Communication in Living Things
Communication in living systems is normally not covered in the 10th grade biology curriculum. Because
of this, you should take the time to examine this topic. Chapter 51 – Animal Behavior is our fifth step in
understanding this idea. In this outline you will find the AP Bio curriculum that is addressed in chapter
51 and some questions that will guide you so that you can begin to understand this topic.
Big Idea 3: Living systems, store, retrieve, transmit and respond to information essential to life processes

Enduring Understading 3.E Transmission of information results in changes within and between
biological systems
o Essential Knowledge 3.E.1 Individuals can act on information and communicate it to
others (51.1)
 Organisms exchange info with each other in response to internal changes and
external cues, which can alter behavior
 Fight or flight response
 Predator warning
 Protection of young
 Plant-plant interaction due to herbivory
 Avoidance responses

Communication occurs through various mechanisms
 Living systems have a variety of signal behaviors or cues that produce
changes in the behavior of other organisms and can result in differential
reproductive success
o Herbivory response
o Territorial marking
o Coloration in flowers

Animals use visual, audible, tactile, electrical and chemical signals to
indicate dominance, find food, establish territory and ensure
reproductive success
o Bee dances
o Bird songs
o Territorial marking in mammals
o Pack behavior in animals
o Herd, flock and schooling behavior in animals
o Predator warning
o Colony and swarming behavior in insects
o Coloration

Responses t information and communication of info are essential and vital to
natural selection and evolution
 Natural selection favors innate and learned behaviors that increase
survival and reproductive success
o Parent / offspring interaction
o Migration patterns
o Courtship and mating behaviors
o Foraging in bees and other animals
o Avoidance behavior to electric fences, poisons, or traps

Cooperative behavior tends to increase fitness of the individual and the
survival of the population
o Pack behavior in animals
o Herd, flock and schooling behavior in animals
o Predator warning
o Colony and swarming behavior in insects
1. What is a fixed action pattern (FAP)? Give an example.
2. What is a sign stimulus?
3. Nicholas Tinbergen’s work with the stickleback fish is a classic study. Explain what he found
using the terms fixed action pattern and sign stimulus in your response.
4. What is migration?
5. Explain what is meant by circadian clock and circadian rhythms. Identify two behaviors, either
plant or animal, that demonstrates a circadian rhythm.
6. Discuss two navigational strategies used by birds to migrate.
7. Animals communicate in various ways. Discuss at least three specific examples using different
organisms.
8. Karl von Frisch studied European honeybees. What are the two types of dances that a returning
worker bee does, and what information does each dance convey? Use a labeled sketch to
describe each dance.
9. What are pheromones? Give three specific types of information that can be transmitted
through pheromones.
10. What is the difference between innate and learned behavior? Give an example of each.
11. Describe the process of imprinting, and explain what is meant by sensitive or critical period.
12. Describe the classic study of parental imprinting done by Konrad Lorenz.
13. There are several types of learning. What occurs in spatial learning?
14. What are two types of associative learning? Which type did Ivan Pavlov use to get a dog to
salivate at the sound of a bell?
15. What occurs in operant conditioning?
16. What is cognition? Give three examples of cognition in animal species; include at least one bird
behavior.
17. Many bird songs are learned during a critical period. What will happen if a white-crowned
sparrow does not hear the song of its species during this time?
18. What is foraging behavior?
19. What is proposed by the optimal foraging theory? Explain it in terms of cost and benefit, and
cite two examples from your text?
20. Explain each of these mating system:
a. Promiscuity
b. Monogamy
c. Polygamy
d. Polygyny
e. Polyandry
21. Explain two factors that may be important in determining the evolution of these systems, and
apply each factor to a particular species.
22. What is sexual selection?
23. Describe these types of sexual selection:
a. Intersexual selection
b. Intrasexual selection
24. What is agonistic behavior? Give one example of this behavior.
25. What is altruism?
26. Explain the evolutionary advantage to a population of having members who exhibit altruistic
behavior.
27. Altruism may reduce the fitness of an individual - for example, by making that individual more
obvious to a predator. Explain this behavior using the concept of inclusive fitness.
28. Contrast kin selection and reciprocal altruism.