Essential Knowledge 3.E.1

Kimi Nagasaki Period 4

Individuals can act on information

and communicate it to others

*Learning Objectives● LO 3.40 e student is able to analyze data that indicate how organisms exchange

information in response to internal changes and external cues, and which can change behavior.

● LO 3.41 e student is able to create a representation that describes how organisms exchange information in response to internal changes and external cues, and which can result in changes in behavior.

● LO 3.42 e student is able to describe how organisms exchange information in response to internal changes or environmental cues.

*Internal and External Cues

Organisms exchange information with each other in response to internal changes and external cues, which can change behavior.

*Internal and External Cues● Fight or flight response: response to

an acute threat to survival that is marked by physical changes, including nervous and endocrine changes, that prepare a human or an animal to react or to retreat

● Avoidance responses are similar to this fight or flight response in which there is an passive avoidance, such a freezing, or an active avoidance, such as jumping or running away

*Internal and External Cues● Predator warnings: some examples of predatory warnings include mimicry,

camouflage and warning coloration. For instance, some butterflies can use their wings to help mimic owls. Or like Larry, some animals are able to change color to help protect themselves. And frogs can have a red or blue speckled appearance to imply they’re poisonous

● Predatory warnings helps increase the survival of these animals. These warnings would assist in natural selection as well as reproductive fitness.

*Internal and External Cues● Protection of young: this is idea is linked to altruism which is the belief that the

well being of others is equally, if not more, important than the well-being or survival of the self

● Imprinting can also be a way of a parent protecting its young offspring● Imprinting: when a young animal fixes its attention on the first object with

which it has visual, auditory, or tactile experience and thereafter follows that object. In nature the object is almost invariably a parent; in experiments, other animals and inanimate objects have been used

● Konrad Lorenz studied animal behavior and is known for his discovery of the principle of imprinting. He found that some new born species have a tendency to form a bond with its parent and/or caregiver. The newborn is able to learn from the caregiver, and the caregiver offers protection.

*Internal and External Cues● Plant-plant interactions due to herbivory● Plant defense against herbivory or host-plant resistance describes a range of

adaptations evolved by plants which improve their survival and reproduction by reducing the impact of herbivores. Plants can sense being touched, and they can use several strategies to defend against damage caused by herbivores.

● Plants can produce toxic chemicals or have an undesirable structure to avoid herbivory

*Communication through

mechanisms

Living systems have a variety of signal behaviors or cues that produce changes in the behavior of other organisms and can result in differential reproductive success

*Communication through mechanisms ● Territorial marking in mammals● These are methods in which an

animal, or group of animals, protects its territory from incursions by others of its species. Territorial boundaries may be marked by sounds such as bird song, or scents such as pheromones secreted by the skin glands of many mammals

*Communication through

mechanisms

Animals use visual, audible, tactilem electrical, and chemical signals to indicate dominance, find food, and establish territory and ensure reproductive success

*Communication through mechanisms ● The round dance indicates that the bee has located a profitable food source

close to the hive. Through the round dance, the bee communicates information pertaining to the distance and direction the food source is from the hive to the follower bees.

● When the food source is relatively far away (over 50 meters), the round dance transitions into the waggle dance. An important factor to the waggle dance is the angle on the honeycomb, which relates to the direction from the hive and sun that the bees should fly.

● Natural selection is expected to favor efficient foraging patterns and this creates the basis of a large body of optimal foraging theory.

*Communication through mechanisms ● A pack is an extended family group made up

of an alpha male and female pair with some of

their subordinate offspring and current pups

from one or more years.

● In packs, wolves demonstrate signs of

dominant behavior through unique body

language. You can tell a wolf's rank in the pack

by looking at how it holds its body. Alpha

wolves stand more erect with their tails held

higher, while lower-ranking ones slouch

toward the ground.

*Communication through mechanisms ● Herd, flock, and schooling behavior in animals are coordinated behaviors of

large groups of similar animals as well as emergent properties of these groups. This can include the costs and benefits of group membership, the transfer of information across the group, the group decision-making process, and group locomotion and synchronization

*Communication through mechanisms ● Swarm behaviour, or swarming, is a collective behaviour exhibited by entities,

particularly animals, of similar size which aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or migrating in some direction

● A colony is a group of organisms of one species that live and interact closely with each other. A colony differs from an aggregation, which is a group whose members have no interaction. Colonies of social insects usually include groups with different responsibilities.

*Natural Selection and

Evolution

Natural selection favors innate and learned behaviors that increase survival and reproductive fitness

*Natural Selection and

Evolution

Cooperative behavior tends to increase the fitness of the individual and the survival of the population

*Natural Selection and Evolution● A courtship display is a set of display behaviors in which an animal

attempts to attract a mate and exhibit their desire to copulate. These behaviors often include dances, vocalizations, mechanical sound production, or displays of beauty, strength, or agonistic ability.

● Species who demonstrate these mating behaviors and are better adapted to their environment, will produce more offspring with similar traits as their parents.

*Natural Selection and Evolution● Avoidance behavior is a type of activity in which an animal has the tendency to

act defensively rather than the tendency to attack● An example of avoidance behavior is poison shyness, which refers to the

avoidance of a toxic substance by an animal that has previously ingested that substance. Animals learn an association between stimulus characteristics, usually the taste or odor, of a toxic substance and the illness it produces; this allows them to detect and avoid the substance. Poison shyness is an evolutionary adaptation in many animals, favoring natural selection.

*Natural Selection and Evolution● Migration is the large-scale movement of an animal species from one place to

another. Migrations are usually tied to seasonal changes in weather and feeding patterns, or mating and breeding patterns.

● Migration is an innate behavior that increases the survival of a species by providing an environment that would be beneficial to species.