Exam 19: Group Living, Altruism, and Cooperation

According to the work of Sherman (1977, 1980, 1985), during which he observed a colony of Belding's ground squirrels (Spermophilus beldingi), which of the following would be most likely to give an alarm call for a aerial predator?

Males of some species sometimes cooperate in acquiring a mate, but then only one of the group actually does most or all of the mating. For example, among wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo), male turkey brothers form a sibling unit that will remain stable until death, within which only the dominant male mates. Further, sibling units then compete to establish a hierarchy between units. Research by Krakauer (2005) suggests that the subordinate males provide their cooperative support as a result of

Vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) meet the conditions that Trivers (1971) laid out that are favorable to the evolution of reciprocal altruism. For example,

A major benefit of group living in Harris hawks (Parabuteo unicinctus) is

If you were a Harris hawk, you would maximize your individual calorie intake per day by being part of a family group of what size?

It has been suggested that the best explanation for Mexican free-tailed bat females (Tardarida brasiliensis mexicana) suckling other females' pups is

Males of some species sometimes cooperate in acquiring a mate, but then only one of the group actually does most or all of the mating. For example, male lions (Panthera leo) form coalitions in order to acquire a harem of lionesses.

Cooperative breeding, which has been described in many taxa,

Porter and colleagues (1981) found that when spiny mouse pups (Acomys cahirinus) are released into a test arena, they often huddle in pairs. Further, they will sometimes prefer to huddle with nonkin rather than kin. This is most likely to occur if

For a species to be defined as eusocial it must display

Removing helpers and measuring the consequences, changing the ratio of helpers to young by temporarily removing or adding young, or using statistical analyses to control for particular variables are all techniques that have been employed to try to determine if helping

To calculate indirect fitness,

Altruistic acts are sometimes observed among nonrelatives. Trivers (1971) suggested that this is most likely to develop in species that have

Which of the following is NOT an example of a direct fitness benefit of helping behavior.

Males of some species sometimes cooperate in acquiring a mate, but then only one of the group actually does most or all of the mating. For example, in a small bird called the long-tailed manakin (Chiroxiphia linearis), two (or sometimes three) males perform remarkable acrobatic cooperative displays to attract a female. If a female is interested by the display, only one of the males, however, will mate with her, and it is always the same male. According to work by McDonald, Trainer, and colleagues (l994, 1995, 2002), it is unlikely that the males are related to one another. Further, performance of at least some parts of the display improve with age and practice. This suggests that a subordinate male participates in this cooperative display primarily because it eventually results in an increase in his

Demonstrating the existence of recognition alleles has proven quite difficult, primarily because

The rule that predicts when an altruistic behavior will be performed includes the symbols, B, C, and r. In this context, the symbol C represents the

Raouf and colleagues (2006) found that cliff swallow colony size is correlated with higher levels of glucocorticoid hormones. They further demonstrated that the stress was being produced by

According to the work of Sherman (1977, 1980, 1985), during which he observed a colony of Belding's ground squirrels (Spermophilus beldingi), which of the following would be most likely to give an alarm call for a terrestrial predator?

That a Belding's ground squirrel will bark a predator alarm to which others respond by scurrying to safety, or that wild turkey males form coalitions to court females when only the dominant one of the group mates, are of interest because these actions