I read that a group of butterflies migrate around an ancient mountain that their ancestors used to fly around (mountain is gone now). Could the cranes reared by humans be taught to fly an unnecessary loop in their route? Would they continue that path, or realize that there is a shorter way?
Signals can be sent visually, acoustically, electrically, chemically or mechanically. In the case with the elk, there is a mating call used to signal the female elk. This would be an example of acoustic signalling.
In altruism, there is always a fitness advantage that can be either direct or indirect. Reciprocal altruism is relatively rare, because the animal has to be intelligent enough to remember who has helped them in the past.
We used to have a spider that lived outside my apartment that looks exactly like the one on the Signal Types slide and it would bounce it's web to scare me
So, when talking about the way communication occurs. It is similar to homeostasis since there is a sender, signal, receiver, and some response? One is to maintain communication inside an organism and the other with other organisms?
Homeostasis generally involves some sort of cellular communication, however, I wouldn't say that communication between organisms is really homeostasis.
Generally when we are talking about behavior, we are talking about animals. Some scientists believe that plants or fungus or protists have behavior, but it is most easily observable in animals.
Occasionally there are animals who end up eating their young? Why? For example, when I was young my rat had babies, and then the mother ended up eating the babies? Is that something another type of animal would do?
Eating ones own babies is something that animals typically only do when under stress. It reduces the fitness of the animal to eat their own babies, so it would be an abnormal behavior, or they might do it if they were food stressed and needed to do it to survive. Eating someone else's babies, however, could be advantageous.
Sometimes they do, but a lot of times, if only one parent is needed to raise offspring, then the male can abandon leaving the female to raise the offspring be herself because the female has to carry the young after internal fertilization
With Altruism, wouldn't evolution eventually decrease the number of animals that exhibit this behaviour if the gene is constantly selected against? Can behaviours just stop all together in this case?
In order for altruistic behavior to persist there has to be some fitness benefit, either indirect benefits in the form of reproduction of relatives, or benefits that occur later.
I read that a group of butterflies migrate around an ancient mountain that their ancestors used to fly around (mountain is gone now). Could the cranes reared by humans be taught to fly an unnecessary loop in their route? Would they continue that path, or realize that there is a shorter way?
If we taught the cranes to fly an irregular path, they would keep flying that way. We could teach them to avoid airports for example.
Besides pheromones, how else are signals sent to other animals like with the bull elk to the cow elk?
Signals can be sent visually, acoustically, electrically, chemically or mechanically. In the case with the elk, there is a mating call used to signal the female elk. This would be an example of acoustic signalling.
How common would reciprocal altruism be accounted for vs other behaviors. Which behavior is the most common, the ones that benefit their fitness?
In altruism, there is always a fitness advantage that can be either direct or indirect. Reciprocal altruism is relatively rare, because the animal has to be intelligent enough to remember who has helped them in the past.
We used to have a spider that lived outside my apartment that looks exactly like the one on the Signal Types slide and it would bounce it's web to scare me
Webs are very costly for spiders to make so she was probably trying to get you to notice the web so that you wouldn't destroy it accidentally.
So, when talking about the way communication occurs. It is similar to homeostasis since there is a sender, signal, receiver, and some response? One is to maintain communication inside an organism and the other with other organisms?
Homeostasis generally involves some sort of cellular communication, however, I wouldn't say that communication between organisms is really homeostasis.
are Tinbergen's questions only revolving around the behavior of animals?
Generally when we are talking about behavior, we are talking about animals. Some scientists believe that plants or fungus or protists have behavior, but it is most easily observable in animals.
Occasionally there are animals who end up eating their young? Why? For example, when I was young my rat had babies, and then the mother ended up eating the babies? Is that something another type of animal would do?
Eating ones own babies is something that animals typically only do when under stress. It reduces the fitness of the animal to eat their own babies, so it would be an abnormal behavior, or they might do it if they were food stressed and needed to do it to survive. Eating someone else's babies, however, could be advantageous.
Why don’t species with internal fertilization have male parental care?
Sometimes they do, but a lot of times, if only one parent is needed to raise offspring, then the male can abandon leaving the female to raise the offspring be herself because the female has to carry the young after internal fertilization
Why does the percentage of females being reproductively active fluctuate?
Are you talking about in the lizard example or more generally?
With Altruism, wouldn't evolution eventually decrease the number of animals that exhibit this behaviour if the gene is constantly selected against? Can behaviours just stop all together in this case?
In order for altruistic behavior to persist there has to be some fitness benefit, either indirect benefits in the form of reproduction of relatives, or benefits that occur later.