Ch 3: Behavioral Ecology

• Proximate: "how" explanation-signal triggers response
• Ultimate: "why" explanation - behavior increases fitness (passing genes on)
• Fixed action pattern- innate behavior (behavior reflex, does the same response every time)
• Most behavior is flexible and condition dependent. It is a mix of innate and learned behaviors
• Theoretically, animals will evolve to behave in the most optimal way: highest benefit for least cost
• Defending territory has costs and benefits
• Optimize territory size based on costs and benefits
• Benefit is exclusive to resource
• Optimality theory: predicts an animal will behave so that it maximizes benefits of a behavior minus its costs
• Optimal foraging: animal seeks to obtain the most energy possible with least expenditure of energy
• Sexual selection promotes traits to increase an organism's mating success
• Form of sexual selection: intrasexual, members compete for most mating
• Form of sexual selection: intersexual: chooses mate based on characteristics
• Female will choose the male that gives her offspring best chance at survival
• Natural selection favors production of rarer sex so that sex ratio is kept balanced at 1:1
• Monogamy: individual mates with one partner at a time
• Polygamy: mate with more than one partner at once (single prenatal care)
• Polygyny: (many female) one male mates with many females
• Polyandry: (many male) one female mates with many males
• Br>C. Benefits (B) x Relatedness (r) > Cost (c)
• Hamilton's rule states: most likely to do something altruistic when: 1. fitness benefit are high for recipient 2. Altruist and recipient are close relatives 3. fitness cost to altruist is low
• Direct fitness: derived from an individual's own offspring
• Indirect fitness: helping relatives produce more offspring (ex: nieces/nephews)
• Inclusive fitness: combination of both, drives a lot of behavior
• Kin selection: natural selection that acts through benefits to relatives and results in increased indirect fitness
• Reciprocal Altruism: exchange in fitness benefits that are separated in time. This is an explanation for helpful behavior in unrelated animals