Digestion (processing food internally)

Digestive enzymes: used to digest food (animals can produce them)

Slugs/snails
caterpillars waste a lot of nutrition, because they have a lot of food to consu me
Symbolic relationships (moose-bacteria): bacteria helps digest food moose/deer
Rumination: the process of re-chewing
Rumen: chamber where bacteria lives
Ruminant: an animal that performs rumination moose/deer/cows
Caecum(Caeca): chamber where bacteria lives for animals that do not have rumen rabbits/beaver/geese
Coprophagy: processing food twice (droppings), due to a lack of rumen rabbits/beaver
Huge digestive tract: helps digest food for animals without rumen/coprography porcupines
Food as a food source
Fruit as only source: waxwings
Seed dispensers: eat plants/fruits then poop out seeds
Increase chance of growth of those plants/fruits
Have large gaps (mouth openings) and short intestines for fast digestion
Seed predators: only eat seeds
Crossed bills: have special bills (not straight); difficulty getting grit
Incisors: use to get seeds pinecone seeds
Blue Jays: use bills as hammers by hitting acorns
American Goldfinches: tiny bills for thistle seeds
Animals Dealing with Plant Chemical Defenses
- Herbivores need to protect themselves
MFOs: special enzymes that neutralize plant toxins
Vein drain: sequester from plants, by cutting the vein that transfers poison
Seasonal Diets
Moose
Spring Road water mud
Summer high in sodium (water-shield; aquatic plant = 500x more)
Winter low in sodium (leaves/twigs)
Animals eating other animals (predation)
Advantages (eating animals over plants)
More protein and easier to digest
Disadvantages
Hard to find/catch, animals fight back
Predation: the act of animals eating other animals (3 stages)
Locate, capture, kill
Hawks: daytime hunters
Sharp vision: Large eyes, large # of cones, eyes in front (depth perception)
Visual hunters: dependent on vision

 Crab spiders & Jumping spiders(best); see without moving eyes

Finding Prey
Vision
Large eyes: more light sensitive
Frontal placement: depth perception
Compound eyes: many pieces = single image insects, dragonflies, tiger beetles
Simple eyes: non-compound eyes spiders have 8
Special eyes: half above/below Whirligigs
Hearing
Large Ears(pinnae): magnify sound wolves
Facial disk: capture/direct sound to ears under fur owls
Wide head(non-sym.): pinpoint sound and hear with faces owls
Echolocation: bounce ultrasound off things to get a image of surroundings bats, shrews
Smell (olfactory sense)
Elongated snout: flemen, scent trails (easier at dusk), Jacobsons Organ(snakes)
Touch (tactile)
Raccoons front paws: a lot of sensory cells
Vibrissae(whiskers): help find prey (mammals) otters/foxes
Rictal Bristles: hair-like feathers
Eimers Organ: Nose Protuberances(fingers on nose) star nosed moles; 3D like picture of area
Herbst Corpuscles: sensory cells that react pressure sandpipers, ducks, woodpeckers
Rattle Snakes: infrared heat sensors; detect slightest change in temperature
Capturing Prey
Active searching foxes, spiders, tiger beetles
Wait for prey prey mantis, owls, crab spiders (change colour)
Traps

Flight intercept: trap flying animals spider webs, orb-weave spiders

Argiope spiders: use stabilimentum; silk that emits UV patterns, attracting insects just like plants
Pitfall traps: made in the ground(pit) Ant-lions = hide/wait for ants to appear/Mole-tunnels
Aggressive mimicry: using body to look like something
Alligator snapping turtle; tongue looks like warms, attracting fish
Angler fish: have an appendage on hear, attracting fish
Funnel weaver spiders: build webs on ground
Sheet web spiders: webs have sharp edges(1) insects fall and trip into sticky bowl(2)
Spider web facts: hydroscopic (absorb moisture), 6 or more types of silk, recycle silk

Mouth
Otters(mammals): canines
Golden eagles: meathook tips; beaks
Mergansers(ducks): long narrow beaks with serrated edges (knife)
Tiger beetles: modified mandibles
Tongues
Extensible tongue
Frogs; tongue flick

 Woodpecker; long tongues, roll up near eye hyoid horns, shoots tongue up

Legs

Jumping and crab spiders (hide on flowers) use their legs

Raptorial legs: Preying mantis
Talons: strong toes birds
Hawks: kill and attack mourning doves/sparrows
Osprey Hawks: special feet for catching fish
Scales; underside of toes slipping, reversible outer tore(owls too) pierce prey

Killing Prey
Mouth
Temporalis: power canines for lethal bites
Shake/Break: shaking prey to break neck
Slash/Shock: slashing upwards shocking bites; used on larger animals wolves against moose
Weasels: bite into the cranium; brain case
Cats: bite into the neck vertebrae
Large birds: kill with raptorial (predatory) bill
Shrinks: kill/carry prey with bills; have weak legs
Snakes: swallow prey whole
Constrictors: suffocate animals to death gray rat/milk snakes
Injected Toxins
Contain digestive enzymes, that break prey down with liquid Massasaauga rattle snakes (venom
bites), crab spiders, robber flies, short-tailed shrews
Selected Feeding: predators that only eat certain parts of their prey
Predatory insects; slurp what they need. Predatory birds; pluck of fur/eat meat underneath. Fishers;
skin fish. Wolves; eat small bones (use hair to detect others). Owls; swallow prey whole and cough
out pellets (bones)
Predator challenges
Bioaccumulation: injecting toxins directly through the prey eaten
Botulism: a syndrome of bioaccumulation; birds eat fish from contaminated water
Peregrine falcons near extinction due to DDT poisoning, leading to clumsiness and thinner legs
Human prejudice: killing predatory animals, due to fear coyotes
Friendly Fire: humans killing for a good purpose; killing wolves, so theirs more caribou
Starvation: biggest challenge and the main reason they die
Natural Selection: sick animals are killed 1st

Hosts
Host: the animals that the parasitoid is currently in
Ovipositor: egg laying apparatus (female insect) used to inject eggs into hosts
Parasitoids: eat and kill hosts from inside
Braconid Wasps Larvae(caterpillars), Tachinid Flies, Flesh Flies larvae
Insect Laying Parasitoids (laying eggs)
Thread-waisted wasps: paralyze/lay eggs on caterpillars; spider wasps do this with spiders
Cerceris: a digger wasp; digs and spend night in a hole, waits and lays eggs on beetles
Parasitoid Insects Find a Host
Visual scanning: searching for the right hosts visually
Megarhyssa Ichneumon Wasps: have very long ovipositors, used to in tree bark; looking for fly grubs to
lay eggs on sense by smell/vibrations
Peleicinid Wasps: lay eggs on June Beetle bugs in the ground
- Some wasps lay eggs inside golden grub galls, surviving winter their
Snapping turtle eggs: get eggs laid on them, by wandering flies when they are laying their eggs
Parasites: feed on the host, but dont kill
Obligate Parasites: feed on blood leeches, ticks
Anticoagulants: enzymes injected by parasites, that prevent blood from clotting
Ectoparasites: live on the outside of the host leeches(all stages)
Moose Ticks: found in the winter; pregnant moose ticks, leave the moose when laying egg
Lyme Disease: ticks feeding on humans
Arreneurus: aquatic mites attach to children/adult dragonflies
Ectoparasite flies: attach onto animals; flat flies = birds, bat flies = bats
Glochidium: attach onto fish gills/fins baby clams
Pocketbook Clams: open up shells, and show a mantle that looks like a fish, attracting more fish
Hallers Organ: detects temperature changes; tracks down host by their breath
Remaining on a Host
Claws: used to grip skin flat flies
Mouthparts: used to penetrate/hold onto host
Slicing/Dicing; used to cut skin open leeches
Hyspostome: barbs that will clutch onto skin ticks
Problems with Ectoparasites
If the host dies, they die too

 Being removed by the host foxes scratch themselves, birds groom/preen their feathers
Pectinate Toes: special grooming claws herons
Double/split toe-nail: for grooming beavers(nobody knows what its really for)

Endoparasites: live inside the host

Tranistion through hosts
Definitive Host: end hosts; Deers for brainworms
Intermediate Host: middle host; snails/slugs for brainworms
Parasitic castration: chemically changing the behavior of a host; removes sex hormones(drive)/lowers
death
Cuterebras: bot flies in the larvae stage; found in mice/squirrels eggs hatch from heat of animals
walking
Brainworm negative effects
Deers; no negative effects, but brainworm eggs escape from poop, then into snails/slugs
Moose: can damage their spine, while they make their way to the brain
Fluke Flatworms
Definite Host: robins; leave through poop
Intermediate Host: aquatic snails; alter tentacles(more colorful) luring Robins
Problems with Endoparasites
Host dying, intermediate host may not be found, wrong host is entered and killed by mistake

Scavengers
Scavengers: Feed on dead animals
Facultative scavengers: part-time eagles, gulls, ravens
Obligate scavengers: full-time
Turkey Vultures (adaptions for scavenging)
Olfactory bulb(brain) converts blood into smell of vulture they are looking for
Bald; prevents blood/dirt from getting stuck
Non-separated nostrils
Raptorial bill; ripping apart meat
Soar low/slow; smell odours
Blow Fly Maggots/Larvae; lay eggs on dead animals, which then feeds on the dead animals
Necrophagous: eating flesh of dead animal
Burying/Carrion Beetles drag animals to the ground
Females attract males and they both do it
Predictable Food Shortages: plan ahead of time
Solutions: dormancy/hibernation and migration
Unpredictable Food Shortages: food fluctuates/ is inconsistent nuts, berries, small mammals
Solutions
Irruptive/Nomadic: eruption of animals; where one time this few and another time a lot appear
Waxwings(fruits), Crossbills(seeds), Gray Owls move to areas of their specialty
Predatory animals: arent guaranteed to catch food every time; store food as solution
Larder: location of where animals store food Northern shrikes = spines, Owls = tree branches
Scatter Hoarding: saving food for many locations Gray Squirrels/Gray Jays; use memory
Middens: large storages of cones Squirrels
Food Pile: central cache (1 storage for all foods) of branches beavers
DragTrails(dragged branches), Poplar (branches they like to eat)
Physical Adaptations for Food Shortages
Expandable cheek pouches: store many seeds inside mouth at once chipmunks
Enlarged salivary glands: encoat their food in saliva Gray Jays
Sticky saliva: helps glue the food onto things Gray Jays
Nesting early: more time to store food Gray Jay
Spatial Memory: memory of habitat; location of food; chickadees grow large hippocrampus before winter

Frozen food(animals): sitting on a dead animal, to thaw it out before eating

Plants Food Challenges

Photosynthesis: process used to create food
Heterotroph: a plant that cannot make its own food
Autotrophic: uses photosynthesis, but requires materials; water, sunlight, nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus,
calcium)
Mycorrhizae: fungal partners that help provide plants with nutrients, that are hard to find
Prevent toxic compounds from being consumed
Endomycorrhizae: found in roots Orchids
Ectomycorrhizae: found outside of roots Spruce
Bogs: areas where materials for autotrophic are hard to find health plants
Alders: have root nodules that convert nitrogen for plant consumption
Carnivorous Plants eat insects for Nutrients
Adhesive(sticky) traps: trap insects Butterworts and
Sundews; have sticky hairs on outside that capture, and hairs on inside are digestive enzymes
Pitcher-Plants: pitfall traps; colorful patterns to attract insects/downward point hairs slippery slope
Bladderworts: suction traps
Under-water leaves have small nerves on them that can cause a chain reaction upon touching
Shade: lack of sunlight=problem for plants
Shade-Plants: large surface area. Have more Chlorophyll b then a because it brings more sunlight
Round-leaved Orchid: huge/thin flat leaves, turned outwards to capture more sunlight
Advantages
Less energy spent building supportive tissues
Light reaches photosynthetic cells quickly
Keeps other plants from growing nearby
Hobblebush: huge leave/large surface area
Bunchberry plants: clonal growth; a lot of leaves to capture sunlight
Phototropism: growing away from shade
Wild Cucumbers: thigmotrophic tendrils (wrap around on touch) that grow on top of competition
Trilliums: bloom before trees; better chance of growing leaves back
Spring Ephemerals: face issue with frost, as they bloom early; dont live long
Mycoheterotrophs: dont require sunlight b/c the nutrition from fungus coralroots, Indian pipe flower
Mixotrophs: food via photosynthesis and mycorrhizae shade dwelling orchids

Holoparaistes: steal foods from other plants mycorrhizae by copying the plants chemicals
Cancer root plant
Witchs Broom: abnormal growth of leaves on tree
Dwarf Mistletoe: causes Witchs Broom on trees (conifers tree)
Excessive sunlight; problem
leaves with small surface areas (solution)
buttercups; have angled leaves/small surface to combat problem
Dissected Leaves; leaves that are very chopped up (small surface area)

Animal Reproduction
Asexual reproduction: when an animal creates a carbon copy of itself; cells split. Downside; no variation
in genes and evolution does not occur
Sexual reproduction: offering variety in genes of offspring, helping evolution
Sexual selection: subset of natural selection; females choice is a major keystrong mates=strong
offspring
Amplexus: a hold that male frogs do on females; in order to stimulate them and fertilize
External Fertilization: outside the body; sperm not guaranteed to meet eggs frogs, fish
Internal Fertilization: guarantees fertilization; does not require sexual intercourse
Hermaphroditism: doubles slow animals chances of reproducingsponges, clams, slugs/snails, worms
Sponges/Clams: release sperm into water; internal fertilization
Springtails: do not meet their mates; they leave spermotophores (sperm filled packages)
Intromittent Organs: organs used to insert into another organ; deliver sperm
Slugs: love darts
Spiders: palps; special mouthparts
Snakes: hemipenes (half penis); mate from either side, but not at the same time
Cloacal kiss: cloacas; birds mating
Mammals: penis
Severs to stimulate female cats have spines
Enlarged when needed, to prevent it from being hurt/hindering
Penis Bone (Baculum): provide more support for the penis
Meeting the Mate
Barnacles: meet by chance wandering penis; 40x larger then themselves
Advertising
Auditory Advertisements: notify other that they are ready to mate
Non-vocal Advertisements
Drum: Woodpeckers hammer beaks on wood, Ruffed Grouse flap their wings quickly
Winnowing: Snipes; vibrating their tails, while in the air
Stridulation: rubbing parts together to produce sound crickets/grasshoppers
Tymbals: cicadas; loud noises during hot days (heat=muscles moving quickly)
Vocal Auditory Advertisements

 Toads/Frogs: take in air, in small spurs through their nostrils, filling up their vocal sac. They have
extensible throat sacs, that act as resonating chambers
Tympanum: an ear drum that helps process sounds Male bullfrog>females)
Syrinx: structure in birds, that allows them to sing 2 songs at once (combined)
Bird songs: used for advertisements to females/ownership of territory Warblers
Female picks based on the best song
Rut: moose mating period; mist around area, with a little of frost
Moose cows (females) create ads for males(bulls)
Males create thrashing sounds, telling others they are their and females that they are interested
Advantages of sound (male attraction)
Sounds carry a long distance; mates come without seeing animal
Greater chance of reaching more mates
Disadvantages
Predators/Parasitoids can hear them
Satellite males; males that wait and listen on the borderline of territories, and steal mates
Visual Advertisements
Birds: bright colours in order to get attention
Female Mallard = most green head
Female House finches = brightly coloured
Phalaropes = females are colourful and selected by males
Ornaments: badges of maturity status (impress females)
Antlers: change size/shape with age white-tailed deer, Bull(male moose)
Reveal age and health (deformed = clumsiness)
Tines; spikes on antlers. Palms; flat part
Velvet: material covering antler/proves nutrients
Shed every winter/only used for mating
Sparring: determine which is stronger; may injure and lower chance of finding female
Atlantic Puffins: grow grooves on their beaks (takes 2 yrs)
Females choose males with 2-3 grooves; proves male is a long-term survivor
Dobsonflies (males): has gigantic tusk-like structures that can be used to fight
Ritualized displays: common amongst the species
Hooded Mergansers: use head displays; males raise/lower hood to impress female
Ruffed Grouse: use neck ruff and tail displays; neck feathers show around mating season
Ariel Displays
Male Midges: swarms form/wait for females to fly in; females choose best dance
Female Ebony Jewelwing (Damselfies): acceptance = flap wings rapidly, rejection = open wings flat
Male Ebony Jewelwing: sperm is produced in a holding chamber(head); pinsir injects/removes sperm
Fireflies: ariel-light displays; flash light in a specific pattern
Synchronized displays: both male/female participate
Swans: mutual displays; series of actions together
Sandhill Cranes: ritualized dancers; take turns bowing/jumping

Communal display grounds: males gather together

Leks: male birds gathersharp-tailed Grouse dance at leks
Male wild turkeys gather

Olfactory(smell) Advertisements: sex pheromones (chemicals ads); safer b/c predators dont track them
Cows (female moose): urinate to spread pheromones; bulls will lick air
Rat (Wallow) pits: bulls make by their hooves that they urinate on
Female Snakes: leave pheromone trails for males to track swarms
Female insect: produce sex pheromones that males track via antennae
Silk moths; purely exist for reproduction (no mouth after pupae stage)
Male Snowshoe Hares: urinate on female to stimulate
Porcupines: same as Hares
Gift giving courtship: give females something; makes them good providers for youngMale Terns
Courtship Gifts: prevent being eaten by female after sex spiders, scorpions, dance flies
Cedar Waxwings: give each other food as courtship gifts
Male Marsh-Wrens: create dummy nests, to attract a lot; polygamists
Male Bass/Bluegill Sunfish: 3 types
Big colorful males; make nests, attract normally/honestly
Satellite males (2 types): wait for females approach/release sperm (1); no risk. Pretend to be a
female and enter the big males nest, releasing sperm (2); risk
Wheel: sex position assumed by Dragonflies/Odonates; both male/female form circle
Males ensuring Paternity
Contact guarding: staying close to female after mating male moose, odonates via claspers(handcuffs)
Walking Sticks: use claspers to keep the pair coupled for days; they have long copulations
Anti-aphrodisiacs: added after mating; turns other males off male mosquitoes, garter snakes
Copulatory Plugs: used to seal female openings with male sperm
Beetles: headless sperm; does not fertilize
Featherwing Beetles: giant/huge sperm
Male mosquitos: cement-like material in sperm that hardens
Honey Bees: genitals explode during sex and they die; huge plug

Plant Reproduction
Flowers: exist only to reproduce and are hermaphroditic.
Flower Sex Organs: composed of the following
Stamens produce sperm; male sex organ
Pistils produce eggs; female sex organ,
Stigma: receives the sperm from the male
Ovary: holds the eggs.
Style: long neck of the pistil
Anther Cone: cone of Stamens fused together (head of a rocketship)
Pollen-grains: produce sperm; transported to female plants for fertilization
Pollination: when the sperm meets the egg (fertilization occurs)
Double Fertilization: 2 eggs are fertilized by two sperms; One becomes an embryo; the other egg
becomes food for the embryo.
Transporting Pollen-grains
Pollinators: animals that transport pollen grains from 1 plant to another (in exchange for food)
Hummingbirds, Bees, Butterflies and Beetles are examples of pollinators
Anemophily: wind transports pollen; wind pollination Sedges, Grass, Ragweed, Conifer
Pollens are small/lightweight.
Plants produce a large amount, as delivery is not guaranteed
Hydrophily: water pollination, used by few plants.
Entomophily: pollination by Insects; plants gives nectar/pollen
Nectar: sugar water (usually)
Long Spurs: store nectar and require long mouthparts to access their nectar
Cardinal Flowers = red; attract hummingbirds
Long-tongued Bees (Bumble Bees), Moths
Buttercup Plant: store nectar in sleeves at the base of petals called Buttercup Nectaries
Milkweeds: hold nectar in shallow cups
Bees: have a Pollen Basket on their legs to carry pollen; special legs
Attraction Advertisements to Pollinators
Shape/Colour: Long Range Visual Attractants
Insects: see colours differently than humans, and specific combinations attract specific insects.

 Red; seen by very few Hummingbirds.

Green appears as gray.
Yellow appears as red.
Scents: attract insects to the plant; Close Range Attractants
Evening Primrose releases scents only at dusk because it is attracting moths which
appear when the sun goes down
Brood Site Deception: when a flower release scents that attract insects, making them think the plant is
a place to lay eggs
Wild Ginger attracts Fungus Gnats, smells like decaying fungus.
Red Trilliums attracts Carrion Flies, smell like rotting flesh.
Nectar Guides: patterns on flowers that guide insect to where the nectar is stored
Insects see patterns, invisible to humans
Cross-pollination (outbreeding): better than self-pollination (inbreeding) because it creates a greater
genetic diversity.
Avoiding Self-pollination
Self-incompatibility: inability of plants to self-pollinate; due to a chemical that fertilizes eggs
Spatial Separation: keeping male/females apart to prevent self-pollination
Sexes can be placed on different parts of the tree or plant.
Females = top and males = bottom, due to the fact that wind blows up (to females)
Sexes can appear on different plants, making each plant have one gender
White Campion: either male or female
Spatial Placement is having the sexual organs placed differently.
Bottle (Closed) Gentian have their sticky stigma to capture pollen from insects
Dichogamy (temporal separation): a plant being a different sex depending on the time, preventing the
plant from being both sexes at the same time.
Jewelweed flowers start off as males until the stamen falls off and reveals the flowers stigma,
leaving them females.
Spiral Flowers start off closed, the lower flowers open first and are male with pollen, and
change into females after that pollen is removed
Pollinators start at the lower flowers and work their way up,
Pink Ladys-slippers: pretend to have nectar, are closed and require bees to open them
Hairs start getting thicker near the flowers top, serving as guidance patterns
Staminodes: a mixture of stamens and pistils that are near the exit at the top in the
plants and capture pollen off the bee
Pseudo-pollen: hairs that are fake-pollen, they attract pollinators, that place pollen on it
Pseudo-nectaries: hairs that are fake-nectar that glisten to look like nectar.
- Grass-of-Parnassus attracts pollinators
Bee/Fly Orchids: look and smell like female bees and flies, attracting the male counter-parts,
attaching pollen onto them once they attempt to mate with it.
Helleborines: release fake wound hormones that attract wasps; provide nectar to the insects. Only
plant in the world that does this.
Heterostyly: having multiple forms based on length of their style
Pickerelweed Flowers have three forms
Purple Loosestrifes short medium, long style form
Queen Annes Lace: white flowers, with tiny purple flower inside

Milkweeds: have slits to capture an insects leg, so that it can clamp on a saddlebag
White Water-Lilies: initially female and have openings that attract insects, they close near nighttime
and traps insects currently inside it. It becomes a male by morning and grows stamens that insects have
to go through to exit the opening, leaving with pollen on them.
Grass Pinks: have pseudo-pollen on a petal that collapses on contact, forcing an insect to fall on the
sexual. Insects are inspected for pollen (Slam Dunk Method)
Laurels: have bashing stamens that are bent stamens that hit the pollinator if it steps on one,
covering it with pollen.
Bunchberry (pop flowers): closed initially/have spikes that open it once stepped on, putting pollen
over the triggerer. Fastest moving stamens in the world.
Twayblades: petals start off as males, and upon being stepped on, release pollen onto the triggerer.
Those petals change to females.
Cross-pollination: the general rule, but in some cases, self-pollination is necessary.
- Dandylions, self-pollinate because they typically grow in habitats that are dying.
- Spring Ephemerals have Cleistogamous Flowers that self-pollinate incase the plant is
unable to survive due to cold conditions

Seeds
Seed Dispersal: plants getting off their newborn seeds to a good start in life. Advantages include;
- Avoid crowding/competition with the mother plant
- Prevents inbreeding/spreading of diseases
- Gives the offspring a better chance of survival
Plants: protect their seeds until they are mature.
Physical protection
- Cones, Acorns have Hard Seed Coats (Armor)
Chemical protection
- Terpenoids are used
- Aposematic Colouration (warns predators)
- Resin Cones
- Berries are pale in color and taste bitter when they are not ready to be
consumed
- Milkweed seeds are protected by the pod (holds seeds); full of Cardiac Glycosides
Anemochory: Wind Dispersal of seeds; used by plants that grow in open sunny areas.
- Flaw; seed can miss the target. Solution; plants produce a lot of seeds
- Fireweed (70k-100k seeds), Dandelions use this
Zoochory: dispersing seeds through animals
- Seeds can get attached to the animal physically
- Stick-tight plants seeds hooks/barbs get caught on hairs/feathers
(hitch-hike)
- Burs use Velcro to stick onto animals
- Queen Annes Lace: an umbel that contains parts; it closes during wet
days and opens during dry days.
- Seed Dispersers are animals that eat fruit and then poop out the seeds
- Black bears, Waxwings
Exchanging
- Elaiosomes: protein packages that ants love; entice ants into dispersing the seed.
- Spring Ephemerals pay ants (carpenter ants)
- Violet pay ants and use ballistic ejection

Raindrops: splash the plants seeds out

- Miterworts; Splash Cups
- Foamflowers; springboards (diving board)
Plant Adaptations for Anemochory
- Maple samaras (keys): have little wings; that the seed do not land underneath the tree
- Basswood seeds: sails that help them fly
- Indian Pipe: late in the summer when wind is available to blow away its seeds.
- Perched Birch Trees: are Yellow Birch trees; lack of adaptation
Adaptations for plants near the shoreline
- Seeds that use Hydrochory: flotation devices; makes them an underwater flower
- Jewelweed: wet places; Ballistic Ejection to throw its seeds further
Boom or bust strategy: when plants control their seed population depending on the condition;
produce less if conditions are poor, produce more if conditions are good
Parental Care: animals getting off their newborn children off to a good start in life.
American Toads: do not care for the young after fertilization

Females: choose the right habitat for their eggs before laying them Dragonflies
- Small Snakes: under rotting logs; provides a warm and humid environment for the
eggs.
- Monarch Butterflies: on young milkweeds so that the caterpillars are able to eat the
milkweed when it hatches.
- Ephemeral Ponds: temporary ponds caused by snow drying up
- Freeze-tolerant frogs lay their eggs in these ponds before any fish get
there,
Turtles: digging a hole and laying their eggs there to conceal them until they hatch,
- Soil temperature determines the sex of the turtle
Gestation period: the period of pregnancy for mammals.
Walking Stick eggs: laid on the ground, then transported underground by ants
Ovoviviparity: holding eggs internally until they hatch Northern Water/Garter Snakes
Females in some animals both lay and guard their eggs
- Five-lined skinks; inside rocks, and guard them.
- Red-backed Salamanders; rotting logs and guard them.
- Wolf Spiders; on their back in an egg sac, they hatch on the mother.
- Nursery Web Spiders; build a nursery web in which they guard their egg sac
Males in some animals guards the eggs
- Bass (fish), Giant Water Bugs; carry the eggs on their back
Precocial: when an animal is born in a relatively mature, self-sufficient state (stay inside the mother
longer)
- Chicks: leave the nest after hatching, which is why their nests arent very developed,
and are very small, as they leave immediately.
Altricial: when an animal is born in a helpless state (stay a small amount of time inside the mother)
- Nestlings: Altricial baby birds that live in the nest after hatching which is why their
nests are heavily developed.
Young Moose: guarded up to a year after the young is born parental investment = 20 months.
Biparental care(5%): when both the mom and dad provide care to the young together
- Foxes and Wolves, 90% of birds

Wolves: social animals, in their packs one designated female will have children leaving the rest of the
pack to provide food and help raise the pups.
- Rendezvous Sites: places where pups are placed for safety, adults bring food to them
here.
Black Bear cubs: born highly altricial, so the female then protects the cubs for two years.
Opossums have extremely altricial young, their pregnancy period is merely 13 days
- The young travel into the pouch of the mother immediately to get nutrition
- Opossums have forked penises and forked vaginas (very important for final)
Delayed Implantation is when the sperm goes to the uterus a certain period after the mating occurs
- Bears; gestation period of 2 months, Fishers, Bats; gestation period of 40 days
Social insects: store sperm, leaving the sperm to meet the egg later Bumblebees
- Group care: where some workers help take care of the youngWasps, Ants
Incubation (sitting on egg to keep it a warm constant temp.) is a parental investment by birds, by
sitting on the eggs.

Brood patches (stomach) which are loose bits of skin that are placed on the egg when it is being
incubated birds
- In most other species, the females develop brood patches and incubate.
- Ducks and Grouse Hummingbirds, Songbirds, House Finch
- In some species, both the male and female develop brood patches and incubate
- In Killdeer, males do the night shift of incubation, females do the day
shift.
- In Northern Flickers (Woodpecker), males do the night shift, females
do the day shift.
Clutch: a group of eggs of a single bird.
Synchronous hatching: when all the eggs of a bird hatch more or less at the same time.
Asynchronous hatching: when the eggs of a bird hatch at different times.
- This lessens the feeding stress on the parents, as they are predatory birds, if they were
all the same age, they would all need the same amount of food, which may be overwhelming.
- Increases chances of survival (if one leaves the nest, and the nest is destroyed, that one
survives)
- Ensures survival of some young in times of food stress since young need less food
- Owls and Hawks hatch asynchronously.
Siblicide is when the older siblings eat the younger siblings, this is usually due to food stress.
Nest Sanitation is apart of parental care.
- Fecal Sacs are sacs that surround nestling poop, making it easier for parents to remove
the poop from the nest.
- Hawks add conifer sprigs to nests that contain tannins and prevent nest parasites
Chicks have bright yellow spots in their mouths, to tell the parent where to put the food.

Nest Defence is apart of parental care.

- Gulls and Terns begin puking and pooping on threats in order to defend their nest.
- This is an Aggressive Responses
- Red-winged Blackbirds (males) have multiple female mates and know which areas
have more chicks that belong to them, and they defend these areas more.
- This is a Paternity Dependent defence
Distraction Displays are when certain birds lead the predators away from the nest.
- Rodent Run is when small ground birds run in multiple directions and circles to lead
predators away from the nest.
- Feigned Injury is the act of pretending to have an injury to lure predators away from
the nest
- Ducks do this, it is called a Broken Wing act
- Killdeer do this, it is called a Simulated Wound, they have red patterns
to look like blood.
Ducks form Creches (Brood Amalgamation), one female drops off her young to another female,
providing safety in numbers and a higher survival chance of the females young
Facultative Brood Parasites are animals that rely on other animals to raise their young.
- Intraspecific is when facultative brood parasites occur within the parasites own
species.
- Interspecific is when facultative brood parasites occur within different species.
- Mergansers (ducks) do Egg Dumping is when a duck dumps its eggs in another
female ducks nest.
- North American Cuckoos are facultative brood parasites and are both intraspecific
and interspecific.
Brood reduction is when less newborns survive than the number that were born
- Opossums can have as many as 20-50 babies, but have only 13 nipples, meaning the
first 13 to get to a nipple are the only babies that survive.
- Eagles allow their oldest eaglet to kill the youngest eaglet since they only need one
child. The younger child is an insurance policy incase the older one dies. This is a form of
siblicide.

Infanticide is when an adult animal kills a baby animal.

- Female Muskrats kill their neighbours young.
- Tree Swallows males kill a females children that they come to mate with, the female
then becomes ready to mate again and to have that new males children.
Female Meadow Voles that are pregnant will abort their children if a new male comes in, as the new
male will kill the newborn meadow voles regardless. This is called the Bruce Effect.
Obligate Brood Parasites are animals that get other animals to completely raise their young, from
incubation to feeding.
Brown-headed Cowbirds are obligate brood parasites and never build nests.
- Adaptations
- They lay their eggs fast (20-40 seconds)
- Their eggs have thicker egg shells so that foster parents cannot open it.
- Their eggs hatch faster (10 days) so that the babies get most of the food
from the foster parent

- They replace eggs from the foster parents nest so that the number of
eggs is the same
- Young cowbirds outcompetes nest mates indirectly.
Reasons for success
- They create up to 40 eggs per season
- They lay their eggs up to 220 different species\
Finding host nests
- Sit on a high perch, watching for nest-building occurring
- Walk on ground, watching for nest-building occurring
- Drive bird off nest by flying into shrubs and leaves and noisily flapping
wings to scare the bird

Some birds can figure out obligate parasites and have adaptations to rid of them.
- Birds can abandon the nest and take off to create a new nest
- Yellow-warblers can create a new nest on top of the defected one
- Grasp Ejectors are large birds that grab the egg that is not theirs
- Puncture Ejectors are small birds that break the egg to get a grip and then throw them
out.
Mafia Theory is a theory where a bird raises another birds egg in fear that if it does not, the other bird
will come back and smash the other eggs in the nest.
- Cuckoos have been known to do this.