Chapter 40: Animal Behavior
Modified from Principles of Life: Hillis, Sadava, Hill and Price.
40.1 Behavior Is Controlled by the Nervous System but Is Not Necessarily Deterministic
1. Design an experiment to show that song learning in birds has a neural basis.
2. Respond to the statement, “Human behavior is hard-wired by genetics.”
40.2 Behavior Is influenced by Development and Learning
3. You have been asked to develop a protocol for raising young California condors from hatching to eventual release to the wild. Given what you know about the effects of early experience on subsequent behavior, what recommendations would you make.
4. A researcher interested in studying the effects on adult behavior of malnourishment early in life establishes two groups of young rats. One group has free access to food and the other has limited access to food. In adulthood, both groups have free access to food and individuals from each group are scored on several behavioral tests. Respond to the statement, “Because rats in both groups have free access to food in adulthood, their behavior on tests will be indistinguishable.”
40.3 Behavior is Integrated with the Rest of Function
5. A researcher studying male frogs in their night chorus wishes to get an estimate of male body size without catching and measuring individual males. What could the researcher monitor from a distance that would provide such an estimate?
40.4 Moving through Space Presents Distinctive Challenges
6. To test whether mice use landmarks when returning home to their nests, a researcher introduced a mouse to an experimental room and gave it a few days to make a nest. Then the researcher placed obvious landmarks, such as logs and rocks, near the nest. At the start of the second week, the researcher sees the mouse leave its nest and quickly moves the logs and rocks to a new location in the room. This test is repeated with several different mice. Each mouse always returned to its nest without difficulty; none of the mice headed toward the new location of the rocks and logs. Should the researcher conclude that landmarks are unimportant to mice when orienting in their environment? Why or Why not?
7. How does a bee that has found a patch of flowers measure the distance to the patch and the direction of the patch so it can inform other members of the hive to the patch’s location.
40.5 Social Behavior is Widespread
8. While studying a colony of vampire bats you notice that individuals that have successfully obtained a blood meal on a given night often share some of their meal with other colony members that have been unsuccessful in obtaining a meal. Develop two hypotheses to explain this apparently altruistic act.
40.6 Behavior Helps Structure Ecological Communities and Processes
9. How do territories differ from home ranges? Name one cost and one benefit of maintaining a territory.
10. Why are matings between individuals of different species less common under natural conditions than under captive conditions?
Additional Resources: use the web addresses listed
· Animated Tutorial 40.1 Time-Compensated Solar Compass PoL2e.com/at40.1
· Animated Tutorial 40.2 Homing Simulation PoL2e.com/at40.2
· Animated Tutorial 40.3 The Costs of Defending a Territory PoL2e.com/at40.3
· Animated Tutorial 40.4 Foraging Behavior PoL2e.com/at40.4
· Activity 40.1 Honey Bee Dance Communication PoL2e.com/ac40.1
· Activity 40.2 Concept Mapping PoL2e.com/ac40.2