On a road trip in the American West, you see a prairie dog town – a colony of related animals. There are hundreds of prairie dogs, but only a subset are scanning for predators at any time. If a predator is spotted, a prairie dog barks to warn the rest of the colony, who dart into their burrows. Prairie dogs have a complex vocabulary of alarm calls, which differ to indicate hawks, coyotes, or humans. What feature of group living is best illustrated by the prairie dog alarm system?

A. the many-eyes hypothesis
B. the geometry of the selfish herd
C. reciprocal altruism
D. haplodiploidy
E. optimality theory


A. the many-eyes hypothesis

Biology & Microbiology

You might also like to view...

Corals and jellyfish belong to the phylum containing the

A. nematodes. B. sponges. C. annelids. D. cnidarians. E. flatworms.

Biology & Microbiology

ATP synthesis that involves phosphorylation events linked to O2-dependent electron transport is called ________

Fill in the blank with correct word.

Biology & Microbiology

All of the following are true about prosimians except

A. only two lineages survive today. B. they are widespread. C. they are nocturnal. D. they are big-eyed mammals with increased visual acuity.

Biology & Microbiology

How might secondary contact result in a cline?

a. Reproductive character displacement completes the speciation process. b. Hybrid matings may have low fitness. c. Reproductive isolation is partially complete and a spatial gradient of hybrids forms. d. Reproductive isolation is incomplete and the two populations form a single species without spatial variation.

Biology & Microbiology