Chapter 9

Which of the following is an example of a female mating with a male only after submitting him to a courtship ritual?

A female bower bird will mate with a male only after inspecting the small thatched structure he has built for her.

Which of the following is NOT a topic in animal behavior?

All of the above are topics in animal behavior.

Polygamous species:

Are usually sexually dimorphic, with males larger and more highly ornamented.

All of the following conditions are necessary for reciprocal altruism to evolve in a species except:

At least one of the sexes must not disperse so that some individuals always live near their kin.

Assume that you carry an allele, R, that causes you to help individuals to whom you are not related. This help increases their fitness and decreases yours. The frequency of allele R may still increase in the population:

if individuals you help are likely to return the favor and help you at some point in the future.

Most apparent acts of altruism in the animal kingdom have proved, on closer inspection, to be not truly altruistic. Instead, they have evolved as a consequence of either _____________________ or _____________________.

kin selection; reciprocal altruism

Polygamy and monogamy are two types of:

mating systems

Exclusive male parental care is much more prevalent in fish than in mammals because:

most fish reproduce by external fertilization while most mammals do not.

In a polyandrous mating system:

multiple males tend to mate with the same female.

In a random study of 1,000 wills, it was shown that ___________________ received the smallest share of a deceased's estate.

non-relatives

From an evolutionary perspective, behavior can best be viewed as:

part of the phenotype.

When the female silkworm moth is ready to mate, she:

releases a potent chemical into the air.

Biologist W.D. Hamilton stated that the more closely related two individuals are:

the more likely they are to act altruistically towards each other.

The more asymmetric the parental investment is between the sexes:

the more radical we expect the sexual dimorphism, both physically and behaviorally.

The waggle dance is:

used for food location in honeybees.

______________________ is an action or signal on the part of one organism that alters the behavior of another organism.

Communication

Gestational diabetes is thought to be the consequence of:

Conflict between the mother and fetus with respect to how much food the fetus with respect to how much food the fetus should be given; the mother is equally related to the fetus is not equally related to itself and any subsequent siblings.

Babies in the United States quickly and easily develop a fear of snakes. Yet they don't easily develop a fear of guns. Why?

Evolution can be slow in producing populations that are adapted to their environments.

Why do humans taste preferences exist?

Human feeding choices influence energy intake and, consequently, fitness.

In a species such as pigeons, in which males are almost indistinguishable in appearance from females, the most likely mating system is:

Monogamy.

Relative to birds, more mammalian species are:

Polygynous.

Mate guarding is a reproductive tactic that functions to:

Reduce paternity uncertainty.

Vampire bats:

Sometimes regurgitate blood into the mouth of an unrelated bat that is close to starving.

If you find a species of fish in which males are much more brightly colored and larger than females, what might you infer about their mating system?

They are polygynous.

When a goose spots an egg outside of its nest, the goose gets out of the nest and rolls the egg back. Once started, a goose continues the egg-retrieval movement all the way back to the nest, even if the egg is taken away during the process. This is called:

a fixed action pattern.

Among Natterjack toads in northern Europe, males produce booming calls to attract females. Females desire large males and the size of the male determines the volume of the call. Why is the Natterjack's call considered an "honest signal"?

because the call of a large Natterjack male cannot be faked by a smaller Natterjack male

Monogamy, a relatively rare system outside of the birds, evolves when:

both males and females have high and equal parental investment.

In birds, after fertilization but prior to emergence of the chicks, the development of the fertilized egg is:

external

Why is it so much easier for an infant to learn a complex language than for a college student to learn biology?

Both b) and c) -- Language is a feature with great evolutionary relevance for humans AND biology involves much more vocabulary than learning a complex language.

In a situation in which males guard eggs and care for the young without help from the female, which of the following statements would most likely be correct?

Females are more brightly colored than males and court males aggressively.

In mammals, as well as many other species, males generally compete for females. The best explanation for this phenomenon is:

Females have a higher parental investment.

In Belding's ground squirrels, why are females much more likely than males to engage in altruistic behavior by sounding alarm calls?

Females tend to remain in the area where they were born, so the females that call are warning their own kin.

Altruistic behavior in animals may be a result of kin selection, a theory maintaining that:

Genes promote the survival of copies of themselves when behaviors by animals possessing those genes assist other animals that share those genes.