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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.