Essential Idea:
Natural selection favours
specific types of behaviour
Understandings:
- Ethology is the study of animal behaviour in natural conditions
- Natural selection can change the frequency of observed animal behaviour
- Behaviour that increases the chances of survival and reproduction become more prevalent in a population
- Learned behaviour can spread through a population or be lost from it more rapidly than innate behaviour
Applications:
- Migratory behaviour in blackcaps as an example of the genetic basis of behaviour and its change by natural selection
- Blood sharing in vampire bats as an example of the development of altruistic behaviour by natural selection
- Foraging behaviour in shore crabs as an example of increasing chances of survival by optimal prey choice
- Breeding strategies in coho salmon populations as an example of behaviour affecting chances of survival and reproduction
- Courtship in birds of paradise as an example of mate selection
- Synchronised oestrus in female lions in a pride as an example of innate behaviour that increases the chances of survival and reproduction of offspring
- Feeding on cream from milk bottles in blue tits as an example of the development and loss of learned behaviour