Biology 312: Animal Behavior



Biology 312: Animal Behavior

Study questions for Exam 2

NOTE: This exam covers material from January 29 through February 17, 2003. Topics covered include Hormones, Development of Behavior and Biological clocks.

NOTE 2: You may notice some redundancy in the topics covered by the questions, as well as the question that one asks actually be answered by the next question. This is deliberate and will hopefully help you to learn the material.

1. What is a hormone?

2. Provide examples of how hormones might affect the following:

a. An animal’s sensory ability

b. An animal’s muscles/motor ability

3. There are several methods used to study the relationship between hormones and behavior. For example, one of these methods is the removal of a gland followed by hormone replacement. List the four different methods discussed in class/text and provide an example for each.

4. What is a “sham” operation, and why are they performed?

5. Refer to figure 7.15 in your text. What explanation is given for the fact that testosterone peaks when the male song sparrow is establishing its territory, then drops during pair formation, and then increases again? (Explain in terms of adaptive value, rather than mechanism.)

6. What is one shortfall of purely correlational studies, such as those that show the correlation of hormone levels with particular behaviors? Give an example of this type of study. (NOTE: Should already have done so to answer question 3.)

7. In the “removal and replacement” technique, what is being removed and what is being replaced? Why are both parts of the procedure necessary to demonstrate that a particular hormone affects a particular behavior?

8. What is meant by the “organizational” effect of a hormone? Provide specific examples of the types of “organizational” impacts that hormones have. (HINT: Good examples provided for both mice and zebra finches.)

9. What is meant by the “activational” effect of a hormone? Provide specific examples of the types of “activational” impacts that hormones have. (HINT: Good examples provided for both mice and zebra finches. You should be familiar with both these examples.)

10. In birds, is the XX individual male or female? In the zebra finch, which hormone is responsible for the organizational effects of song acquisition in males? Which hormone is responsible for activating singing behavior in mature males?

11. Would you expect an animal to display a behavior if it was provided the organizational hormone at the correct time but was deprived of the activational hormone? Provide examples from the lecture or text to back up your answer.

12. Use the example of Anolis carolinensis’ sexual behavior to describe how various “environmental” factors can influence behavior. Remember that “environment” can include the social environment as well as abiotic factors such as light, etc… Be sure to describe environmental influences on both males and females.

13. Be able to explain the diagram “Interaction of male behavior and female reproductive status in A. carolinensis”. In particular, be sure you understand the different “environmental conditions” that produced the different levels of reproductive condition in the females.

14. Describe some physiological and morphological factors that are necessary for the development of behavior.

15. At the physiological/morphological level, what really is learning/experience?

16. Why do birds sing? Provide at least four reasons…

17. What is the possible adaptive value of singing many songs for birds that do so?

18. What are some of the differences between male and female zebra finch brains? What causes their brains to be different (HINT: Think back to previous lecture…)

19. What occurs during the “sensory” phase of song learning in the white-crowned sparrow? Be specific, and include the concept of the template. When is the critical period for this sensory phase, and what factors influence the length of this critical period?

20. What is meant by a “template” for song? Is it genetic, learned or both? If both, explain what might be genetically based and what might be learned. (See also next question and Fig. 8.8 in text.)

21. How does the song of young male bird with normal hearing, but who doesn’t hear the song of a conspecific male during the sensory phase, differ from the normal song. What is similar about the song? What is different about the song? (HINT: See Fig. 8.8 in the text and compare the wild and isolated bird.)

22. What if a white-crowned sparrow male hears the song of another species during the sensory phase, but not the song of its own species? (NOTE: I provided a somewhat simplistic view of this, as did the video. See p. 167 in your text for a more complete perspective.)

23. What occurs during the “sensory-motor” phase of song learning in the white-crowned sparrow? Be specific, and go through the different stages of the sensory-motor phase. Be sure to include the concept of the template in your explanation.

24. What is the song of a male like if he is deafened prior to song crystallization? What is the song of a male like if he is deafened after song crystallization?

25. Describe the methods and key results obtained by Bohner and Clayton regarding how many, and which bird (father or other male) a male zebra finch is likely to choose as a tutor (i.e. from which bird(s) song elements are copied.

26. Describe the methods and key results obtained by Williams regarding how many and which bird(s) a male zebra finch is likely to choose as a tutor (i.e. from which bird(s) are song elements copied).

27. What is a likely explanation for why the Williams study appears to contradict the Bohner and Clayton study? Which study do you think is more accurate in terms of what really occurs in nature, and why?

28. What is a critical period? Provide the “original” definition as well as four different ways that our current understanding has modified the original definition.

29. Gottlieb’s studies of imprinting in Peking ducks showed that being born with the ability to perform a particular behavior does not mean the behavior is genetically programmed. Describe the different treatments used by Gottlieb to arrive at this result.

30. What did the Peking ducks actually have to “learn” in order to preferentially recognize and imprint on more closely related species?

31. At the beginning of the biological clock lecture, I stated that “just because a behavior is rhythmic doesn’t mean it is controlled by an internal clock.” Explain what could control rhythmic behavior other than an internal clock.

32. List some different types of rhythms and provide examples of each.

33. How can you show that a rhythm is controlled by an internal clock?

34. What cues do you need to eliminate when studying whether the following types of rhythms are controlled by an internal clock? Think about subtle cues that could inadvertently occur during the performance of an experiment as well as the basics.

a. Daily

b. Tidal

c. Lunar

d. Annual

35. What is/are the possible adaptive value(s) of having a rhythm controlled by a biological clock rather than just controlled by environmental signals?

36. What is meant by a free-running clock? What is entrainment? How did human cycles allowed to free-run differ from their entrained cycles?

37. How can you show that a particular structure is the location of a biological clock (whether or not the “master” clock? Describe experiments done on chickens that identified the pineal as the location of the biological clock in chickens.

38. Thinking beyond the lecture: Compare studies designed to show whether a particular structure is the location of a biological clock with those designed to show whether a particular hormone influences a particular behavior.

39. In the experiments on the internal clocks of fruit flies

a. What is the function of the per gene?

b. What was the point of inserting the luceriferase gene close to the per gene?

c. What substance was added to the growth medium to make the experiment work?

d. Describe the basic results obtained from this study concerning

← rhythmicity in different parts of the fruit fly

← entrainment

40. What types of experiments are performed to determine whether a particular structure is the master clock that sets the others? You should be able to specifically describe experiments done in silk moths and with chickens.

41. How can you figure out where the sensors (i.e. photoreceptors in most cases) are that entrain the clock? Again, describe experiments with silk moths and chickens.

42. Be sure you understand the difference between a structure being identified as a master clock vs. a structure being identified as the location of the sensor that entrains the clock (even though the sensor seems to generally be located in the vicinity of the master clock...)

43. What did the experiments done with blind sparrows (as illustrated in Fig. 9.19) show?

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