Study Guide —BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY

SHORT ANSWER

1. Choose the most appropriate answer for each term.

a. Animals process and integrate information gained from experiences, then use it to vary or
change responses to stimuli.
b. Well-defined environmental cues that trigger suitable responses.
c. Term applied to genetically based behavioral reactions of hybrid offspring.
d. Time-dependent form of learning; triggered by exposure to sign stimuli and usually
occurring during sensitive periods of young animals.
e. A behavior performed without having been learned by actual environmental experience.
f. A piece of information about the external or internal environment that has been detected by a
receptor.
g. A program of coordinated muscle activity that runs to completion independently of feedback
from the environment.
h. Observable, coordinated responses to stimuli.

1. ______ intermediate response

2. ______ stimulus
3. ______ instinctive behavior
4. ______ sign stimuli
5. ______ fixed action pattern
6. ______ learned behavior
7. ______ imprinting
8. ______ animal behavior

2. Choose the most appropriate statement for each of the following terms.

a. Any behavior that helps perpetuate an individual's genes

b. Behavior expressed as interactions among individuals of the same species
c. Reproduction in which at least some of the offspring survive
d. A behavior that improves an individual's chance to reproduce regardless of the
impact on the population
e. Self-sacrificing behavior

1. ______ adaptive behavior

2. ______ reproductive success
3. ______ social behavior
4. ______ selfish behavior
5. ______ altruistic behavior

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3. Match each of the following terms to the appropriate statement.

a. The signaler touches the receiver in a ritualized manner.

b. Unambiguous cues sent and received by members of a species.
c. A combination of signals that are used to relay the intensity of the message.
d. A pattern of behavior that is a social signal.
e. Announces that the signaler is about to attack the receiver.
f. Induce the receiver to respond quickly.
g. Cause physiological responses.
h. These rituals must be performed prior to forming a mating pair.

1. ______ communication signals

2. ______ composite signal
3. ______ communication display
4. ______ signaling pheromones
5. ______ priming pheromones
6. ______ threat display
7. ______ courtship display
8. ______ tactile display

4. Complete the following table to supply the common names of the animals that fit the text examples of
sexual selection.

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5. Choose the most appropriate statement for each of the following items.

a. Competition for resources, rapid depletion of food resources, cannibalism, and greater
vulnerability to disease.
b. A simple society brought together by reproductive self-interest; in bluegill sunfish, the
larger, more powerful males tend to claim the central nesting locations.
c. The alarm calls of some mammals, and the writhing, regurgitating reaction of Australian
sawfly caterpillars to a disturbance.
d. Some individuals of a baboon troop adopt a subordinate status with respect to the other
members.
e. Social groups of predatory animals.

1. ______ disadvantages of sociality

2. ______ dominance hierarchy
3. ______ cooperative predator avoidance
4. ______ the selfish herd
5. ______ cooperative hunting

6. A sexually reproducing, (1)____________________ parent caring for offspring is not helping exact
(2)__________________ copies of itself. Each of its gametes, and each of its offspring, inherits
(3)___________________ of its genes. Other individuals of the social group that have the same (4)
_________________ also share genes with their parents. Two siblings are as (5) _______________
similar as a parent and its (6)___________________. Nephews and nieces share about
(7) _______________ of their uncle's genes.

(8)___________________ workers may be indirectly promoting genes for (9)_____ through altruistic
behavior that will benefit their close (10)____________________. All of the individuals in honeybee,
termite, and ant colonies are members of a great extended (11)____________________. Non-breeding
family members support siblings, a few of which are future kings and (12)__________________.
Although a guard bee dies after driving her stinger into a bear, siblings in the hive will perpetuate
some of her (13)____________________.

7. ___ The observable, coordinated responses that animals make to stimuli are what we call animal
______.
a. imprinting
b. instincts
c. behavior
d. learning

8. ___ In ______, a particular behavior is performed without having been learned by actual experience
in the environment.
a. natural selection
b. altruistic behavior
c. sexual selection
d. instinctive behavior

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 9. ___ Newly hatched goslings follow any large moving objects to which they are exposed shortly after
hatching; this is an example of ______.
a. homing behavior
b. imprinting
c. piloting
d. migration

10. ___ A young toad flips its sticky-tipped tongue and captures a bumblebee that stings its tongue; in the
future, the toad leaves bumblebees alone. This is ______.
a. instinctive behavior
b. a fixed reaction pattern
c. altruistic
d. learned behavior

11. ___ Self-sacrificing behavior is called ______.

a. altruism
b. instinctive
c. selfish
d. social

12. ___ The claiming of the more protected central locations of a colony by the largest, most powerful
males suggests ______.
a. cooperative predator avoidance
b. the selfish herd
c. dominance hierarchies
d. self-sacrificing behavior

13. ___ A chemical odor in the urine of male mice triggers and enhances estrus in female mice. This
chemical would be an example of a ______.
a. generic mouse pheromone
b. signaling pheromone
c. priming pheromone
d. threat display

14. ___ When musk oxen form a "ring of horns" against predators, it is _____.
a. a selfish herd
b. cooperative predator avoidance
c. self-sacrificing behavior
d. dominance hierarchy

15. ___ Competition among members of one sex for access to mates is called ______.
a. altruism
b. social behavior
c. inclusive fitness
d. sexual selection

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16. ___ A lek is a ______.
a. form of threat display
b. type of pheromone
c. communication signal
d. communal display ground

17. Define the term animal behavior.

18. What explains the fact that coastal and inland garter snakes of the same species have different food
preferences?

19. Describe the intermediate response obtained in Arnold's experiment with coastal and inland garter
snakes.

20. Explain instinctive behavior and give an example.

21. Define the term sign stimuli.

22. Describe and cite an example of a fixed action pattern.

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23. Distinguish learned behavior from instinctive behavior.

24. Explain imprinting.

25. Explain how adaptive behavior, social behavior, selfish behavior, and altruism can all promote an
individual's reproductive success.

26. Understand the various forms of communication signals and displays used by animals.

27. Distinguish between signaling and priming pheromones, and cite and example of each.

28. Explain the benefit of sexual selection.

29. Define a lek.

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30. List the types of costs and benefits of social organisms.

31. What is the theory of inclusive fitness?