Ecological questions State your ecological question here (2 points):
Why leopards hunt at night rather than hunting during the day like many
other animals when there is enough light?
Describe your observation(s) that motivated your ecological question (3
points):
During my visits to game parks, I noticed that most of the leopards do
not hunt during the day. During the day, most of the predators are seen
resting on trees and it is even difficult for a person to notice them due to
their camouflaging character. However, some of them hunt for the prey
during the day and they walk stealthy towards the prey to ensure they
land on the targets.
State two different hypotheses that could answer your ecological
question (8 points):
1
Hypothesis 1)
Leopards hunt at night because of their physique
Hypothesis 2)
Leopards hunt during the day whenever they feel they are hungry and
the prey is nearby
Relate each of your hypotheses to concepts or models covered in BIO
320 or 321 (12 points):
Hypothesis 1)
In the In Cog Books for BIO 320, we leant how certain animal features
have made them to adapt to their current preying habits. For instance,
leopards are nocturnal animals. Therefore, they are able to see well at
night. It makes it easy to locate and catch their prey during the night
since in most cases; the prey doesn’t have good vision during the night.
Additionally, leopards have the ability to camouflage. They change their
color to resemble that of the surrounding environment hence making it
difficult for the prey to establish their existence at a particular place.
Having nocturnal eyes and ability to camouflage are some factors that
make leopards hunt at night since they can easily spot the prey while the
prey may not locate the predator.
Hypothesis 2)
In the books, we also learnt about the optimal foraging models which
state that when searching for food, an animal will use a foraging strategy
that aims to provide a lot of benefits and at the same time using the
lowest cost hence maximizing on the overall energy obtained. Therefore,
leopards will not wait until night hours for it to look for food when it is
day time, they are hungry and the prey is nearby. They will maximize on
the opportunity and go after the prey during the day to deal with the
hunger other than waiting until night hours to go hunting when majority
of the prey are sleeping. It therefore, explains why in some occasions,
leopards hunt during the day.
Hypothesis:
Copy one of your hypotheses from the previous assignment here.
Treatments (independent variables):
Describe the treatments for your experiment and any materials needed to establish these
treatments. Be sure to include relevant information about the equipment or resources needed to
create these treatments. If applicable identify a treatment used to control for effects unrelated to
your hypothesis. (5 points)
Measurements (dependent variables):
Specify what variables you will measure in each treatment and any materials needed to make
these measurements. (5 points)
Predictions:
Be sure to specify the pattern of variation among treatments predicted by your hypothesis. You
may insert a drawing of the predicted pattern to support your answer (5 points)
Replication:
Most experiments require at least 20-30 observations per treatment to estimate the effect of a
treatment accurately.
Describe how you would replicate observations in your experiment. Why is this method of
replication appropriate for the hypothesis you are testing? Be sure to specify which units are
being replicated (organisms, cages, populations, sites, communities, etc.). (4 points)
Randomization:
How would you randomly assign replicates to each of your treatments? Be sure to describe a
manual or computerized method of randomization that you would use. (2 points)
Use your this method to randomly assign each subject in this table to one of two hypothetical
treatments, A or B. (2 points)
Subject
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Treatment (A or B)
Note that the randomization of subjects does not ensure that you will have an equal number of
subjects per treatment, which biologists call a balanced design.
Did your randomization method produce a balanced design in the table above? How could you
modify the method to ensure a balanced design? (2 points)
Example for Ecological Hypotheses Assignment
State your ecological question here (2 points):
Why do squirrels decide to run to trees before eating food instead of eat food in the open where
they find it?
Describe your observation(s) that motivated your ecological question (3 points):
During several visits to my site, I observed squirrels foraging in open grassy areas. When finding
food, a squirrel would sometimes run to a tree and climb to an upper branch before eating. In
other cases, a squirrel would just consume the food where it was found.
State two different hypotheses that could answer your ecological question (8 points):
Hypothesis 1)
Squirrels consume food in a tree whenever they feel that a predator is nearby.
Hypothesis 2)
Squirrels consume food in a tree whenever a tree is close enough or the food is small enough to
carry without expending too much energy.
Relate each of your hypotheses to concepts or models covered in BIO 320 or 321 (12 points):
Hypothesis 1)
In CogBooks for BIO 320, we learned about ways that predators affect the behaviors and life
histories of prey. In one example, frog embryos hatched early when disturbed by the vibrations
of a snake eating their siblings. This type of anti-predator behavior has a potential cost, because
the embryos must leave the egg earlier than usual and begin their tadpole stage at a smaller size.
Therefore, frogs only behave this way when they sense a predator in their environment.
Similarly, squirrels must expend energy to move between food and safety while foraging. They
should only expend this energy when sensing that a predator is nearby.
Hypothesis 2)
In several courses (CogBooks for BIO 182 and 320 and in the Foraging Lab for BIO 321), we
learned about models optimal foraging. These models assume that animals behave in ways that
maximize their net energy gain. If squirrels feel threatened in an open area, the decision to move
to safety before eating would impose an energetic cost. The net energy gain would be the amount
of energy in food, minus the cost of finding the food and moving to a safe place. If we increase
the cost of moving between the location of food and a location of safety, an animal should be
less likely to move to safety before eating. The energetic cost that causes an animal to switch
between these behaviors should depend on the amount of risk in the open vs in a tree.
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