4. What attribute of male birds of paradise does Zahavi say is a kind of boast that even with a dangerous physical characteristic, the bird is strong enough to survive?

5. What does PI stand for?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Dawkins describe female cells versus male cells?

2. What factors does Dawkins mention that affect the human birthrate and population?

3. Explain the conflict between Wynne-Edwards and Dawkins over territory behavior.

4. What may happen to guillemot eggs, and what is the adaptation of guillemots to deal with this?

5. What two possible explanations for the behavior of the baby swallow observed by the Spanish researchers does Dawkins present?

6. Why, from the standpoint of the selfish gene, is it more beneficial to save five siblings than five cousins?

7. Does Dawkins agree or disagree with the theory about parental suffering for children's success, and why?

8. Explain Dawkins' interpretation of the affects of overpopulation on female mice.

9. Describe Trivers' observations of striped cleaner fish.

10. According to Dawkins, what selfish behavior might birds that have fewer eggs because of overpopulation exhibit?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the idea of a "gene machine" in The Selfish Gene.

1) Why does Dawkins make genes the dominant idea and organisms secondary to their genes?

2) What causes a "gene machine" to be successful or unsuccessful?

3) What causes change in "gene machines?" Why are they different from one another?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the concept of relatedness in Dawkins' book.

1) What is the relationship between relatedness and altruism? What is its relationship to selfishness?

2) How does Dawkins calculate relatedness mathematically? What does this math represent?

3) How does Dawkins' treatment of relatedness differ from most people's cultural ideas of being related? What is the relationship between relatedness and genes?