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1. Design a study to determine whether house sparrows (Passer domesticus) exhibi

ID: 174622 • Letter: 1

Question

1. Design a study to determine whether house sparrows (Passer domesticus) exhibit the group size effect.

2. Consider different factors that might contribute to your individual fear of predators and how this fear

might affect your behavior (i.e., How do humans modify their own behavior based on their fear of

predators?)

3. Competition for resources and inbreeding avoidance are two explanations for natal dispersal. Discuss

each of these hypotheses in the context of the proximate and ultimate explanations for natal dispersal.

4. In a northern population of sparrows, you determined that 80% of individuals migrate each fall to

warmer locations, while 20% remain residents year-round and overwinter on the breeding grounds.

Climate scientists predict that at this location, winters will become milder over the next 50 years.

Explain how this shift might affect the proportion of adults that migrate in the future.

5. Under what conditions would you expect sexual selection to be more intense on females than on

males?

6. Imagine that you are studying a group of wolves and notice that one of the individuals loses all of its

fights over food. Propose two hypotheses to explain why this most subordinate individual chooses to

stay in its group.

You don't have to answer them all, just as much as you can. Thank you, I really appreciate it.

Explanation / Answer

Ans 1.

When more than 2 individuals dwell in a common area, then they are known as a size. The size of group has a varying effect on productivity and reproducibility of that group. Group size effect actually relates to the size (total number of members) of a group.

Sparrows exhibit group size effect. For this ANOVA test can be conducted; using a factor known as 'vigilance', which decreases with group size.