Deck 10: Mechanisms of Orientation and Behavior

Question 1

We group animal strategies for finding their way between home and a goal into three levels of ability: piloting, compass orientation, and true navigation. Which of them makes the greatest use of familiar landmarks?

A) compass orientation
B) piloting
C) true navigation
D) all three, i.e., they all make use of landmarks to a similar extent.

Answer 1

piloting

Question 2

A member of a migratory species of bird is displaced to a distant location and then released. If it continues in the same direction in which it had originally been traveling it is displaying use of

A) compass orientation.
B) magnetoreception.
C) piloting.
D) true navigation.

Answer 2

compass orientation.

Question 3

Most first time migrant birds reach their destination without knowing where that goal is located. To do this they may make use of an innate process called vector navigation. Evidence supporting the idea of vector navigation is the finding that

A) cross-bred members of two populations that had very different migratory directions produced offspring that failed to reflect the migratory direction of either parent population.
B) individual birds held in the laboratory continue to flutter in their characteristic migratory direction even after their counterparts in the wild have completed their migratory journey.
C) individual birds held in the laboratory flutter in the direction in which they would be flying if they were free.
D) individual birds held in the laboratory maintain their original course of direction, even when free-flying members of their population have changed direction.

Answer 3

individual birds held in the laboratory flutter in the direction in which they would be flying if they were free.

Question 4

Wittlinger and colleagues (2007) experimentally manipulated the length of the legs of desert ants (Cataglyphis bicolor), shortening some and lengthening others. This was done to test the ants' ability to use stride length to determine

A) the degree to which wind resistance has displaced their travel.
B) the distance they have traveled on their outward route from the nest.
C) the way back to their nest, even if they are experimentally displaced just as they begin their return home.
D) their direction on their outward route from the nest.

Question 5

If an animal displays the ability to maintain reference to a goal that it cannot sense directly at the time, regardless of its location, without the use of landmarks, it is displaying

A) compass orientation.
B) magnetoreception.
C) piloting.
D) true navigation.

Question 6

True navigation has been found in

A) mammals, but no other taxonomic groups.
B) nearly all species.
C) only a few species.
D) only a single species.

Question 7

If you are thinking, "Go down this road until I get to the house with the white fence, turn right and go that way until I get to the intersection with the convenience store, then turn left and travel to the fifth house on the right," you are getting home by means of

A) a back-up system of navigation.
B) dead reckoning.
C) landmark recognition.
D) path integration.

Question 8

Tinbergen and Krypt (1938) demonstrated that the digger wasp (Philanthus triangulum) relies on landmarks to relocate its nest after a foraging flight by placing a ring of 20 pine cones around the nest opening

A) after the wasp had left the nest to forage but before it returned.
B) and then removing half of the pine cones while the wasp was away.
C) and then removing them completely while the wasp was away.
D) before the wasp left the nest to forage, and then moving it a short distance before it returned.

Question 9

On average, the sun appears to move how many degrees per hour across the sky?

A) 5
B) 10
C) 15
D) 30

Question 10

Use of the sun for orientation is complicated by its apparent motion across the sky. Compensation for the sun's apparent motion is especially important for species that

A) are nocturnal.
B) lack a biological clock.
C) take frequent short trips during the course of the day.
D) travel away from home for prolonged periods.

Question 11

Gustav Kramer was among the first to determine that birds migrating during the day use the sun as a navigational cue by noting that caged starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) oriented in the normal migratory direction

A) as long as the sun was visible.
B) but only when they were released to fly normally.
C) unless the "sun" was being produced by a mirror.
D) when sky was overcast.

Question 12

The idea for a time-compensated sun compass began when Gustav Kramer found that, when the sun was replaced with a stationary light source, the birds

A) completely lost their ability to orient appropriately.
B) continually adjusted their orientation as though the artificial sun were moving.
C) maintained a constant orientation with respect to the stationary source.
D) oriented correctly during the spring but became disoriented in the fall.

Question 13

Birds have been placed on an artificial light-dark cycle in a laboratory that initially corresponds to the natural lighting conditions outside; the lights are on from 6:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. The light period is then shifted so that the lights come on at 9:00 a.m. In this case, the animal's body time would be set

A) at natural time. Their biological clocks are not fooled by the artificial lighting.
B) 3 hours earlier than real time.
C) 3 hours later than real time.
D) 6 hours later than real time.

Question 14

Birds have been placed on an artificial light-dark cycle in a laboratory that initially corresponds to the natural lighting conditions outside; the lights are on from 6:00 a.m. to 6 p.m. The light period is then shifted so that the lights come on at 9:00 a.m. In this case, if the biological clock is used to compensate for the movement of the sun, orientation in these subjects should be off by

A) 15º
B) 30º
C) 45º
D) 90º

Question 15

We now know more details about time-compensated sun orientation.

A) A time compensated sun compass exists in only a few select species.
B) Even with exposure to only a partial sun arc, many animals develop a sun compass that can be used all day.
C) The internal clock of birds compensates for the daily variation in the rate of the sun's apparent movement (i.e., faster at sunrise or sunset than at noon).
D) The sun compass used by animals is quite robust, and does not interact with the star compass or the magnetic compass.

Question 16

Franz and Eleonore Sauer demonstrated that, when placed inside a planetarium so that the nighttime sky could be controlled, sylviid warblers oriented themselves in the proper migratory direction for that time of year by taking their bearings from the

A) moon.
B) planets.
C) stars.
D) sun.

Question 17

We know the most about the mechanism of star compass orientation in the indigo bunting (Passerine cyanea) through Stephen Emlen's systematic planetarium studies. These experiments indicate that the indigo bunting orients by relying on the region of the sky within 35º of

A) Aldebaran.
B) Betelgeuse.
C) Polaris.
D) Venus.

Question 18

Stephen Emlen demonstrated that young indigo buntings (Passerine cyanea) have to learn where north is rather than being born with that information already programmed. He did that by having birds that would orient appropriately relative to the center of star rotation even though they had been reared in a planetarium with

A) the dome diffusely lit.
B) the stars held stationary relative to Polaris.
C) the stars in retrograde relative to Vega.
D) the stars rotating around Betelgeuse.

Question 19

Most light consists of a great many waves that are vibrating in all possible planes perpendicular to the direction in which the light is traveling. Such light is described as

A) fully polarized.
B) partially polarized.
C) radically polarized.
D) unpolarized.

Question 20

The plane of polarization of sunlight is always

A) at a 45º angle relative to the poles.
B) centered at the relevant pole.
C) parallel to the direction in which the light beam is traveling.
D) perpendicular to the direction in which the light beam is traveling.

Question 21

Polarized light appears to be used in a variety of ways. Some animals use it

A) as an axis of orientation.
B) to determine the sun's location when it is below the horizon.
C) to locate water or other suitably moist habitat.
D) all of the above.

Question 22

Direction finding and navigation over both long and short distances, using cues in places where visual information is limited or absent, and where cues are constant year round, night and day, will most likely involve use of

A) landmarks.
B) magnetic cues.
C) olfactory cues.
D) polarized light.

Question 23

The aspect of the earth's magnetic field that consists of the angle the line of force makes with the horizon is referred to as the field's

A) declination.
B) inclination.
C) intensity.
D) polarity.

Question 24

When Ansell's mole rats, a subterranean species, are housed in circular arenas in a laboratory, they reliably and spontaneously build their nests in the southeastern sector of the arena. When the researchers reversed the polarity of the moles' magnetic field by reversing the direction of current flow through a Helmholtz coil, the moles

A) began to build nests in the northwest sector of the arena.
B) began to build nests throughout the entire area of the arena.
C) quit building nests entirely.
D) were unaffected and continued building nests in the southeastern sector.

Question 25

Because the magnetic compass of birds appears to be an inclination compass, and since most migratory birds inherit a program that tells them to travel in a certain geographical direction for a certain amount of time,

A) migrants from either the north or south hemisphere could use the same migratory program.
B) migrants from the northern hemisphere must have experience with the magnetic field near the equator to navigate correctly.
C) migrants that cross the equator can share migratory programs with birds that migrate within a hemisphere.
D) all of the above.

Question 26

If you were a loggerhead sea turtle traveling tens of thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean you would be guided primarily by

A) olfactory cues.
B) subsonic cues.
C) the earth's magnetic field.
D) the sun compass.

Question 27

Goff et al. (1998) performed an experiment in which hatchling loggerhead sea turtles swam into surface waves in tanks for either 15 minutes or for 30 minutes. Their orientation was then tested in still water and in a magnetic field.

A) Hatchlings with no more than 15 minutes of experience swimming into waves in a magnetic field were able to maintain their orientation in still water.
B) Only those hatchlings with 30 minutes of experience swimming into waves in a magnetic field were able to maintain their orientation in still water.
C) The experiment demonstrated that either experience with swimming into waves or with the magnetic field was enough to keep them oriented in still water.
D) The turtles were able to maintain their orientation in still water on the basis of the magnetic field alone, even if they had not had experience swimming into waves.

Question 28

True navigation requires

A) a compass. A map is nice, but not necessary.
B) a map. A compass is nice, but not necessary.
C) both a compass and a map.
D) neither a compass nor a map. Animals that can truly navigate have an appropriate innate program.

Question 29

What features of the earth's magnetic field might provide an animal with positional information for a magnetic "map"?

A) declination, which varies in a regular pattern.
B) the angle of inclination, which varies predictably with latitude.
C) the intensity of the total magnetic field, if it can be detected.
D) Any of these might be used.

Question 30

Lohmann and Lohmann (2006) exposed young loggerhead sea turtles that had never been in the ocean to magnetic fields characteristic of three widely separated regions along the migratory route of the warm, rich waters of the North Atlantic gyre. The loggerheads oriented to each distinctive field by swimming in a direction that would have kept them in the favorable waters of the gyre if they had been migrating. This demonstrated that hatchling loggerheads

A) are programmed to swim in a particular direction when they encounter characteristic magnetic fields found in critical regions of the gyre.
B) have an obvious conscious mental representation of their geographic position and their position relative to their goal.
C) need a sun compass to help them pinpoint the critical safe regions in the North Atlantic gyre, unless they are accompanied by adults.
D) need to learn that they should swim in a particular direction when they encounter characteristic magnetic fields found in critical regions of the gyre.

Question 31

Which of the following species has NOT been found to be sensitive to magnetic fields?

A) bees
B) homing pigeons
C) humans
D) sea turtles

Question 32

It has been determined that, in birds, light dependent magnetoreception

A) depends on receptors located specifically in the right eye.
B) makes use of brain components of the existing visual system.
C) usually requires blue light to maintain orientation to a magnetic field.
D) all of the above.

Question 33

Magnetite

A) has been found only in trout and sea turtles.
B) is found in the ganglion cells of a bird's visual system.
C) may form chains or clumps that can twist into alignment with the earth's magnetic field.
D) will resist being remagnetized by a brief, strong magnetic pulse.

Question 34

Research evidence suggests that some species, such as the eastern red-spotted newt and the Australian silvereye, may have

A) a much lower dependence on magnetoreception for navigation than was believed by earlier researchers.
B) a single magnetoreception mechanism that is based on a light-dependent mechanism.
C) a single magnetoreception mechanism that is based on a magnetite-based receptor system.
D) two magnetoreception mechanisms that serve different functions.

Question 35

Quinn and colleagues (2006) demonstrated that wild salmon return to the specific location of the natal stream in which they were born with remarkable precision. They used temperature changes during incubation of pre-hatch sockeye salmon embryos to cause banding patterns on the ear bones of the fish. They did this because

A) the banding patterns on the ear bones would mark the experimental fish for later identification.
B) they were hoping that the temperature manipulations would prevent the salmon from dying after spawning.
C) they were testing the hypothesis that altered banding patterns would influence the fishes' abilities to navigate to their natal stream.
D) they were testing the hypothesis that salmon use the temperature of the water in which they incubate as a navigational cue.

Question 36

When homing salmon navigate up a river, they

A) are influenced as much by habitat quality as by the odor of their birthplace.
B) usually choose correctly at a fork in a stream, but if they choose the wrong branch they are ultimately unable to find their way home.
C) will fail to reach their birthplace if their nasal cavities are plugged.
D) will fail to reach their birthplace if they are blinded.

Question 37

You are an experimental pigeon that has been reared in a loft where a distinctive odor, that of cotton candy, for example, always comes from the north, in addition to natural breezes. Another bird is reared in a similar loft, but exposed only to natural winds. If you are both exposed to the smell of cotton candy as you are displaced from your home lofts and taken to a release site 30 km away, you are likely to _____ and the other bird is likely to _____.

A) fly east; fly south, even if that is not the way home.
B) fly home, wherever that happens to be; fly north, even if that is not the way home.
C) fly north, even if that is not the way home; fly home.
D) fly south, even if that is not the way home; fly home.

Question 38

Three groups of pigeons, none of which had experience outside of its loft, underwent surgery: Group 1 had their trigeminal nerves cut. Group 2 had their olfactory nerves cut. Group 3 had sham surgery. The pigeons were then released 50 km from home. The initial orientation of Groups 1 and 3 was in the general direction of home, while that of Group 2 was in the opposite direction. In addition, 23 of 24 birds from both Groups 1 and 3 returned home within 24 hours, while only 4 of 24 from Group 2 made it home. These results suggest that

A) any type of surgery severely disrupts a pigeon's ability to home.
B) magnetic cues and olfactory cues are equally important in a homing pigeon's navigational map.
C) magnetic cues are more important than olfactory cues in a homing pigeon's navigational map.
D) olfactory cues are more important than magnetic cues in a homing pigeon's navigational map.

Question 39

Which of the following is likely to distort the electrical field surrounding an electric fish by drawing the current in its direction?

A) a rock
B) a shoe
C) another fish
D) the motion generated by a wave