Tuesday, January 4th, 2011
Week 1 Additional Notes
Natural History:▯ -real life (longest reality show)
▯ ▯ ▯ -enjoyment of nature (living, breathing, etc)
▯ ▯ ▯ -observational science
▯ ▯ ▯ -interest in natural history (naturalist)
▯ ▯ ▯ -constant need for naturalists -> so many jobs
About...
Plants - in detail, same as animals in ways of surviving (eat, mate, etc)
Animals - include mammals (birds, fish, snakes, insects)
*Interactions between plants and animals, animals and animals, etc*
Adaptation:▯ ▯ -features or traits that offer plants/animals an advantage
▯ ▯ ▯ -can be physical features (turtle shells, antlers on moose)
▯ ▯ ▯ -can be chemical/physiological features (wasp)
▯ ▯ ▯ -can be behavioural features (flocking: migration of crows)
▯ ▯ ▯ -features that allow a species to pass on their genes
-not acts of intelligence/planned solutions, they are features that have taken thousands/
millions of years to evolve
-arise because of selective pressures on all living things
(include environmental stresses such as temperature, wind, etc AND pressures that
arise from other animals/plants such as competition for food, sunlight, pressure from
predators, potential mates and offspring)
-change colour (camouflage)
-these forces are natural selection (Charles Darwin)
-never ending and driving force behind evolution
-in nature if you are not equipped with survival traits, you are in danger
-Genetic survival: key to life -> it is immortality Tuesday, January 4th, 2011
Defences of Animals: PHYSICAL
Problem #1 Staying Alive
Three types of defenses - physical (camouflage: art of not being seen), chemical,
behavioural
-animals hides so well because they match the same colours and patterns as the
background of their habitat: camouflage
-cryptic behaviour, camouflaging and remaining motionless: cryptic colouration
-background matching “with a twist” is when the animal has the same general pattern/
colours as the background
Eg. Gray tree frog (will change colour depending on what environment it is in, very rare
with animals. Chameleon is famous for this)
-even as a tadpole it has to background match for camouflage
Background Matching
-Background matching: same colours and appearances as the environment inhabited
Eg. ground nesting birds, some caterpillars, Eastern Screech-Owl
-colour change can also occurr seasonally
▯ *Snowshoe Hare changes from brown to white depending on the season
▯ -not exactly background matching until they are white in the winter
▯ -also called Varying Hare because it changes colour based on the season
▯ -only other mammal that does is the Urman Weasel
▯ *uncommon in animals locally, more common in northern animals*
Field: -lots of stripes/vertical lines
-field habitat, birds have lots of stripes on
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