Examine this figure from a study conducted by Bernd Leisler, Hans Winkler, and Michael Wink. Leisler et al. 2002 studied male care across 17 species of Acrocephaline reed warblers.
In this figure, the amount of black in a circle represents the relative percentage of male care to female care. High levels of black indicate high levels of paternal care.
Answer the following three questions.
Based on this figure, what do you expect to have been the ancestral state of parental care? (2 pts)
Which of these species would you expect to have a promiscuous mating system, and why? (2 pts)
Which of Tinbergen’s questions is this study assessing? Explain your reasoning. (1 pts)
References Cited:
Leisler, B., Winkler, H., and Wink, M. 2002. Evolution of breeding systems in Acrocephaline warblers. The Auk 119: 379-390.
2. In pipefish, males carry fertilized eggs in a skin flap on their stomach and provide all defense and care. Females show a temporary striped ornamental pattern, and males “dance” during courtship. Berglund and Rosenqvist (2001) assessed mate choice in this system. Dance latency describes the time to begin dancing, with a smaller number indicating a faster time to start. Examine the following figures from their paper:
Answer the following three questions.
Would you expect sexual selection to be greater in males or females in this system? Why? (2 pts)
Interpret their results in the context of using sexually selected traits in mate choice. (2 pts)
What fitness benefit might males obtain by mating with a more ornamented female? (1 pts)
References Cited:
Berglund, A., and Rosenqvist, G. 2001. Male pipefish prefer ornamented females. Animal Behaviour 61:345-350.
3..Flycatchers eat flying insects, including bees, flies, butterflies, and wasps. Nuthatches eat beetle larvae buried under tree bark, as well as berries, seeds, and sap. In temperate climates like midwestern North America, flycatchers migrate each fall to the tropics, whereas nuthatches do not.
Describe the relative stability of these birds’ food sources over the course of the year and explain how it might affect their likelihood to migrate. (5 pts)
Imagine that during the breeding season, flying insects are more abundant than seeds, but seeds provide more energy when eaten.
Describe the factors associated with handling time for each of these two food sources (insects vs seeds). (3 pts)
Based on this information, which species do you predict is more likely to be monogamous, and why? (2 pts)
The iconic Oklahoma bird, the scissortail flycatcher (Tyrannus forficatus), is only in the state during the breeding season
4. Behavior of the day! Several species of tropical tent-making bats modify a large leaf into a “tent”, which is used as a roost that provides protection during the day. A tent typically houses several adult females and a single adult male that has mated with them.
Honduran white fruit bats (Ectophylla alba) snuggle in their leaf tent. One male is present here, the rest are females.
Describe the difference between female defense polygyny and resource defense polygyny in your own words. (4pts)
How would you determine whether this species exhibits female defense polygyny or resource defense polygyny? Provide a hypothesis, prediction, and a brief description of your experimental design. You may also present a graph/figure. (6pts)