BIOC54H3 Lecture Notes - European Cooperation In Science And Technology, Guppy, Brood Parasite
Document Summary
Lecture 7: the evolution of social behaviour (kin/non-kin) It comes down to benefits versus costs. Benefits: dealing with the physical environment, information, protection, territory defense, predation/hunting. Costs: competition for food & mates, energy and time of dominance interactions, disease, risk of brood parasitism, conspicuousness. Female aggression over matings in red deer: they all want to mate with the same male; especially the oestrous female (alpha male) Best nesting sites hard to come by! You share but you want your offspring to have the resources = so dump the other female"s eggs (ovicide) Female removing eggs has less laid eggs but has more eggs incubated. Takes time + energy to live in a group. A poor start to life affects ability to dominate in male green swordtails. Gg tends to show more aggressive behaviour than pg; who show more defensive behaviour! Greater population means greater risk of infection.