Foraging Behavior (L12) T2

Question 1

Aggressive mimicry

Answer 1

Use of lures to attract prey

Question 2

Bee communication: Food distance

Answer 2

1. Circular dance WITHOUT wag indicates food nearby (100m)

3. Duration of waggle portion of dance is correlated with distance of food.

Question 3

Bee communication: Food direction

Answer 3

1. Angle of food with respect to sun is communicated within the hive by the angle of waggle with respect to gravity.
2. If bee walks vertically upward, food is same direction as the Sun.
3. IBW horizontally to the right, food is 90deg to the right of sun.
4. IBW vertically downward, food is opposite direction as the sun.

Question 4

What happens if a beehive is laid on its side?

Answer 4

Food >100m away is poorly communicated.

Question 5

Optimal foraging hypothesis

Answer 5

Animals maximize their energy intake and minimize their energy expenditure and risk.

Question 6

Optimal foraging is a tradeoff between what 3 factors?

Answer 6

1. Maximizing energy intake.
2. Reducing risk of predation
3. Reducing risk of losing food to competitors

Question 7

What is an advantage of cannibalism?

Answer 7

Increasing one’s own fitness by reducing the fitness of a competitor. E.g. eating offspring of competitors or eating the same sex to reduce mating competition.

Question 8

What is a disadvantage of cannibalism?

Answer 8

An organism’s own offspring are sometime killed.

Question 9

What is the major problem with group foraging?

Answer 9

Intraspecific competition increases as group size increases. The optimal group size should be a tradeoff between the benefits of reduced vigilance and risk of predation and the cost of losing foraging opportunities to competitors.

Question 10

Lion social behavior

Answer 10

May have nothing to do with increasing foraging efficiency.

Question 11

Kleptoparasitism

Answer 11

An individual (kleptoparasite) steals or attempts to steal food from another individual (host).

May be conspecific or another species. Common among birds.

Question 12

What six ecological conditions facilitate the occurrence of kleptoparasitism?

Answer 12

1. Large concentration of hosts.
2. Large concentration of food.
3. Large, high quality food items.
4. Predictable food supply.
5. Shortage of food.
6. food supply is highly visible.

Question 13

5 Tactics to avoid kleptoparasitism

Answer 13

1. Choose smaller food item
2. Flee after capture of large food item.
3. Seek cover after capture of large food item.
4. Drop food item if pursued.
5. Defend food item.