Animal Behavior Test 3

-A. Classical ethological view of communication: one animal is trying to inform another animal.-B. An action on the part of one organism that alters the probability of a behavior in another organism in a fashion adaptive to either one or both of the participants- Wilson (1975). Uca signaling (crab with one big claw- he may alter the likelihood of mating eventually by shaking his claw/doing a little dance.

-A. To share "information?" To inform another animal about what one will do next or about one's internal state- NO!-B. To increase fitness! (by moving another animal)

-Bats pick up echoes from insects when they emit ultrasonic pulses. Build up a visual-like image of world. Different types of signals (visual, auditory, chemical, tactile, electrical) have different characteristics.

-1. Effective distance (should you use visual, auditory, etc.)-2. Ability to be localized (are you using a warning signal or trying to find a mate, etc.) (visual, auditory, chemical signals, etc.)-3. Ability to go around obstacles (is there dense cover of some sort, etc.)-4. Transmission Rate-5. Durability (fadeout time) (How long does the signal stick around in the environment?)-6. Effectiveness at night (can you produce your own light?, etc.)-7. Energetic expense

-The use of specialized, species-typical morphology or behavior to influence the current or future behavior of another individual. (Owren, et. al., 2010) (distanced themselves from position of information exchange).-Is a process in which evolutionarily specialized morphology or behavior in a signaler is used to encode and convey information to a perceiver, who in turn relies on evolved neural and perceptual processes to decode and recover information. You can't study this- impossible (old model) No one can measure information exchange.

-How do some animals' features become so exaggerated- Peacock's train of feathers.-Evolution may "exploit" pre-existing sensory biases. Two Examples: Swordtails and zebra finches. -1. Swordtails (fish): long extension from bottom of tail- huge and long. Females come to the situation with preference for really long tails. Experiment: snip off tails of swordfish- glue it to end of fish with no tail (females have never seen any males of their species before) When given the choice, they prefer the swordtail. There's a pre-existing bias. Swordtail evolved because of female preference for fish with little nubs at tails- bred until the point of very long tail.-2. Zebra finches: White stripe in front of eye. Put feathers on top of head (different colors- some red, green, none, or white) Females greatly preferred huge white feather on top of head. (These females have seen males with white stripe on face) If feather on head is considered an extension of white facial stripe, females should be, and are, especially attracted to them.

-Dawkins and Krebs (1978): Talked about animal communication as influencing behavior- talked about honest and deceptive signals. -A. toads (Bufo)- During Amplexus (male on top of female)- male will croak at approach of another male who wants to knock him off and take female- experiment: wanted to alter that noise- need the male on top to be quiet- put a rubber band around their mouth- he can't make signal. If small defender (male) is on top of female and ribbet of small toad and large toad is piped in, if croak of small male, then many attacks- fewer attacks when large male croak is signaled. Approaching male is much more likely to attack when croak of small male than large male. Attacks are also greatly reduced when toads can see larger male on top (even when his croak sounds like smaller male croak)- only slightly more likely to attack.-Males can't change pitch of their croak- it's an "honest signal." In some species, they can alter signal a little bit "deceptive signal"- loosen up vocal apparatus in warm/cold water- helps them send deceptive signal- females are susceptible to this and will go toward small male in warm water.-B. Red deer on Rum: Compete for females- engage in parallel walk to "size each other up" if they can't settle their disputes by signaling (roaring contests, parallel walk), they will fight. Roaring signals are thought to be an honest signal of males stamina- He will tire out and not be able to roar anymore- honest- get other males to move.-C.Fireflies: Big dipper firefly- fireflies all have different flash patterns (probably males searching for females) Photinus ignitus, photuris pryalis (2 different genus names) Photuris females eat photinus males (female flashes male back his signal, but eats him when he gets there.) Photinus males continue to fall for this because photuris females are relatively rare in their populations- it's usually a photinus female. If there were a lot of photuris females, they would eat all the photinus males. "Femme fatales."-D. Young birds-1. Begging costs: Could attract a predator. The loudest bird is the most likely to get more food. 2. Tree swallows feed deprived chicks more: Took 2 chicks away from nest, put them back, they were fed more than the other chicks. They engage in vocal displays to let parents know they haven't eaten.3. Pied flycatcher parents bring more food if "extra" begging calls are played. Food deprived prarie voles beg more when they have been away from mom for 55 mins than they do if they have been away for 5 mins. If mom is present, 5 min group begs as much as 55 min group. Maybe they think that if mom is in environment, there is some real benefit to being attached to mom's nipple.

-A. Bees return from foraging and dance in the dark on the comb, surrounded by hive-mates.-B. These dances influence the foraging paths of bees that subsequently leave the hive. Round Dance: Used when food is found within 50-75 meters of hive. They stay close to the hive, but don't go in any certain direction. Waggle Dance: Used when food is found beyond 50-75 meters away from the hive. They do it on the vertical side of the comb. They take off in the right direction. This dance influences foragers to search in a particular direction at a particular distance for food. Do their dance at an angle between the food source and the sun. Dance at an angle the same distance from the vertical as they would from the sun.-Von Frisch: Test of direction: After a bee found a food source, Von Frisch set up other food sources around- the majority of bees returned to the food source indicated by dance. Did the same with distance.-Results: Robot Bee- little bee model that vibrates as real bees do (Info about distance is conveyed through vibrations). Using this model, they can send bees wherever they want.

-1. In terms of energy consumption en route?-2. In terms of the perception of motion en route?-How do ants judge distance? They go an haphazard trail, but return in straight line home- Experiment: Training channel- go through, get food, go back to nest- move the channel while ant is inside- go back and forth at the end looking for nest- maybe they have some mechanism that allows them to keep track of the number of steps they take. Alter number of steps taken on return. Shortened some ant legs and some elongated their legs. The ants on stilts overshoot, the stumpy-legged ones don't go far enough. The normal ants go appropriate distance. -Tunnels for bees to fly through- a tube with complex visual stimulation inside and one with simple visual stimuli inside. Tunnels located 35m from hive. (well within range of round dance). Narrow 6-m-long tunnels with complex patterns on walls- do waggle dance (but only 41 m away) If flight is 35m, round dance. May have something to do with complex stimuli about how much distance they think they have covered. With 41 m and horizontal stripes. do round dance, with only 12 m and complex, do waggle dance.-There is something about visual stimuli that helps bees measure distance- they don't measure by energy expenditure.

(Natural Selection=Differential Reproduction)-In the beginning, Miller-Urey Experiment: applied electricity to basic chemicals-cooled it-heated again, shocked it, kept doing this- with these simple components, they could create more complex molecules.

-1. Richard Dawkins (The selfish gene)- complex chains of molecules appear.-2. Stacks of chains are manufactured.-3. Some stacks "unstack" (replicators).-4. Molecules in competition for "building blocks."-5. Miscopying

-Gametes of 2 different sizes (male-little sperm, female- big egg)-1.Gametes of equal size fuse- in the beginning, isogamy (all members of population had sex cells (gametes) of equal size)-2. Variation in gamete size.-3. Small gametes "parasitize" large gametes.-4. Origin of male and female.

-1. Natural Selection-2. Sexual Selectiona. sexual dimorphism (size)b. sex roles differ-"The advantage which certain individuals have over others of the same sex and species, in exclusive relation to reproduction."-The Permian mammal-like herbivore Diictodon, the oldest known example of sexually dimorphic armament (260 mya)- big tooth: signals male competition for mates.

-1. Fruit flies (cherry fruit fly)-2. Five males, Five females-3. Number of matings-4. Number of offspring-Results:-1. Only 4% of females failed to mate (96% of females had offspring).-2. 21% of males did not mate (79% of males mated)-3. Males increased their number of offspring with each additional mate.-4. Females had equal numbers of offspring whether they mated once or 2 or 3 times.

-1.Male reproductive success is more variable than that of females. (more males than females don't mate, lots of males who mate mate with more than one female- some males with low reproductive success, some with high- much less variability with females).-2. Males gain more in reproductive success from repeated matings than do females. -3. Males generally more eager to mate and are relatively indiscriminate whereas females are more discriminating.