Test Bank
to accompany
Animal Behavior, Twelfth Edition
John Alcock, Linda Green, Paul Nolan, Stefanie Siller, and Dustin Rubenstein
Chapter 1: An Introduction to Animal Behavior
Multiple Choice Questions
1. “If female lizards with reddish throats produce more eggs than females with orangish throats,
then the reddish throat is an evolved adaptation.” This statement
a. is true, because this species has variation, a critical requirement for the evolution of
adaptations by natural selection.
b. is false, because females with orangish throats could still have more offspring that live to
reproduce than females with reddish throats.
c. is false, because there is no guarantee that females with reddish throats are the best for the
long-term preservation of this species.
d. could be true or false, because we cannot tell without knowing whether reddish females
outnumber orangish females in this species.
Answer: b
Learning Objective: 1.1.1 Identify the conditions required to produce evolutionary change
through natural selection and examine these conditions using the gene’s eye view.
Bloom’s Level: 2. Understanding
2. The statement “Lemmings disperse from areas of high population density because they
inherited this ability from a lemming-like ancestor in the past” is a hypothesis about
a. evolved function.
b. genetics and development.
c. evolutionary history.
d. adaptive value.
Answer: c
Learning Objective: 1.1.3 Consider how proximate and ultimate levels of analysis can be used to
provide an integrative understanding of the development, mechanism, adaptive value, and
evolutionary history of a behavior.
Bloom’s Level: 2. Understanding
3. The infanticide hypothesis, which posits that infanticide is a reproduction-enhancing tactic
practiced by males, is called a hypothesis because it
a. can be proven.
b. is an explanation based on limited evidence that can be tested.
c. is mutually exclusive to any other potential explanations.
d. is a basic principle that can be applied widely.
Answer: b
,Learning Objective: 1.1.2 Review how researchers use the scientific method to test hypotheses
and predictions related to a potentially adaptive behavior in order to consider its fitness costs and
benefits, evaluate its adaptive value, and identify why it evolved.
Bloom’s Level: 2. Understanding
4. In order for Darwinian natural selection to cause evolutionary change, a population must
contain individuals that differ hereditarily in some characteristic because
a. in a population without this kind of variation, the species is doomed to extinction.
b. when all individuals have the same genes, then all individuals are exactly alike in all respects.
c. uniform populations are evolutionary dead ends.
d. unless there is variation of this sort, parents cannot pass on their advantageous attributes to
their offspring.
Answer: d
Learning Objective: 1.1.1 Identify the conditions required to produce evolutionary change
through natural selection and examine these conditions using the gene’s eye view.
Bloom’s Level: 2. Understanding
5. We observe variation in a population of lizard with respect to how fast individuals can run.
We attempt to select for the ability to run slowly, not quickly. After six generations of selective
breeding of only the slowest with the slowest, the mean running speed of the lizards has not
changed. What is the appropriate scientific conclusion based on this work?
a. After six generations of artificial selection, the frequency of slow runners in the population has
remained unchanged.
b. After six generations of artificial selection, the frequency of slow runners in the population has
increased.
c. The differences between the lizards in running speed in the original population were not
caused by genetic differences among them.
d. The results are invalid because the researchers failed to maintain enough variation in running
speed in their selected lineage, so evolutionary change was impossible.
Answer: c
Learning Objective: 1.1.1 Identify the conditions required to produce evolutionary change
through natural selection and examine these conditions using the gene’s eye view.
Bloom’s Level: 3. Applying
6. We observe a frog that carries its babies on its back away from where the eggs hatched. Here
are two questions about this observation:
X. Does the frog do this to move the babies to a place where they will be safer and more likely to
survive?
Y. Does the frog have specific morphological traits that enable it to hold and transfer its babies in
this way?
Which of the two is a proximate question?
a. X, because it considers the adaptive value or function of the trait
b. Y, because it asks about the developmental mechanisms that influence the components of the
animal
,c. Both X and Y, because they look at the immediate and mechanistic causes of the behavior
d. Neither X or Y, because they both take an adaptive or evolutionary approach to look at the
ultimate causes of the behavior
Answer: b
Learning Objective: 1.1.3 Consider how proximate and ultimate levels of analysis can be used to
provide an integrative understanding of the development, mechanism, adaptive value, and
evolutionary history of a behavior.
Bloom’s Level: 2. Understanding
7. We observe a frog that carries its babies on its back away from where the eggs hatched. Here
are two questions about this observation:
X. Does the frog do this to move the babies to a place where they will be safer and more likely to
survive?
Y. Does the frog have specific morphological traits that enable it to hold and transfer its babies in
this way?
Which of the two is an ultimate question?
a. X, because it considers the adaptive value or function of the trait
b. Y, because it asks about the developmental mechanisms that influence the components of the
animal
c. Both X and Y, because they look at the immediate and mechanistic causes of the behavior
d. Neither X or Y, because they both take an adaptive or evolutionary approach to look at the
ultimate causes of the behavior
Answer: a
Learning Objective: 1.1.3 Consider how proximate and ultimate levels of analysis can be used to
provide an integrative understanding of the development, mechanism, adaptive value, and
evolutionary history of a behavior.
Bloom’s Level: 2. Understanding
8. Which is an example of a Darwinian puzzle?
a. Salmon can smell a few molecules of chemicals in the stream in which they were born.
b. Adult birds scream in pain when caught by a predator.
c. If two or even three eggs are added to a bird’s nest, the adult birds often can rear them
successfully along with their own chicks.
d. Bats can catch moths in complete darkness thanks to their ability to hear echoes from their
own cries.
Answer: c
Learning Objective: 1.1.2 Review how researchers use the scientific method to test hypotheses
and predictions related to a potentially adaptive behavior in order to consider its fitness costs and
benefits, evaluate its adaptive value, and identify why it evolved.
Bloom’s Level: 2. Understanding
9. Consider the following observation: Male song sparrows sing more at dawn than during any
other time the day.
, With regard to this observation, the statement “Males sing to provide accurate information to
mates about their physical condition” is an example of
a. a causal question.
b. a prediction.
c. test evidence.
d. a hypothesis.
Answer: d
Learning Objective: 1.1.2 Review how researchers use the scientific method to test hypotheses
and predictions related to a potentially adaptive behavior in order to consider its fitness costs and
benefits, evaluate its adaptive value, and identify why it evolved.
Bloom’s Level: 3. Applying
10. Consider the following observation: Male song sparrows sing more at dawn than during any
other time the day.
With regard to this observation, the statement “Males that receive a ‘care package’ of extra food
the day before should produce more songs during the dawn hour than those that do not receive
supplemental food” is an example of
a. a causal question.
b. a prediction.
c. test evidence.
d. a hypothesis.
Answer: b
Learning Objective: 1.1.2 Review how researchers use the scientific method to test hypotheses
and predictions related to a potentially adaptive behavior in order to consider its fitness costs and
benefits, evaluate its adaptive value, and identify why it evolved.
Bloom’s Level: 3. Applying
11. Consider the following observation: Male song sparrows sing more at dawn than during any
other time the day.
With regard to this observation, the statement “What is the evolved function of the pattern of
song production by the song sparrow?” is an example of
a. a causal question.
b. a prediction.
c. test evidence.
d. a hypothesis.
Answer: a
Learning Objective: 1.1.2 Review how researchers use the scientific method to test hypotheses
and predictions related to a potentially adaptive behavior in order to consider its fitness costs and
benefits, evaluate its adaptive value, and identify why it evolved.
Bloom’s Level: 3. Applying
12. If an adaptation is the product of natural selection, the trait will
a. provide a net reproductive gain for individuals that possess the attribute.
