One way to understand how early environment influences differing behaviors in similar species is through the "cross-fostering" experimental technique. Suppose that the curly-whiskered mud rat differs from the bald mud rat in several ways, including being much more aggressive. How would you set up a cross-fostering experiment to determine if environment plays a role in the curly-whiskered mud rat's aggression?
A) You would cross curly-whiskered mud rats and bald mud rats and hand-rear the offspring to see if any grew up to be aggressive.
B) You would place newborn curly-whiskered mud rats with bald mud rat parents, place newborn bald mud rats with curly-whiskered mud rat parents, and let some mud rats of both species be raised by their own species. Then you would compare the outcomes.
C) You would remove the offspring of curly-whiskered mud rats and bald mud rats from their parents, raise them in the same environment, and then compare the outcomes.
D) You would see if curly-whiskered mud rats bred true for aggression.
E) You would replace normal newborn mud rats with deformed newborn mud rats to see if it triggered an altruistic response.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Cross-fostering involves placing newborn animals with different species of parents to control for genetic effects and to assess the role of environment in behavior. In this case, placing newborn curly-whiskered mud rats with bald mud rat parents and vice versa would allow for a comparison of how environment influences aggression in these species. Additionally, allowing some of each species to be raised by their own parents would provide a control group.

One Way to Understand How Early Environment Influences Differing Behaviors