GLOSSARY

ACTIVE SEARCH When an herbivore or predator moves around its environment looking for food, this is an active search. This contrasts with PASSIVE SEARCH.
AGGRESSIVE MIMICRY Mimicking a resource, such as food, shelter, or mating signals in order to lure prey. Some predatory fish have appendages which mimic worms; by moving their lure, they can bring their prey within reach. Bolas spiders mimic the sex pheromone of their moth prey, using this scent to attract their meal.
ALTERNATIVE MATING TACTICS
APPROACH-AVOIDANCE CONFLICT When an animal experiences conflicting drives, such as a desire to approach an unfamiliar object (exploratory behavior) while at the same time being fearful of the object (avoidance behavior), it may display an irrelevant behavior, such as grooming.
ARTIFICIAL SELECTION Human intervention in a breeding system to manipulate the phenotype of the progeny. The domestic dog is an excellent example of a species which has been subjected to artificial selection for behavioral traits.
ASYMMETRICAL RELATIONSHIPS
BAIT SHYNESS Learned avoidance of a unpalatable or poisonous food item. This term comes from the behavior of rats, which can easily learn to avoid potential poisons by not taking foods which have previously made them ill. They may also learn to avoid poisons by observing illness/death of other rats, although this finding is more controversial. Bait shyness makes killing rats with poison a difficult task.
CLASSICAL ETHOLOGY Early ethologists focused on four central questions when they studied behavior: Survival value, Causation, Ontogeny, and Evolution.
CONDITIONING (AND OPERANT CONDITIONING)
COST OF MEIOSIS Only half your genes are passed to the next generation after meiosis. Over generations, your genetic legacy is reduced by 50% each generation.
CROSS FOSTERING Cross-fostering is an experimental technique in which members from two different populations are placed in the other one. This is used to determine whether certain behaviors are genetic or learned, or both.
CRYPTIC FEMALE CHOICE
CUCKOO
DANCE LANGUAGE IN BEES Movements by incoming foraging honey bees which communicate the distance and direction of food resources. Nearby food is communicated by a circular dance, while food which is more distance elicits and figure-eight shaped dance.
DECEIT
DELAYED COMPETITION
DIETARY SPECIALIZATION
DISPLACEMENT BEHAVIOR Displacement behaviors are behaivors that seem irrelevant in the context of a situation and are used to dissipate energy. These behaviors include self directed behaviors and redirected behaviors and can be used to determine the level of anxiety in captive animal populations.
EGOCENTRIC INFORMATION Information innate to the organism (doesn’t need to rely on sensory perception) that directs behavior. For example, in migration, direction and distance information and usually known without any environmental clues.
EUSOCIALITY Three conditions need to be met for a colony to be eusocial: 1.) overlapping generations (parents and offspring) are present, 2.) reproductive skew (generally the parents having most or all of the offspring) and 3.) cooperative brood care.
EXTRAPAIR COPULATIONS
EXTRAPAIR PATERNITY
FISHER’S SEX RATIO THEORY Populations tend to have 50:50 sex ratios. If skew towards either sex is present, then individuals producing broods opposite to the population-level skew will be favored. Over time this will cause the population to evolve back to 50:50
FIXED ACTION PATTERN
FORCED COPULATION
GAZE FOLLOWING
GENDER
GEOCENTRIC INFORMATION
GIVING UP TIME MODELS
HABITUATION When a stimulus is repeatedly presented to a species the response will gradually diminish or lessen. The animal can learn that the stimulus is neither noxious nor rewarding and will disregard the stimulus.
HANDICAP PRINCIPLE This is when selection favors a certain phenotype, but it is very costly to produce so not all animals can obtain the desirable phenotype. It can be a “handicap” because females prefer the “brighter” and “stronger” males, but only a few can produce these traits.
HAPLODIPLOIDY
HAPLOID MALE
HB^2 = VG/VP
HERITABILITY
HOME RANGE The area in which an animal carries out its normal activities. May encompass feeding, shelter, and mating areas. Is not defended--a defended area is a TERRITORY.
HYDRAULIC MODELS OF DRIVE
IDEAL FREE DISTRIBUTION
INBRED LINES
INBREEDING AVOIDANCE
INFANTICIDE
INNATE RELEASING MECHANISM
INSIGHT LEARNING
KIN RECOGNITION Recognition of individuals who are closely related through phenotype matching, or other forms of learning. MHC recognition plays an important role in many animals. Kin recognition is important in avoiding inbreeding or conflict with closely related invidiuals, and can facilite behavior meant to aid kin.
KINESIS
LEK
LOCAL MATE COMPETITION
MAGNETIC FIELD PERCEPTION
MARGINAL VALUE THEOREM The time when it is most beneficial for the animal to leave the patch is when food received falls below the average rate of return for the environment.
MATE GUARDING
MHC Major histocompatibility loci. In the vertebrate lineage of animals, the MHC genes provide the information for making antibodies to foreign organisms that may attempt to invade the animal. MHC is also responsible for labelling the cells of an animal for self-recognition, so an animal won't be attacked by its own immune system
MODES OF COMMUNICATION (SEE CHART ON WEB SITE)
MONOGAMY
NOISE REDUCTION
NUPTIAL GIFTS
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING
OPTIMAL OUTBREEDING
OPTIMALITY
PARENT-OFFSPRING CONFLICT
PARENTAL CARE

PASSIVE SEARCH
PATCHY DISTRIBUTION (OF FOOD)
PHEROMONAL DOMINANCE
PHYLOGENETIC BASIS FOR BEHAVIOR
POLYANDRY
POLYGYNY
PREDATOR SATURATION
PROMISCUITY
QUANTITATIVE TRAIT LOCI (QTL)
RECIPROCAL ALTRUISM
REDIRECTED BEHAVIOR
REDUNDANCY
RITUALIZATION simplification exaggeration repetition stereotypy

SCATTER HOARDING when an animal hides food items throughout its home range.
SATELLITE MALES
SEARCH IMAGE A mental image of desired prey that assists animals in detecting their food. Very important in detecting cryptic prey. Search image improves with experience.
SELF-DIRECTED BEHAVIOR (SBD)
SELFISH TEAMWORK When two or more individuals (not necessarily related) work together to attain a goal that could not be reached working alone. When the goal is met, the animals compete for the reward. The same animal does not always win this competition.
SEQUENTIAL COMPARISONS (IN ORIENTATION)
SIBLICIDE When one sib kills another. Most important context is when parents have produced excess, or insurance, offspring and siblicide is a mechanism for reducing offspring to match the available resources.
SIGN STIMULUS The effective part of an action or object that triggers a highly stereotyped innate behavior (or fixed action pattern) by means of a hypothetical neural pathway called the innate releasing mechanism. For example, when an egg rolls out of a bird’s nest (this is the sign stimulus).
SIMULTANEOUS COMPARISONS (IN ORIENTATION)
SINGLE GENE MUTATIONS
SIT AND WAIT PREDATION Also referred to as PASSIVE SEARCH. A sit and wait predator chooses a location where its prey are likely to pass. It then simply waits for the appropriate moment, when a prey animal is near, and strikes. Examples of sit and wait predators include
SPERM COMPETITION Viable sperm from more than one male are present in the female’s genital tract at the same time. These sperm compete to reach and penetrate the egg. Sperm competition can lead to phenomena like larger testes (to produce more sperm) or better swimming ability of the sperm.
STEREOTYPY This is the sameness of behaviors. Every time the behavior is performed it is enacted in the exact same way with all the same movements and actions. It is one of the four components of ritualization.
STRATEGY The overall plan an animal has for solving a problem, such as finding food, obtaining cooperation from another animal, or finding a mate. A strategy normally includes more than one TACTIC. In the prisoner's dilemma game, for example, TIT-FOR-TAT is a strategy, while cooperation and defection are TACTICS, both of which may be used as part of the TIT-FOR-TAT strategy.
SUN AND STAR COMPASSES
SUPERNORMAL STIMULUS
TACTIC Behavioral acts chosen by an animal when it is attempting to achieve a goal. The plan for implementing tactics is a STRATEGY.
TAXIS
TERRITORY An area, with associated resources, that an animal or group of animals defends.
TRIAL AND ERROR LEARNING
VP = VG + VE Phenotypic variance equals the genetic variance plus the environmental variance

Glossary
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