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Study Questions for Predator and Prey


1. Describe stimulus filtering in predator vision. What is stimulus filtering useful for?


2. Describe habituation mechanisms in a prey's vision system. What is habituation useful for? If it is useful, then why has evolution led to a situation where the prey can be exploited by a predator?


3. Describe sensory exploitation from the viewpoint of the female-male relationship, and from the point of view of the predatory prey relationship.


4. Describe the step-bystep neural bases of echolocation and predator evasion in bats versus insect.


5. Describe Fisher's theory for the evolution of aposematic signals in terms of Hamilton's equations for kin selection and inclusive fitness.


6. Describe the evolutionary scenario that leads from palatable to unpalatable aposematic forms in terms of a learning experiments on great Tits in a novel world.


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