Compare the drop height preferred by crows with the graph of total flight height for the platform drops. Are the data consistent with the hypothesis of optimal foraging? Explain.

Short Answer

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The data, such as total flight height and drop height preferred by crows, are consistent with the optimal foraging theory; these two data coincide.

Step by step solution

01

Behavioral ecology

The scientific field of animal biology that deals with the control and contribution of animals’ behavior towards its survival, fitness, and reproduction is called behavioral ecology.

Examples of behavioral ecology include whelks like prey-dropping behavior of crow, humpback whale songs, penguins huddling in Antarctica, slotting gazelle, river crossing by African elephant, and inflated vocal sac of the frog.

Some of the characteristics of animal behavior in behavioral ecology are feeding behavior, locomotion, avoidance behavior, and aggressive behavior.

02

Mollusca

The phylum of soft-bodied invertebrates that live in oceans and act as a food source for other taxa is called Mollusca.Examples of Mollusca include tusk shell, caudofoveata, tentaculita, gastropods, Bivalvia, cuttlefishes, wiwaxia, kimberella, conchifera, and pleistomollusca.

Some characteristic features of Mollusca are unsegmented bodies, soft bodies, invertebrates, muscular foot for locomotion, mantle, body with three sections (head and visceral mass), and hard outer shell. Examples of predators of Mollusca are crows, mice, crabs, squid, and squirrels.

03

Hypothesis of optimal foraging

The feeding behavior of a crow with less energy expenditure and more energy gains shows its optimal foraging strategy to stall and drop whelk and open its shell to consume its exposed flesh.

There is a rough coincidence based on the optimal foraging hypothesis between two data sets, including the height that a crow preferred to drop a whelk, and the number of drops and the drop height is the total flight height.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

According to Hamilton’s rule,

(A) natural selection does not favor altruistic behavior that causes the death of the altruist.

(B) natural selection favors altruistic acts when the resulting benefit to the recipient, corrected for relatedness, exceeds the cost to the altruist.

(C) natural selection is more likely to favor altruistic behavior that benefits an offspring than altruistic behavior that benefits a sibling.

(D) the effects of kin selection are larger than the effects of direct natural selection on individuals.

Researchers are very interested in studying identical twins separated at birth and raised apart. So far, the data reveal that such twins frequently have similar personalities, mannerisms, habits, and interests. What general question do you think researchers hope to answer by studying such twins? Why do identical twins make good subjects for this research? What are the potential pitfalls of this research? What abuses might occur if the studies are not evaluated critically? Explain your thinking.

Suppose you applied Hamilton’s logic to a situation in which one individual is past reproductive age. Could there still be selection for an altruistic act?

In testing the optimal foraging model, it was assumed that changing the height of the drop only changed the total energy required. Do you think this is a realistic limitation, or might other factors than total energy be affected by height?

It turned out that the probability of a whelk breaking was the same for a whelk dropped for the first time as for an unbroken whelk dropped several times previously. If the probability of breaking instead increased, what change might you predict in the crow’s behavior?

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