Survival Adaptations

1
Survival Adaptations
2
Survival Adaptations

• Intense selection pressure to find survive
  predation
• Leads to co-evolutionary relationships between
  predator and prey

3
Interspecific Interactions between Predator and
Prey
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Co-evolutionary Arms Race

• Predator and prey designs are never perfect
• Costs and benefits are incurred
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vXlkj-NoZyn0

5
Mobbing Behavior

• Anti-predator behavior
• Individuals work to deter predators by attacking
  or harassing
• Mobbing behaviors include
• Pecks, dive bombing, squacking and defecation
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v6ecEZuIcHxs

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Mobbing Behavior Function

• Advertise physical health
• Distract from offspring
• Warn offspring of predator presence
• Lure predator away

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Meerkat

• Grasslands, Scrub, deserts
• Cooperative species
• Live in social groups
• Colonies of up to 30 individuals
• Family groups
• Use mobbing as an anti-predator response
• Deter predators
• Gather information to assess risk
• Learned behavior
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vncoTWKtGNb4

8
Kangaroo Rats

• Nocturnal desert rodents
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vwkJLHnYy_G0

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Black-headed Gull

• Nesting colonies
• Flat often exposed areas
• Predators
• Weasels, foxes, coyotes

10
Killdeer

• Shorebird
• Ground nester
• Feigns injury to distract predators
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vAaODt7SCsGkfeature
  related

11
Black Bear

• Mother bear cares for offspring
• Extended parental care
• Cubs stay with sow for approximately 17 months
• Female travels with cubs as she forages
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vBkwy0scRXBU

12
Cost Benefit Analysis

• Adaptive value of behaviors when fitness benefits
  outweigh and fitness costs
• Fitness benefit
• Positive effect of a trait in increasing
  reproductive fitness
• Fitness cost
• Negative effect of a trait results in a decrease
  of reproductive fitness

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Cost Benefit Analysis

• Mobbing a predator can be a risky behavior
• Increases exposure to predators
• Mobbing behaviors are energetically costly
• High caloric activity
• Mobbing benefit must outweigh costs
• Increase survival
• Increase fitness

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Causation

• Proximate
• Physiological foundation
• Ex. Presence of Neurotransmitters
• Genetic component
• Ultimate
• Adaptive value to reproductive success
• Phylogenetic history (Macroevolution)

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Phylogenetic History

• Evolution of mobbing behavior in Black-headed
  gull
• If ancestral gull was a ground nester, evolution
  of mobbing would have been an adaptive behavior
• More than 50 of gulls use mobbing behavior,
  supports hypothesis

16
Cliff Nesting Gulls

• Some species of gulls nest on cliffs
• Location protects eggs and young
• Fewer predators results in different predation
  pressure
• Mammals unable to scale cliffs, predatory birds
  unable to maneuver in coastal winds

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What Came First Ground Nesting or Cliff Nesting?

• Two possible explanations

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Occams Razor

• Aka Principle of Parsimony
• Simplest possible explanation involving fewer
  evolutionary transitions are more probable than
  than complicated alternatives

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Convergent and Divergent
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Divergent Evolution

• Evolution of differences among closely related
  species that live in different environments, with
  different selection pressures

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Convergent Evolution

• Independent evolution of similar characteristics
  in two or more unrelated species that live in
  similar environments with similar limiting
  factors
• Mobbing behavior is an example of convergent
  evolution

22
California Ground Squirrel

• Complex suite of predator-prey interactions
• Mobbing
• Tail shaking
• Antivenom
• Risk assessment

23
Mud- Puddling

• Aggregation of insects (mostly butterflies) on
  wet soil, rocks with specific mineral content,
  dung or carrion
• Behavior to acquire water, salts and amino acids
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vVdlIjRCc_sMfeature
  related

24
Dilution Effect

• Adaptive benefit of gregarious behavior
• For any one predator attack, the larger the group
  of prey animals, the smaller the chance that any
  particular individual will be the victim

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Mixed Flocks

• Multiple species will aggregate
• Despite increased competition
• Dilution effect
• Increased vigilance

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Synchronous Breeding

• Breeding when members of a population tend to
  breed at the same time
• Hatch or metamorphis at the same time
• Anti-predator response
• Dilution effect

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Mayfly Hatch

• Synchronous metamorphism
• Dilution Effect

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Black Fly Hatch

• Synchronous breeding
• Dilution effect
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?ve0qDq6DqgoA

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Organized Defense

• Cooperation among individuals to fight off
  predators
• Costs
• High concentration of individuals increases
  intraspecific competition
• Benefit
• Group attack is a more effective defense against
  predators

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Ants, Bees Wasps

• Cooperation among individuals to defend nest
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vHL3sHuK3iGE

31
Sawfly

• Feed on noxious food sources
• Pine needles, eucalyptus
• Segregate noxious compounds in digestive system
• Use startle response to deter predators
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vrmYt3j1Id3Qfeature
  related
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vWgSj9VuDcVUfeature
  related

32
Cryptic Coloration

• Anti-predator response that involves camouflage
• Defense behavior often associated with solitary
  individuals
• Involves suite of morphological and behavioral
  characteristics
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vMK6nlsOZpuU

33
Cuttlefish Octopus

• High predation pressure
• Specialized skin designed for crypsis
• Elaborate sensory and nervous systems
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v2x-8v1mxpR0feature
  related
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v__XA6B41SQQfeature
  related
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v7NQUqR_YpsAfeature
  related

34
Edge Detection

• Use of disruptive color pattern to conceal
  appearance by breaking up outline of body

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Edge Detection

• Use of disruptive structures to conceal
  appearance by breaking up outline of body

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Behavioral Crypsis

• Skipper butterfly larva
• Conceal their location by living in a rolled up
  leaf
• Anti-predator defense for visual predators
• Eject fecal pellets from shelter
• Anti-predator defense for odor searching
  predators

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Behavioral Crypsis

• Use increase in blood pressure to launch fecal
  pellet held at anus
• Launch up to 40 times their body length at a
  Speed of 4.2 feet per second
• Equiv for 6ft human is 240ft

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Behavioral Crypsis
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Warning Coloration

• Honest signal warning potential predators against
  harm to avoid becoming prey

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Monarch Butterfly

• Larva feeds on plants of milkweed family
• Toxin is stored in tissues
• Color signals unpalatability

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Warning Coloration

• Blue Jays will sometimes consume
• If survives will avoid in future

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Warning Coloration

• Warning color may signal other danger

43
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vWTQc-WEb5h8feature
related
44
Mimicry

• Mimic or copy of another animals survival
  adaptation
• Typically involves color and or behavior

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Mimicry

• Spicebush caterpillar
• Mimic as both larvae adults
• Young larvae small and dark brown
• Older larvae green
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vuQhWDBzlLCM

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Self Mimicry

• Refers to the form of mimicry when one species is
  mimicking the body part of another
• Increases survival during an attack
• Dishonest mimicry

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Eye Spots

• Allow prey species to startle predator and
  increase chances of escape
• Provide a false target so predator attacks
  non-vital body part

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Batesian Mimicry

• Refers to the form of mimicry when two or more
  species have a similar appearance, but only one
  of the species has an anti-predator adaptation
• Dishonest mimicry

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Batesian Mimicry

• Honey bee and Bee fly

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Batesian Mimicry

• Coral snake and Mountain King snake
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vFvDpbjSRpucfeature
  related

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Cost of Batesian Mimicry

• Mimic dilutes message

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Mullerian Mimicry

• Refers to the form of mimicry when two or more
  species have a similar appearance, and both
  species have an anti-predator adaptation
• Honest mimicry

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Mullerian Mimicry

• Monarch and Viceroy butterflies
• Both species are unpalatable

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Mullerian Mimicry

• Yellow jacket and honey bee butterflies
• Both species are capable of stinging

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Mullerian Mimicry

• Benefit of honest mimicry
• Allows species using a similar signal to
  reinforce their message

56
Stotting

• Behavior sacrifices speed
• Makes more visible
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?v2Sl250079Kkfeature
  related

57
Cheetahs Abandon Hunts more often when Gazelles
Stot

• Stotting and pronking is an honest signal