Deck 56: The Physiology, Ecology, and Evolution of Animal Behavior

Question 1

Some birds that are frequently kept as pets, such as parrots and myna birds, have the ability to imitate human speech faithfully.Develop a hypothesis that explains why the ability to be a good mimic might have evolved in these species.What features of the birds' brains might be involved in this behavior?

Answer 1

Social living is important for survival. In order to be able to live with a group one has to communicate and learn the common lifestyle. If an organism is not able to communicate or adapt the living pattern of a group, then its survival becomes difficult.
Birds, like parrots, myna mimic human voices. They have the ability to produce sounds similar to humans. Parrots for example, are considered to be very intelligent species. They have huge retaining and memorizing powers. These birds are usually kept as pets at home.
These birds try to fit into the environment of the home and don't want to be left out. Thus, they have this tendency of catching human voice, learning and memorizing them and reproducing them. Though, the parrots may not know the meaning of whatever they are saying, still they memorize of what the sentence is to be said when.
This ability of birds to mimic human voices has an evolutionary aspect as well. The brain evolves in such a manner so as to give an edge to these birds, over the non-mimicking birds. The brain of every bird has a "song system". This song system has a single layer in every bird. However, in case of parrots there is an additional layer called the shell. This shell may give birds the advantage of mimicking humans.

Question 2

Using an example from your own experience, explain why habituation to a frequent stimulus might be beneficial.Also describe an example in which habituation might be harmful or even dangerous.

Answer 2

Habituation is a state in which the organism learns to decrease or stop its response to a stimulus, which is repeated multiple times. The response to the particular stimulus is stopped because it is no longer biologically significant. It is a learned adaptation.
Habituation to a frequent stimulus is beneficial. It prevents the waste of time and energy of an individual. It helps in removing concentration from irrelevant things. Habituation from frequent stimulus is beneficial.
For example, if a person shifts to an apartment nearby a railway track, then noise coming from the track will annoy the person initially. However, once the person becomes habituated to it, the personal will no longer concentrate on it.
Habituation apart from being beneficial can be harmful or dangerous as well. An example of the same is "drug habituation". In this, the person becomes habituated, but not addicted to the drug. Sometimes, the withdrawal symptoms are painful which does not allow the person to leave the drug. Thus, habituation can be both beneficial as well as harmful.

Question 3

You find that some fruit flies in your lab are quick to come to a dish containing citrus oils, but others are not as responsive.How could you test whether these behavioral differences are caused by genetic differences among the flies or environmental differences in their prior experience?

Answer 3

Behavior is the action performed by an organism in response to a particular stimulus. The response can be inborn or learned. There has to be a basis for a response to occur. Organism's degree of familiarity with the stimulus decides the type of behavior.
In the given experiment, there are two types of fruit flies. One type of flies immediately gets attracted towards the citrus oil dish, while the other group is not much attracted to the oil. This type of behavior depicts the familiarity of one type of fly to the oil, while un-familiarity of the other group.
This type of response has a genetic basis. Thus, the flies show an instinctive behavior. The fruit flies which were attracted towards the citrus oils were born to flies existing in an environment where citrus fruits exist. Thus, they have a tendency to be attracted towards citrus oils.
However, the other type of flies are born to the flies which do not have any exposure to the citrus fruit environment. Hence, it is the genetic factor for the citrus oil smell that got transferred from parent fruit fly to offspring.

Question 4

A female Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis) typically produces just one egg per nesting event.male of this species will guard his mate from the attentions of neighboring males until she lays that egg, thereby increasing the likelihood that he fathered the offspring inside it.Jan Komdeur of the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, studied the behavior of male Seychelles warblers- before females had laid eggs-in relation to the number of other males that lived nearby.First, Komdeur watched focal males (that is, the ones being studied) for 30 s time periods and recorded the percentage of time periods in which they fed or guarded mates.Then, for focal males with more than three male neighbors, Komdeur experimentally reduced the number of neighbors to three and surveyed the behavior of the focal males again to see if it changed.His results are illustrated in the graphs reproduced below.(Because males sometimes performed both behaviors during the same observation period, some observation periods counted toward both behaviors; thus, the percentages of time periods spent foraging or mate guarding sum to more than 100%.) If a male warbler has many male neighbors, what cost is associated with ensuring his paternity of his mate's egg? 11eb5caa_28d2_7985_9f04_0b17204b18a3

Question 5

Marler concluded that white-crowned sparrows can learn their species' song only:

A)after receiving hormone treatments.
B)during a critical period of their development.
C)under natural conditions.
D)from their genetic father.
E)if they are reared in isolation cages

Question 6

Is learning always superior to instinctive behavior? If you think so, why do so many animals react instinctively to certain stimuli? Are there some environmental circumstances in which being able to respond "correctly" the first time would have a big payoff?

Question 7

A stimulus that always causes an animal to behave in a highly stereotyped way is called:

A)fixed action pattern.
B)an instinct.
C)habituation.
D)sign stimulus.
E)reinforcement.

Question 8

In Chapter 55, you learned about some of the environmental changes associated with global warming.What effects might global warming have on animal species that undertake seasonal migrations?

Question 9

Arnold's experiments on the feeding preferences of garter snakes demonstrated that food choice is largely governed by a snake's:

A)early experiences.
B)genetics.
C)size and color.
D)diet while it was developing inside its mother.
E)trial-and-error learning.

Question 10

Although females provide parental care far more often than males in the animal kingdom as a whole, exceptions exist, especially among birds and fishes.Develop three evolutionary hypotheses to explain why male birds are so likely to involve themselves in caring for their offspring.

Question 11

The development of the song system in male songbirds depends on:

A)direct connections between sensory neurons and motor neurons.
B)decrease in the number of neurons in the song system.
C)the behaviors of females, which stimulate hormone production.
D)the successful defense of a territory.
E)the production of estrogen early in life.

Question 12

In cichlid fishes, high levels of the hormone GnRH:

A)make females more receptive to male attention.
B)cause males to be sexually aggressive but not territorial.
C)stimulate a male to defend its territory.
D)cause males to abandon their territories.
E)cause males to lose their bright colors.

Question 13

Which of the following statements about animal migration is true?

A)Piloting animals use the position of the sun to acquire information about their direction of travel.
B)Animals migrating by compass orientation use mental maps of their position in space.
C)Navigating animals use familiar landmarks to guide their journey.
D)Navigating animals use a compass and a mental map of their position to reach a destination.
E)Most migrating birds use olfactory cues to return to the place where they hatched from eggs.

Question 14

Which signal type would provide the fastest communication between bats flying in a dark forest?

A)chemical signals
B)acoustical signals
C)visual signals
D)tactile signals
E)electrical signals

Question 15

In comparison to males, the females of many animal species:

A)compete for mates.
B)choose mates that are well camouflaged in their habitats.
C)choose to mate with many partners.
D)are always monogamous.
E)choose their mates carefully.

Question 16

Social behavior:

A)is exhibited only by animals that live in groups with close relatives.
B)cannot evolve in animals that maintain territories.
C)evolved because group living provides benefits to individuals in the group.
D)is never observed in insects and other invertebrate animals.
E)can be explained only by the hypothesis of kin selection.

Question 17

The degree of relatedness between a parent and its biological offspring:

A)is the same as that between full siblings.
B)is less than that between brother and sister.
C)depends on how many siblings the parent has.
D)promotes an individual's reproductive success.
E)is the same as between first cousins.