Animal Behaviour
Advanced Higher Biology
Student Notes
Imprinting
Animal Behaviour – Essay Questions
These are from old style Advanced Higher Biology Papers.
In your exam you will be unlikely to get an essay on Animal behaviour.
Each Essay is worth 15 marks.
Use these for revision – completed essays handed in will be marked.
1. “Behaviour, like other adaptations, has a genetic component and is shaped by
natural selection.”
Discuss this statement under the following headings:
a. natural selection of behaviour patterns
b. single gene effect on behaviour
c. Behavioural adaptation to human influence.
2. “In many animal species, the male is the showier sex.”
Discuss this statement in relation to sexual behaviour. Use examples of named
animal species to illustrate your answer.
3. discuss the following aspects of behaviour:
a. imprinting
b. sign stimuli and fixed action patterns
Use examples of named species to illustrate your answer.
(7 marks)
(8 marks)
4. discuss the effects of social behaviour on survival under the following headings:
a. “selfish” genes
(5 marks)
b. altruism
(5 marks)
c. kin selection
(5 marks)
5. discuss social organisation under the following headings:
a. social hierarchy in primates
b. avoidance of inbreeding in social mammals
(10 marks)
(5 marks)
6. Describe foraging behaviour in animals.
(5 marks)
Discuss some of the factors and problems involved in the observation and recording
of behaviour.
(10 marks)