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Obtaining Food - Animals

  1. What is foraging?
    The term given to the ways in which animals search for food
  2. What is important to an animal when foraging?
    That the energy gained is greater than the energy lost or else the animal will soon die
  3. Give an example of an animal that uses filter feeding
    Humpback whale
  4. A simple search pattern in animals is when the animal moves about in a _____ pattern until they find food?
    random
  5. Why is random searching energy efficient?
    As it tends to increase the overall area covered by the animal and therfore increases its chances of finding food
  6. In the experiment with Planaria why:
    Are 10 hungry Planaria selected?
    Are they put into two petri dishes containing A - liver in the centre or B - glass beads in the centre
    Is the experiment repeated?
    Is the experiment repeated in the dark?
    • Using a number of organisms increases reliability. Hunger ensures feeding behaviour
    • A - experiment and B - control
    • Increases reliability
    • Shows whether the animal senses a chemical from food or is seeing it
  7. Bees perform a ______ _______ back in the hive?
    waggle dance
  8. The orientation and length of their waggle dance communicates the ________ and _______ of a good food source?
    • direction
    • distance
  9. Ants leave the colony and wander about back and forth searching for food. What does this meandering ensure?
    That they look for food as close to the colony as possible
  10. What does an ant do as soon as it finds food?
    It makes its way back to the colony, marking it's trail with scent
  11. Random searching is an example of _______ (unlearned) behaviour?
    instinctive
  12. Higher animals generally show more complicated foraging behaviour consisting of both _______ and _______ behaviour?
    • instinctive
    • learned
  13. What is the hunting strategy of a:
    bat
    cheetah
    tiger
    • Emits high pitched sounds and uses echo location to find the position of flying insects
    • Capable of high speed over short distances - "runs down" prey
    • Well camoflaged, stalks prey using stealth
  14. When is foraging economical?
    When the benefits (energy gained) outweigh the costs
  15. To be economical an animal must forage...?
    optimally
  16. How can energy be expended?
    • Looking for food = search time
    • Catching food = pursuit time
    • Preparing and eating = handling time
    • Avoiding predators while foraging
  17. What factors affect foraging?
    • Size of prey
    • Density of prey
    • Time
    • Risk of injury
  18. What are the two types of competition?
    • Interspecific
    • Intraspecific
  19. What is interspecific competition?
    Competition between members of different species
  20. When two different species occupy the same ecological niche one of the species will use the resources more efficiently and reproduce more efficiently, eventually driving the other species to extinction. What is this called?
    The competitive exclusion principle
  21. Give an example of interspecific competition?
    Grey squirrels vs red squirrels
  22. What is intraspecific competition?
    Competition between members of the same species for the same resource
  23. Why is intraspecific competition more intense than interspecific competition?
    As the members of the same species are competing for exactly the same resources
  24. What is territoriality?
    The behaviour which involves compeition for territories
  25. What do males use when fighting for territory without having to use real aggression?
    Social signals - a display (eg birds give an auditory warning or visual signal)
  26. The greater the food supply the ______ territories there will be in a given area?
    more
  27. Most aggressive behaviour occurs at the ______ of its territory?
    centre
  28. What are the advantages of having your own territory?
    • Safe place to breed
    • Access to food (especially for young)
    • Spaces out the population
    • The energy expended in marking, patrolling, defending is more than made up for by the energy saved as competition is reduced to a minimum
  29. What are two examples of social behaviour?
    • Dominance hierarchy
    • Co-operative hunting
  30. What is dominance hierarchy?
    It is a rank/pecking order within a social group
  31. In feeding, what do the dominant animals eat _____ and get _____ share of food?
    • first
    • bigger
  32. Why do subordinate animals stay within the social group?
    As they gain more food in the group than by foraging alone
  33. What kind of things ensures that a dominant individual keeps his rank?
    Aggressive gestures and threat displays that make it look larger or fiercer than it's opponent
  34. What kind of gestures will a subordinate individual send to a the dominant one?
    • Lowering it's eyes and head
    • Covering it's teeth
    • Lowering it's ears, fur and tail
  35. What are the advantages of a dominance hierarchy?
    • Energy is conserved
    • Serious injury is usually avoided
    • Experienced leadership for the whole group is guaranteed
  36. What is co-operative hunting?
    When animals hunt in a social group (pack). They communicate with each other to co-ordinate the hunt
  37. What kind of stratagies are used in co-operative hunting?
    • "running down strategy" - follow a prey to the point of exhaustion
    • "ambush strategy" - predator hides in cover before attacking prey
  38. What are the advantages of co-operative hunting?
    • Allows predators to kill larger prey animals
    • Net gain of energy is greater than by foraging alone
    • The subordinate animal will gain more food than it would be foraging alone
Author
Anonymous
ID
140684
Card Set
Obtaining Food - Animals
Description
Higher Biology - Unit Two - Obtaining Food - Animals
Updated

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