Key Concepts
According to Dawkins, what is the primary goal of all reproductive strategies?
What is maximizing gene survival?
What do males fight over in bird populations?
What is territory, which acts as a license to breed?
Who proposed the “Restrained Breeder Hypothesis”?
Who is Wynne-Edwards?
What are the four main factors that determine population size?
What are births, deaths, immigrations, and emigrations?
What is the distinction between child-bearing and child-caring strategies in evolution?
What are bringing new individuals into the world and investing in the survival of existing ones?
What type of selection does Dawkins argue is not supported by evidence in population control?
What is group selection?
What role do dominance hierarchies play in birth control?
What is preventing lower-ranking individuals from breeding?
What does group selection theory say about why animals limit reproduction?
What is that they do it for the survival of the group or species?
Name one natural “population control” mechanism Dawkins discusses.
What is famine, disease, war, or birth control?
Why isn’t a “pure caring” strategy evolutionarily stable?
What is because it leads to population collapse due to no new offspring being born?
What evolutionary principle explains why individuals act in ways that seem altruistic but are not?
What is the selfish gene theory?
Why don’t outcasts fight to gain territory immediately?
What is because waiting for a better opportunity reduces risk of injury and increases survival?
How does Dawkins critique group selection?
What is by arguing individuals behave to maximize their own genetic success, not group survival?
What is the Beau Geste effect?
What is the strategy where individuals make noise to exaggerate population density and discourage reproduction by others?
What does the optimal selfish reproductive strategy include?
What is a balance of both bearing and caring?
What concept describes altering brood size based on environmental cues?
What is adaptive adjustment for optimal bear/care ratio?
How does selfish behavior explain territorial restraint?
What is individuals wait rather than fight to increase future reproductive success?
What does Lack’s bird study suggest about reproductive behavior?
What is that birds lay the number of eggs that maximizes their own reproductive success?
What’s the term for behavior where animals gather to “census” their population?
What is epideictic behavior?
According to Lack’s Clutch-Size Argument, why do parents not maximize the number of children they have?
What is because they aim to maximize the number of children they can keep alive?
Why is family planning in nature not altruistic according to Dawkins?
What is because individuals plan to maximize their own genetic success, not help others?
How does overcrowding influence birth rates?
What is that individuals reduce reproduction due to lower chances of offspring survival?
According to Dawkins, what kind of explanations often outperform group selection ones?
What are selfish gene-centered explanations?
What determines when a population grows at an ever-increasing rate?
What is when the average number of children per couple exceeds two?
What evolutionary problem arises from having too many children at once?
What is that the cost of caring for them increases exponentially?