Animal Behavior

Front 1

inbreeding depression

Back 1

The tendency of inbred organisms to have lower fitness than non-inbred members of their species

Front 2

migration

Back 2

The regular movement back and forth between two relatively distant locations by animals that use resources concentrated in these different sites

Front 3

territory

Back 3

small subset of home range that animal will be protect, can be seasonal

Front 4

territoriality

Back 4

exhibiting a readiness to defend an area against intruders

Front 5

home range

Back 5

an area that an animal occupies but does not defend, in contrast to a territory, which is defended

Front 6

evolutionarily stable strategy

Back 6

that set of rules of behavior that when adopted by a certain proportion of the population cannot be replaced by an alternative strategy

Front 7

resource-holding power

Back 7

the inherent capacity of an individual to defeat others when competing for useful resources; if you can hold territory with resources, may be more successful reproducing

Front 8

dear enemy effect

Back 8

two neighboring territorial animals become less aggressive toward one another once territorial borders are well-established.

Front 9

by-product hypothesis

Back 9

an explanation for a maladaptive or nonadaptive attribute that is said to occur as a by-product of a proximate mechanism that has some other adaptive consequence for individuals

Front 10

dominance heirarchy

Back 10

a social ranking within a group, in which some individuals give way to others, often conceding useful resources to others without a fight

Front 11

display

Back 11

a stereotyped action used as a communication signal by individuals

Front 12

sensory exploitation

Back 12

the evolution of signals that happen to activate established sensory systems of signal receivers in ways that elicit responses favorable to the signal sender

Front 13

parthenogenetic

Back 13

animal that can reproduce by the development of unfertilized eggs into individuals

Front 14

cumulative selection

Back 14

Mutations accumulating over time

Front 15

honest signal

Back 15

signal that conveys accurate information about the signaler's real fighting ability or true value as a potential mate

Front 16

illegitimate receiver

Back 16

an individual that listens to the signals of others, thereby gaining information that it uses to reduce the fitness of the signaler

Front 17

illegitimate signaler

Back 17

an individual that produces signals that may deceive others into responding in ways that reduce the fitness of the signal receiver

Front 18

parental investment

Back 18

resources parents put into reproducing and raising offspring

Front 19

operational sex ratio

Back 19

the ratio of receptive males to receptive females over a given period

Front 20

sex role reversal

Back 20

a change in the typical behavior patterns of males and females as when, for example, females compete for access to males, and when males choose selectively among potential mates

Front 21

nuptial gift

Back 21

a food item transferred by a male to a female just prior to or during copulation

Front 22

spermatophore

Back 22

ball of sperm that can be left somewhere and a female will pick it up, requires no sexual intercourse

Front 23

sexual selection

Back 23

a form of natural selection that occurs when individuals vary in their ability to compete with others for mates or to attract members of the opposite sex. as with natural selection, when the variation among individuals is correlated with genetic differences, sexual selection leads to genetic changes in population

Front 24

the Coolidge effect

Back 24

Recovery time is different when it is with the same female versus different females. A male will be ready faster when it is with a different female

Front 25

intrasexual selection

Back 25

selection within males

Front 26

satellite male

Back 26

a male that waits near another male to intercept females drawn to the signals produced by the other male or attracted by the resources defended by the other male

Front 27

sperm competition

Back 27

competition between males that determines whose sperm will fertilize a female's eggs when both males' sperm have been accepted by that female

Front 28

mate guarding

Back 28

actions taken by males (usually) to prevent a sexual partner from acquiring sperm from other males

Front 29

good parent theory

Back 29

an explanation for female preferences for males whose appearance or behavior signals that these potential mates are likely to provide above-average parental care for their offspring

Front 30

healthy mate theory

Back 30

an explanation for preferences by females for males whose appearance or behavior signals that these potential mates are unlikely to transmit communicable diseases or parasites to them

Front 31

good genes theory

Back 31

the argument that mate choice advances individual fitness because it provides the offspring of choosy individuals with genes that promote reproductive success by advancing the offspring's chances of survival or reproductive success

Front 32

runaway selection theory

Back 32

a form of sexual selection that occurs when female mating preferences for certain male attributes create a positive feedback loop favoring both males with these attributes and females that prefer them

Front 33

chase-away selection theory

Back 33

natural selection favors adaptations that benefit one sex and expense other sex

Front 34

sexual dimorphism

Back 34

phenotype differences between males and females in the same species; can be size, color

Front 35

hermaphroditism

Back 35

an individual is born with ovarian and testicular tissue

Front 36

polyandry

Back 36

a mating system in which a female has several partners in a breeding season

Front 37

mate-guarding monogamy

Back 37

the mating system that occurs when one or the other member of a pair guards his or her partner in ways that prevent that partner from acquiring an additional mate

Front 38

mate-assistance monogamy

Back 38

monogamy that arises because a male gains more fitness by offering parental care for the offspring of his mate than by seeking out additional sexual partners

Front 39

female-enforced monogamy

Back 39

mating system in which females prevent their mates from copulating with more than one individual, resulting in partnerships of one female and one male

Front 40

extra-pair copulations

Back 40

a mating by a male or female with someone other than his or her primary partner in a seemingly monogamous species

Front 41

precocial

Back 41

offspring that do not require a lot of parental care

Front 42

fertility insurance

Back 42

an explanation for why females might mate with more than one male per breeding cycle, with the benefit being an increase in egg fertilization rate

Front 43

genetic compatibility hypothesis

Back 43

the ability of genes present in some sperm to complement the genes present in some eggs, resulting in an increased likelihood of the development of superior offspring

Front 44

material benefits hypothesis

Back 44

an explanation for why females of some species might mate with several males per breeding cycle, with benefits coming to polyandrous females because they gain access to the material benefits controlled by the several males

Front 45

female defense polygyny

Back 45

polygynous males directly defend several mates

Front 46

resource defense polygyny

Back 46

polygynous males acquire several mates attracted to resources under the males' control

Front 47

lek polygyny

Back 47

polygynous males attract several mates to a display territory

Front 48

female distribution theory

Back 48

when females are widely scattered, more beneficial for male to be monogamous; when they are clumped, could stake out territory and mate with different females

Front 49

polygyny threshold model

Back 49

an explanation for polygyny based on the premise that females will gain fitness by mating with an already paired male if the resources controlled by that male greatly exceed those under the control of unmated males

Front 50

scramble competition

Back 50

polygynous males acquire several widely scattered mates by finding them first

Front 51

explosive breeding assemblage

Back 51

the temporary formation of large groups of mating individuals

Front 52

lek

Back 52

a traditional display site that females visit to select a mate from among the males displaying at their small resource-free territories

Front 53

hotspot hypothesis

Back 53

a location whose properties attract sexually receptive females to the male able to hold the site against rival males

Front 54

hotshot hypothesis

Back 54

a male whose attributes are especially appealing to sexually receptive females

Front 55

female preference hypothesis

Back 55

an explanation for the formation of leks in which females prefer to choose mates from a group rather than by inspecting potential mates one by one

Front 56

siblicide

Back 56

the killing of a sibling by a brother or sister

Front 57

parent-offspring conflict

Back 57

the clash of interests that occurs when parents can gain fitness by withholding parental care or resources from some offspring in order to invest in others now or later, even though the deprived offspring would gain more fitness by receipt of parental care or resources

Front 58

mutualism

Back 58

a mutually beneficial relationship or cooperative action

Front 59

reciprocal altruism

Back 59

a helpful action is repaid at a later date by the recipient of assistance

Front 60

altruism

Back 60

helpful behavior that raises the recipient's direct fitness while lowering the donor's direct fitness

Front 61

coefficient of relatedness

Back 61

the probability that an allele present in one individual will be present in a close relative; the proportion of the total genotype of one individual present in the other, as a result of shared ancestry

Front 62

indirect selection

Back 62

the process that occurs when individuals differ in their effects on the survival of nondescendant kin, creating differences in the indirect fitness of the individuals interacting with this category of kin

Front 63

direct selection

Back 63

a synonym for natural selection acting on hereditary differences among individuals in the production of surviving offspring

Front 64

kin selection

Back 64

the process that occurs when individuals differ in ways that affect their parental care or helping behavior, and thus the survival of their own offspring or the survival of nondescendant kin

Front 65

nondescendant kin

Back 65

relatives other than offspring

Front 66

direct fitness

Back 66

the genes contributed by an individual via personal reproduction in the bodies of surviving offspring

Front 67

indirect fitness

Back 67

the genes contributed by an individual indirectly by helping nondescendant kin, in effect creating relatives that would not have existed without the help of the individual

Front 68

inclusive fitness

Back 68

the sum of an individual's direct and indirect fitness

Front 69

Hamilton's rule

Back 69

the argument made by W.D. Hamilton that altruism can spread through a population where rB> C (r being the coefficient of relatedness between the altruist and the individual helped, B being the fitness benefit received by the helped individual, and C being the cost of altruism in terms of the direct fitness lost by the altruist due to his or her actions)

Front 70

diploid

Back 70

having two copies of each gene in one's genotype

Front 71

haploid

Back 71

having only one copy of each gene in the genotype, as for example in the sperm and eggs of diploid organisms

Front 72

transactional theory

Back 72

the view that social units form as a result of the ability of individuals to negotiate for reproductive opportunities with one another

Front 73

concession model

Back 73

derived from transactional theory, based on premise that dominant members of the group concede some reproductive rights to other in return for their cooperation while staying with the group

Front 74

eusociality

Back 74

a social system in which specialized nonreproducing castes work for the reproductive members of the group

Front 75

indirect reciprocity

Back 75

a form of reciprocity in which a helpful action is repaid at a later date by individuals other than the recipient of assistance

Front 76

sociobiology

Back 76

a discipline that uses evolutionary theory as the foundation for the study of social behavior; often used to refer to studies of this sort involving human beings

Front 77

arbitrary culture theory

Back 77

the view that human behavior is the arbitrary product of whatever cultural traditions people are exposed to within their society; thus, our actions are not expected to be explicable in evolutionary terms

Front 78

interspecific brood parasite

Back 78

different species, one mother is offloading all parental care to mother of different species

Front 79

altricial

Back 79

offspring is dependent on parental care for a long time; opposite of precocial

Front 80

intraspecific brood parasite

Back 80

Within same species, lay off some parental care to another individual, but not all of it

Front 81

Mafia hypothesis

Back 81

Some victims of brood parasites put up with it because otherwise they would be punished; example is a bird laying egg in nest of smaller victim, if egg is dumped out the bigger organism will then destroy the rest of the nest as revenge and all of the offspring will die

Front 82

parental favoritism

Back 82

parent favors a certain gender to raise the offspring that is more likely to survive; if things are good, favor males because they can reproduce more since sperm is easy to make

Front 83

hawk-dove model

Back 83

used to describe aggression of animals, hawk animals are ones that are willing to fight, doves will only bluff. If the cost of fighting is low but the value of resources is high, be a hawk. If cost is high and value is low, be a dove

Front 84

bystander effects

Back 84

If individual is observing and sees a challenger lose really badly to the main male, lower challenger may realize that he should challenge the challenger in order to move up in the ranks; uses the results of watching a fight to change his mind about whether or not he should

Front 85

audience effects

Back 85

two males fighting while a female watches might change the way the battle goes

Front 86

war of attrition model

Back 86

a model of aggression in which two contestants compete for a resource of value V by persisting while constantly accumulating costs over the time t that the contest lasts

Front 87

sequential assessment model

Back 87

combat occurs through series of different behaviors, the combatant uses information from last round to decide if they should keep going or not

Front 88

haplodiploid hypothesis

Back 88

in species where the males are all haploids, using Hamilton's rule indirect fitness will dominate over direct fitness in evolution because it will pass on more genes

Front 89

asexuality

Back 89

no sexual attraction to anyone

Front 90

lek paradox

Back 90

males get together and show off, females come and check them out. Problem is females tend to pick same top males, all males will end up being genetically similar, so there should not be a clear dominant male if they are so similar

Front 91

secondary helpers

Back 91

indicate helpers that mate with or are not related offspring of the pair being assisted

Front 92

primary helpers

Back 92

the helper being offspring of the pair and not involved in mating (more common)