Theories
The theory that treats individual animals as participants in a contest, where the success of one competitor is dependent on what its rivals are doing
What is: evolutionary game theory?
A location on Earth with significantly dense predator-prey relations
What is: the African savanna?
This type of habitat is used by elk and zebras when predation risks increase?
What is: woodland?
Which primary predator influences dugong foraging behavior?
What are tiger sharks?
New Caledonian crows use these to extract prey from bark and other hiding places?
What are: tools?
The theory that individuals with larger brains have enhanced behavioral plasticity to cope with harsh or unpredictable environments
What is: cognitive-buffer theory?
This phenomenon is categorized by an increased vigilance and fear in prey over certain spatial realms due to perceived risk of predation
What is: the landscape of fear?
A word for a secured store of food
What is: a food cache?
What trade-offs did the dugong make when foraging?
What is: forgoing excavation for cropping behavior (reduced caloric intake)?
Explain some of Zach's observations on Northwestern crow foraging behaviors?
What are: dropping mollusks from a height no greater than five meters, choosing large whelks (>3.5cm), and dropping whelks as many times as it takes to break them?
The theorem that animals should leave a patch when their caloric intake falls below the average in its bounds
What is marginal value theorem?
An asymmetrical principle where predator-prey interactions make the preservation of an animal's life more crucial than immediate caloric intake
What is: the life-dinner principle?
This cognitive ability allows animals to remember the locations of food resources, crucial for successful foraging
What is: spatial memory?
The reason blue whales expend nearly 60,000 kJ of energy when hunting krill
What is: the potential caloric intake surpasses the expenditure of energy nearly eightfold?
The reason mountain chickadees at higher elevations are better at spatial learning but with reduced cognitive flexibility over time
What is: reliance on food caches due to harsher environments?
Why does optimality theory fail to explain dugong cropping behavior?
What is: the excavation of rhizomes is more calorically favorable but makes dugongs at greater risk for predation by sharks, thus, cropping behavior is more favorable in shark-inhabited waters
Research conclusion about long-term predator impact on foraging behavior in Zambia
What is: an increased in vigilance in areas categorized by long-term predator presence (this did not occur when a predator was close by in the present)?
Female red crossbills choose mates based on which key characteristic?
What is: male foraging efficiency?
The type of selection that explains why silvery minnow schools with members that are dyed blue are more likely to be eaten by largemouth bass
What is: positive-frequency dependent selection?
Explain why enhanced cognitive plasticity can explain why male robins, but not female robins, are able to reproduce larger amounts of more independent offspring
What is: the lower reliance of females on food caching due to greater dominant partner contributions to food provisions?
Under what conditions would a caloric maximization model fail its test?
What is: when ecological factors other than caloric intake impact and alter an animal's foraging behavior?
A reason the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone a form of population control for elk
What is: the reduction in proper energy intake and likelihood of reproductive success to favor the long-term survival of an individual elk?
The type of selection that occurs when the fitness of one strategy is a function of its frequency relative to to the other behavioral trait
What is: frequency-dependent selection
Explain why Hori's hypothesis accounts for a 50:50 split between right- and left-jawed cichlids
What is: left-jawed cichlids would have increased fitness in a population of predominantly right-jawed cichlids due to decreased prey vigilance to right-flanked attacks --> greater reproductive success until the populations even out?
Explain the hawk-dove strategy
What is: a model used in game theory to describe conflict and resource competition among individuals, particularly in the context of animal behavior. It illustrates how two strategies—aggressive (hawk) and non-aggressive (dove)—can coexist in a population.