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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What reason does Dawkins give that animal populations are about 50-50 male and female?
(a) Males are overly competitive and destroy each other when the male population is too high.
(b) Dawkins says that a 50-50 ratio is the stable balance of males and females.
(c) Male and female balances shift from generation to generation to average out to 50-50.
(d) Overlarge female populations purposefully create more males.

2. To what does Dawkins attribute changes to female mice as the population rises?
(a) Natural selection of individuals.
(b) Group selection.
(c) Random variation within groups.
(d) Random variation in individuals.

3. What does Trivers look at breeding as?
(a) A race with time.
(b) A careful calculation based on resources.
(c) A war between the sexes.
(d) A goal of existence.

4. What does Medawar's study conclude?
(a) Older women are better with young children and worse with older children.
(b) Older women are not as good at raising children.
(c) Older women are better at making choices between offspring.
(d) Older women are not good at distinguishing when a child costs too many resources.

5. What does Wynne-Edwards teach?
(a) That evolution is only partially responsible for behaviors.
(b) That individuals strive for individual success within the group.
(c) That group behaviors are evolved and individual behaviors are incidental.
(d) That groups of animals evolved for the good of the group.

6. What does Dawkins give as his example of the individual benefit of pack behavior in hyenas?
(a) The hyenas can gain more information from the pack.
(b) The hyenas can get protection from other hyenas.
(c) The hyenas can find more prey as a pack.
(d) The hyenas can hunt bigger prey as a pack.

7. How does the author suggest that bird calls might help a bird that is trying to hide by freezing to camouflage itself?
(a) The call might cause the rest of the flock to fly and distract predators.
(b) The call might cause the rest of the flock to freeze and not attract attention.
(c) The call might allow the bird to focus and remain quiet for a longer period of time.
(d) The call might be hard to pinpoint and therefore distract predators.

8. In Dawkins' example, why might an older child give up food for a younger sibling?
(a) The parents are more concerned about the older child and ignoring the younger one.
(b) The child does not need the food as much as the younger sibling.
(c) The child is more concerned about sibling survival than about its own survival.
(d) The child is not concerned about its own survival.

9. What does Dawkins point out about different species' attitude toward offspring?
(a) Different species care for offspring similarly, but there is great variety between individuals within species.
(b) Different species treat offspring differently.
(c) Different species all care for offspring equally, if environment is accounted for.
(d) Different species fall into two categories of caring for offspring.

10. What does Dawkins believe about human population growth?
(a) That humans should probably limit their population growth.
(b) That human population growth is not a problem.
(c) That human populations growth needs to increase.
(d) That humans have no means to limit populations growth.

11. In the example that Dawkins gives, what do pigs sometimes do to the runt of the litter?
(a) Refuse to feed it.
(b) Allow the other piglets to attack it.
(c) Eat it.
(d) Kick it away.

12. What ant behavior does Dawkins give as an example of seemingly altruistic behavior?
(a) Running into a burning anthill to retrieve others' eggs.
(b) Hanging from a ceiling as a living food pack.
(c) Throwing itself in front of predators.
(d) Bringing food back to other ants without eating.

13. In Dawkins' discussion, why don't baby birds continue to scream louder and louder?
(a) Because screaming uses energy and attracts predators.
(b) Because other chicks will throw a screaming chick out of the nest.
(c) Because screaming ultimately deafens the chick and its siblings.
(d) Because constant screaming leads parents to ignore chicks.

14. How is male and female responsibility for offspring different in fish?
(a) Females care for the eggs, and when they hatch, they leave the live offspring to the males.
(b) Males care for eggs, and then females take over when the offspring hatches.
(c) Females may lay eggs and abandon them, while males fertilize the eggs and are left to care for them.
(d) Males and females both leave their fertilized eggs without investing resources in them.

15. In Dawkins' game theory analysis of a colony of birds and ticks, what were grudger birds?
(a) Birds that can survive in symbiosis with ticks.
(b) Birds that refuse to take ticks off other birds.
(c) Birds that refuse to take ticks off birds that won't help others.
(d) Birds that refuse to have ticks taken off of their heads.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does the author suggest that bird calls might help a bird that is trying to fly up into the trees?

2. What does Dawkins say that Honeyguide chicks do?

3. How does Dawkins characterize the runt of a litter?

4. What does Wynne-Edwards say happens when other animals communicate to the species that there is overpopulation?

5. In the ant colonies studied by Trivers and Hare, what do the ants do with eggs stolen from other colonies?

(see the answer keys)

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