Behavioural

Ecology Ch 6

Learning Objec7ves
A"er studying this chapter, you should be able to: 1. Know what behaviour means, and why behavioural ecologists are interested in studying it. 2. Understand the op7mal foraging theory. 3. Understand what parasi7sm is and the behavioural adap7ons of parasites and hosts. 4. Describe how sexual selec7on can promote the evolu7on of costly ornamental traits.

Learning Objec7ves
5. Explain the gene7c and ecological factors that favour organisms living in groups, as well as the evolu7on of eusocial behaviour in which some group members reduce or give up personal reproduc7on to aid the reproduc7on of other members.

Behavioural Ecology
Inves7gates the rela7onships among behaviour, ecology and evolu7on. Behaviour: decisive processes whereby organisms adjust their state in response to environmental changes. Field research. Laboratory research in eld context.

Proper behaviour enables the organism to improve its situa7on e.g., to escape the danger.

Plant Behaviour
Behaviour is usually associated with animals, especially with vertebrates. Plants under aPack by herbivores can send signals to aPract predators of these herbivores.

Responses to Other Organisms

Behavioural interac7ons with other organisms: Food Enemies (predators, parasites) Conspecics (compe77on, collabora7on) Sexual selec7on

www.s-cool.co.uk

Foraging
All animals need to eat. Foraging and processing of food costs energy. It is more ecient to be selec7ve and u7lize good patches only. Choice of a food item is a Bumblebees pass low-nectar owers on their way to get to cost-benet decision.
nectar-rich owers.

Op7mal Foraging Theory

Organisms will forage in such a way that they will maximize energy intake per unit 7me. All other things being equal,
Concentrate foraging high energy patches Leave when loss > gain Ignore low energy patches

Tend to maximize rate of energy intake.

Op7mal Foraging in Bluegill Sunsh (Lepomis macrochirus)

www.fs.fed.us

Werner and MiPelbach (1981)

Parasites Inuence Behaviour

Parasi7sm: one species feeds on another species; usually does not kill it. Parasites may change their hosts behaviour in their own interest.
The nematode Myrmeconema Behaviour of intermediate host may be modied to increase the tropicum has two hosts: ants and birds. chance of an encounter with the nal host.

E.g. Starlings, isopods, and Plagiorhynchus

Moore (1983)
Control experiment (Moore 1983) of two popula7ons of isopods
Uninfected Infected

Allowed Plagiorhynchus to mature in infected isopods, then mixed uninfected and infected Infected isopods changed behaviour
Open areas White surfaces

Brood Parasites Watch

Brood Parasites
Brood parasites, such as brown-headed cowbird (Molothrus ater), let their progeny be raised by other species. In the Eurasian cuckoo (Cuculus canorus) several races have developed, each specialized to dierent host species (egg mimicry). There is a high selec7ve pressure for host species to detect the parasites eggs. It has been shown that the cowbird counters this by destroying the nests of warblers that throw the cowbird egg out, reducing the tness of too-clever warblers.

Fixed Ac7on PaPerns (FAPs)

Ins7nct
A behavioural paPern that appears in its fully func7onal form the rst 7me it was performed, even though the animal has no prior experience.

Tinbergen labeled these paPerns:

Fixed Ac7on PaPerns
An ins7nc7ve response to a sign s6mulus or releaser.

e.g. Greylag Goose e.g. Herring Gull

Sexual Compe77on
Reproduc7ve success is key to tness. Males have a benet in fer7lizing more eggs, but ma7ng is costly for females. Increased male-male compe77on for mates Leks
Wellington tree weta males ght access to females with their sword-like mandibles.
Hemideina crassidens

Sexual Selec7on
Adapta7ons related to reproduc7on that arise from the struggle to obtain ma7ngs Sa7n bowerbird Well-decorated bowers are rewarded Sexual selec7on favors those males that can pass on more genes

www.s-cool.co.uk

Link to bird video

Nup7al Feeding
Sexual selec7on on females increases when males invest more into ospring Mormon cricket males e.g. - parental care provide the female with an - nup7al gihs edible nup7al gih. During

food shortages, females ght for ma7ngs.

Fig. 6.1, p. 145

Nup7al Feeding
Sexual selec7on on females increases when males invest more into ospring Mormon cricket males e.g. - parental care provide the female with an - nup7al gihs. edible nup7al gih. During

food shortage, females ght for ma7ngs.

Fig. 6.1, p. 145

Decorated cricket

cemast.illinoisstate.edu

Will and Sakaluk (1994) Animal Behaviour

www.sciencedaily.com

An extreme nup7al gih

Australian redback spider (Latrodectus hassel6)

the male deliberately posi7oned himself over his lovers fangs while s7ll copula7ng and was soon consumed. While other scien7sts had proposed that the males sacriced themselves to literally feed their future ospring, Andrade proved that their suicidal behaviour is in fact an act of self-interest, allowing them to copulate for longer and fer7lize more eggs.

Zoologist Maydianne Andrade

Faking it?
Honest signals Why dont low-quality males fake high-quality signals? Signals are ohen costly, the vigour of the male demonstrated by the cost. Only high quality males can aord the cost.

Guppy Poecile re6culata

Female

Male

What is communica7on?
The coopera7ve transfer of informa7on from a signaller to a receiver (Alcock 2001) Many func7ons
Environment Iden7ty Abili7es

Who takes part in communica7on?

Signaller
Gains an overall benet from the response of the receiver

E.g. male eld crickets (Gryllus integer)

Call loudly at night for females Also aPracts male rivals which sneak copula7ons and parasi7c ies The eavesdroppers do cause harm to the signaller but not enough to outweigh the benets to the signaller

Who takes part in communica7on? Receiver

Does not always benet by responding to signals e.g. jumping spiders plucking the web of an orb-weaving spider to mimic prey signals

E.g. Bolas Spiders and Armyworm Moths (Stowe et al. 1987) Mastophora spp. Spin a minimalist bolas web Spanish for ball Named aher a weapon

Pheromones

 Spiders in this genus secrete a sex pheromone which mimics the presence of a female armyworm moth Male armyworm moth is aPracted and becomes trapped in the s7cky bolas web

Stowe et al. (1987)

Mechanical Signals - Sound

TransmiPed through air or water Choruses Costly form of communica7on (movements, takes 7me) Altered by changing the volume or frequency

Freq.

Time Sonogram (Sound Spectrogram)

b) Frequency shift

c) amplitude shift

^ -------iiiiiiiiiii lllllllllllllll

freq stays same

llllllllllllllllll lllllllllllllllllll

amp stays same

max amplitude increases

Lombard Eect

Kaq and Warren (2004) TREE

Eects on wildlife: Birds sing at higher pitch in urban noise

Higher average minimum frequency in noisier territories

Slabbekoorn and Peet (2003) Nature

So do frogs
Dr. Kirsten Parris from Australia
Na7onal Public Radio Australia

Male southern brown tree frog by Nick Clemann

Electromagne7c Signals - Light

Ohen limited by range due to visual obstruc7ons Largely associated with sexually selec7on or predator-prey interac7ons E.g. Bowerbirds E.g. leg-band noise in zebra nches
(Burley et al. 1982)

Predator-prey Interac7ons
Visual cues can be important at close range E.g. owl buPery (Caligo spp.)
Neotropical, palatable

Flips up-side-down on a branch to display underside of wings Batesian mimicry

Mimicry a sharp learning curve

Strong visual resemblances between unrelated species Batesian
Palatable species resembles an unpalatable species for protec7on

Mllerian
Two unpalatable species resemble each other (predator only needs to learn once what to avoid)

Ruxton and Speed (2005)

Predator-Prey Interac7ons
Female reies lure males of other species by producing conspecic illuminescence signals

Photuris versicolor female and Pho6nus tanytoxus male

(because not all of us are mind-readers)

Honest Signals Convey accurate informa7on E.g. elk antler size Dishonest Signals Use decep7on to decrease the tness of the receiver Ohen used in predator-prey contexts E.g. meral spread display by stomatopod crustaceans
Less likely to blu if intruder is larger

Honest and Dishonest Signals

Broken wing display

Social Behaviour
In eusocial organisms, some individuals sacrice their own reproduc7on to help others. Advantage of a group: protec7on against predators. Disadvantages of group life: compe77on, parasi7c infec7ons.

www.tpwd.state.tx.us

Fitness Consequences of Social Interac7ons

Inclusive Fitness
Inclusive tness (Hamilton 1964)
Overall tness includes your own survival and reproduc7on (direct) PLUS survival and reproduc7on of all rela7ves (indirect). Helping your rela7ves is called kin selec6on, and is a benecial behaviour (from an evolu7onary point of view) But, individuals who are unrelated can s7ll agree to help one another: Ill scratch your back if you scratch mine (reciprocal altruism)

Eusocial Organisms
In eusocial organisms some individuals sacrice their own reproduc7on to aid others.
Known in various groups of organisms. Specialized phenotypes: reproduc7on, work, defence.

Eusociality in Paper Wasps (Polistes dominulus)

Queen controls the produc7on of workers (helpers) or drones. Workers female, diploids Drones male, haploids
www.nedlands.wa.gov.au