Exam 51: Behavioral Ecology

A pied kingfisher in its first year of life helps in the feeding of three full siblings who would not have made it without the helper's efforts.What is its indirect fitness in its first year?

How would you classify the genetic basis for most behavioral traits in the animal kingdom?

Figure 51.2 -In Figure 51.2,which of the following conclusions is most logical based on the data?

Figure 51.2 -In Figure 51.2,do the data support the hypothesis that females need spring-like light conditions to produce mature follicles?

You observe scrub jays hiding food and notice that one particular individual only pretends to hide food.Your experiments associate the presence of other siblings with the frequency of pretending to cache food.A colleague shows you animals of the same species that do not perform this pretend caching.How does this information affect your conclusions about this behavior?

The behavioral response associated with the escape behavior of kangaroo rats is an example of a _____.

You have captured a number of rats from a wild population and quickly surmise with tests that they are very good at avoiding food with poisons.What would best explain this observation?

The principal prediction that can be made from the expression Br > C is that _____.

A pied kingfisher in its first year of life helps in the feeding of three full siblings who would not have made it without the helper's efforts.In this first year the bird does not raise any of its own offspring.In the second year of its life the pied kingfisher mates and raises two of its own offspring.After the first two years what is the inclusive fitness of the pied kingfisher?

Based on your knowledge of cost-benefit analysis,why would you expect some white-fronted bee-eaters to fly very far away from the nests to forage when there are food sources nearby?

Figure 51.6 Use the following information and Figure 51.6 when answering the corresponding question(s). The following are an abstract and figure from a paper that explores the evolutionary relationship between a protein kinase and behavior (M.Fitzpatrick and M.Sokolowski.2004.In search of food: Exploring the evolutionary link between cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG)and behavior.Integrative and Comparative Biology 44:28-36). Abstract: Despite an immense amount of variation in organisms throughout the animal kingdom many of their genes show substantial conservation in DNA sequence and protein function.Here we explore the potential for a conserved evolutionary relationship between genes and their behavioral phenotypes.We investigate the evolutionary history of cGMP-dependent protein kinase (PKG)and its possible conserved function in food-related behaviors.First identified for its role in the foraging behavior of fruit flies,the PKG encoded by the foraging gene had since been associated with the maturation of behavior (from nurse to forager)in honey bees and the roaming and dwelling food-related locomotion in nematodes.These parallels encouraged us to construct protein phylogenies using 32 PKG sequences that include 19 species.Our analyses suggest five possible evolutionary histories that can explain the apparent conserved link between PKG and behavior in fruit flies,honey bees and nematodes.Three of these raise the hypothesis that PKG influences the food-related behaviors of a wide variety of animals including vertebrates.Moreover it appears that the PKG gene was duplicated some time between the evolution of nematodes and a common ancestor of vertebrates and insects whereby current evidence suggest only the for-like PKG might be associated with food-related behavior. Neighbor joining trees depicting the evolutionary relationships of 32 PKG kinase domain and C-terminal amino acid sequences spanning 19 species of protozoans and metazoans.Values at the nodes represent the results of 5000 bootstrap replications.Lineages with known behavioral links with PKG are indicated by gray branches. -Using Figure 51.6 and the accompanying paragraph,and knowing that the PKG encoded by the foraging gene has recently been associated with the maturation of out-of-nest behavior in honeybees,what would be a logical explanation for this relationship?

A lizard's bobbing dewlap (a colorful flap of skin hanging from an Anolis lizard's throat)is an example of a(n)_____.

In the last phase of migration,birds seem to be using _____ to determine their final destination.

Figure 51.4 -If the diagram in Figure 51.4 shows the dances of bees in a hive at twelve noon on March 21 in the northern hemisphere,which dance is communicating that the food is to the south of the hive?

Which of the following experiments best addresses the hypothesis that moths stop flying in response to high-intensity bat sounds?

Recent research has shown that von Frisch was not completely correct about the difference between the round dance and waggle dance.The new information suggests that _____.

Scientists believe that the direction birds go when migrating is guided in part by _____.

What was the main reason the honeybees switched from the "round dance" to the "waggle dance"?

Figure 51.5 -In Figure 51.5,which is the most logical conclusion from the data?

In the second year of its life a pied kingfisher mates and raises two of its own offspring.What is its direct fitness in this second year of its life?