jumping spider Cosmophasis bitaeniata able to enter the nest of green tree ants and eat larvae without being attacked?

Accepted Answer

Chemical mimicry allows Cosmophasis bitaeniata to mimic the chemical signature of the green tree ants, thereby avoiding detection and attack while it enters their nests to feed on the larvae.

Question 20

Eusociality is particularly prevalent in the Order hymenoptera because

Accepted Answer

Haplodiploid genetic systems, which are more common in Hymenoptera (bees, ants, wasps), facilitate eusociality because they create unique genetic relationships that favor cooperative behavior. In these systems, females develop from fertilized eggs and are diploid, while males develop from unfertilized eggs and are haploid, leading to a situation where sisters share more genes with each other (75%) than they would with their own offspring (50%). This genetic setup can make it more advantageous for individuals to help raise their siblings than to produce their own offspring, promoting the evolution of eusocial behaviors.

Quiz 31: Animal Behaviour