Download here

Animal Behavior, first hour exam
Feb. 19, 2007
Answer all questions. Give examples wherever possible.
1. Suppose a behavior that you observe is not the best, and you find nothing wrong with
the organism (no damage, no bad mutations). How might a non-optimal behavior
be caused by each of the following. Give an example.
a) hormones (10)
non-optimal normal behavior = the lag time it takes a hormone to dissipate.
Animal may do something odd with excess energy – mate with human, fight a bush, etc.
b) age of the organism (10)
young don’t yet know how to do something perfectly or optimally
c) genes. (10)
the FAP of sitting on an egg – you incubate a nest parasite egg as well as your own, no
discrimination
d) sense organs (10)
if you cant sense it you may not react appropriately – frogs eating small twigs as well as
bugs,
2. Fixed action pattern
a). What is a fixed action pattern? (10)
need to mention, stereotyped and genetic controlled and in response to an IRM
b) Can they change during the life of an organism? How? (10)
not much, but animal wont respond so strongly if the last time nothing happened. The
sitting on a light bulb- nest time not for as long a time.
c) Give a proximate and an ultimate explanation of why they happen in an
organism. (20)
;proximate = the pathway from sense organ through nerves, muscles, etc. that causes the
behavior to occur.
Ultimate = evolutionary natural selection to favor the response over others.
3. You observe a behavior
a) By what methods (there may be more than one) might you determine whether
a behavior that you are observing is the “best” for the organism in
question? (10)
modeling – what might be best
learning – does it change through life of organism
comparison – find those that don’t behave that way – what is going on
B) What is meant by ‘best.’ How do you determine what is best and is ‘best’ the
same in all situations? (10)
Best means leaving most offspring but we seldom measure this. Usually we measure
Efficiency in energy, cost benefit, max energy per unit time, etc. in some situations, best
is avoiding predators, in others, simply maximum calorie intake per unit time.