Animal Behaviors November 2 & 3

Marking Territories By marking its territory, animals keep competitors away from their resources. Some mark their territory by urinating, and others will rub themselves against the territory itself. Jaguars will mark their territories by urinating or clawing their territory. Sometimes their territories can be up to 50 miles wide.

Regulating body temperature Snakes need to regulate their body temperatures since they are cold-blooded. They will often lay out in the sunlight in the morning to raise their body temperatures to give them energy for activity during the day. Panting helps animals to keep cool. Coyotes are one example that do this. Many animals do not sweat, so panting is their way of cooling down

Catching Prey Animals have developed different habits to lure in prey. Some use “lures” and others will draw their prey out of hiding. Snowy Egrets will stir their feet in the water to get their prey to come to them. Alligator snapping turtles will use a “lure” in their mouths to draw prey to their open mouths.

Working together Many species will travel in large herds to protect themselves from predators Example: Caribou Many animals will help each other out to ensure their survival. Vampire bats have extremely high metabolisms that they cannot survive longer than 1 or 2 days without eating. If one bat has plenty to eat, it will vomit some of its food up for a fellow bat that is hungry. This increases the chances that the bat helped out will also share food if the situation is reversed. It’s like in Clash of Clans when you donate troops; you hope the person you donate to will do the same thing one day.

Protection and survival Species will do whatever they must to survive. Some have evolved specific traits, and others have learned what they must do over time.

Dolphin Behaviors Dolphins will travel in pods to help reduce the chance of them being attacked. The males will attract females by butting heads with other males.

Migration There are many reasons for migration, but ultimately it comes down to surviving. Animals in Africa will often migrate to follow the rains for access to drinking water. Zebras are a great example of this. They will migrate 100’s of miles to keep up with the rains.

Survival tactics Flying fish In a world that is lived under water, these fish are able to escape from predators by propelling themselves out of the water several meters. Opossums When all else fails, these animals will “play dead” to try and steer predators away. This response is involuntary.

Survival tactic cont. Cactus Wrens These animals survive by building their nests in the branches of cactuses.

Conserving energy Bees are very selective about the flowers they choose to land on. This helps them avoid wasting energy on visiting flowers that do not contain nectar, or very little nectar.

To bee or not to bee Bees are extremely social and have a hierarchy that shows intelligence and a higher order in this species Queen Why is the queen’s only job to produce eggs every day? Drones Why is it beneficial for the drones to be removed from the colony at the onset of winter? Workers Why is it beneficial that almost all female bees cannot reproduce? Why is it beneficial that the worker bees groom the queen and she does not do it herself?

Bee Answers Queens producing thousands of eggs a day helps the colony to survive by increasing the odds that an adequate number of offspring will survive. Removing drones from the hive at the onset of winter helps a honeybee colony survive by conserving resources for the workers. It is important that most female honeybees cannot reproduce because this frees them up to do the other available work. It is important for the workers to groom the queen because she can now direct all of her energy to reproducing.