Here are the questions for the third exam:                   (If you need the second exam questions and answers click here)

Animal Behavior – Third Midterm

1. Discuss the role of reciprocity in the evolution of cooperative behavior.

2. How do you measure inclusive fitness? Discuss the circumstances that lead to significant indirect components of fitness.

3. How is the ability to recognize kin accomplished? What is the significance of this ability?

4. Dispersal seems to be a central event that influences social behavior. Discuss how variation in the amount and type of dispersal can lead to differences in social behavior.

5. Altruism is understood to evolve via kin selection following Hamilton’s rule. Where does Hamilton’s rule come from and how is it applied?

6. Why is there a relation between nepotism (directing beneficial actions towards relatives) and helping in cooperatively breeding animals?

7. Extreme sociality (eusociality) has evolved numerous times. Discuss the role that ecological constraints and genetics have on this form of social behavior.

8. Discuss human social behavior using reasoning that we have applied to the behavior of other social animals.

9. Chimpanzees and other primates have some of the most complex social organizations. What role does the formation of coalitions, partnerships or friendships have in primate social behavior?

10. In a species, there are usually equal numbers of males and females and occasionally not. Furthermore, parents bias investment to male or female offspring. Discuss the relation of these phenomena.