Animal Behavior: Migration, Kin Selection, and Social Dynamics

Posted on May 15, 2024 in Physics

Migration

  • Monarch butterflies use the position of the sun as a sun compass to guide their migration.
  • Polar bears are the world’s largest terrestrial carnivores, hunt seals in the winter on pack ice, and tend to lose body mass in the summer.
  • The avian migrant that makes the longest non-stop flight of any land or shorebird is the bar-tailed godwit, which can fly for 3 to 8 days.
  • In animals, the pacemaker is an internal clock in the brain that may regulate migratory behavior, feeding behavior, the release of hormones, and sleep-wake patterns.
  • Monarch butterflies do not learn their migratory behavior.
  • A proximal explanation of the neural mechanism of the mammal pacemaker would involve the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the brain just above the optic nerve.
  • Circannual rhythms involve seasonal cycles, whereas circadian rhythms involve daily cycles.
  • A good example of altitudinal migration is elk in the Rocky Mountains moving upslope in the spring.
  • As many as 300 species of North American birds migrate to Central and South America each autumn.
  • Humpback whales are ocean migrants that are found feeding in polar waters in the summer and tropical waters in the winter, where they breed and give birth.
  • One of the more remarkable examples of long-distance migration involves blackpoll warblers. These small birds breed in conifer forests in Canada and in autumn fly almost non-stop to South America.
  • Monarch butterflies migrate south in large numbers beginning in late summer. Most of the North American population winters in Mexico, with a smaller number wintering in California.
  • Regarding migration, orientation means choosing the right direction, and navigation means maintaining a direction.

Kin Selection

  • In Belding’s ground squirrels, females sound alarms when a predator appears more often than males. Males tend to disperse from their natal territory, while females tend to stay.
  • The coefficient of relatedness is a measure of the number of genes two individuals share by direct descent.
  • Hamilton’s rule states that a gene that codes for an altruistic act is favored when rB < C.
  • A study of acorn woodpeckers, which live in family groups, showed that birds that live in large territories have a survival advantage by living together.
  • Haplodiploid genetic systems in the Hymenoptera have the following characteristics: sister workers are related to one another, males are haploid, and females are diploid.
  • Parent-offspring conflict in animals is best described as offspring demanding more investment than the parents are capable or willing to provide.
  • Regarding kin recognition in animals, the cues and mechanisms of recognition differ by species (e.g., different senses are used).
  • In which of the following situations would the level of parental investment in offspring be the highest? The mother is older, and the resources are scarce.
  • Which of the following is not true about sibling rivalry in egret chicks? Chicks that hatch late make up with a faster growth rate.
  • First cousins are related to each other by an R-value of .125, whereas full siblings are related to each other by an R-value of .5.
  • Emperor penguins use sound to identify their chicks.
  • Spadefoot toad tadpoles who are carnivores tend to spend less time with kin compared to herbivore tadpoles.

Social Dynamics

  • In Massachusetts, coyotes typically give birth in the month of April.
  • The radio telemetry research conducted by Dr. Way on coyotes is useful in determining nocturnal activity, social dynamics, and territory size.
  • Eastern coyotes are primarily nocturnal and typically travel up to 15 miles in any 24-hour period.
  • Howling by coyotes is used for intrapack communication.
  • Which of the following best describes Eastern coyotes? They are the result of hybridization between coyotes and wolves, and they have spread throughout the northeastern US in the last 100 years.

Short Answers

  • Four major North American flyways: Gulf, Northeastern, Central American
  • Alternatives to migration: hibernation and seasonal adaptations
  • All-or-nothing altruism is when an individual gives all they have to their siblings or a close relative.
  • Inclusive fitness = direct fitness + indirect fitness
  • The rule of thumb model of kin recognition assumes some offspring must be kin because they are in a nest or with other offspring. An example of this is a kookaburra chick being fed by other bird mothers.
  • Gestational diabetes is not a persistent disease so much as it is a temporary short-term consequence of the mother being pregnant and supporting the fetus. Most of the time, it goes away after birth.
  • Emlen’s work with indigo buntings involved investigating birds with a cage that had stars on top and patterns typical of the North and South. Changing the star patterns caused the birds to begin migration and showed that they navigated and oriented themselves using celestial methods.
  • Fairy wrens are from Australia. They stay with their parents for a while after reaching maturity and aid in caring for the next set of offspring. Sometimes they all ignore their own reproductive needs because of this.