Answer: If they are threatened, animals will defend their territory, their babies, if they have any, or their toys.

Answer: When a wild animal meets up with a human, it might run away (flee). If an animal is in a space where it cannot get away, it might fight by kicking, scratching, biting, or flapping wings. Another behavior you might see from a wild animal is to play dead, or freeze.

Answer: Answers will vary. An example of two behaviors Erika might record in her ethogram would be: two of the otters had a fight over a fish today, or the otters took turns diving into the pool today.

Answer: Erika is concerned that the males will fight with each other if they know that there are female otters near them. By observing their behavior before the females arrive, she will know how the otters usually behave and be able to see if they get more aggressive or start being mean to each other after the females arrive.

Answer: After the mother penguins in the flock lay their eggs, the fathers hold the egg on their feet under a flap of skin. The mother goes out to sea to fish for a long time(approximately two months). While the mothers are gone, the fathers huddle in a group and take turns going to the middle of the group to get warm, all the while protecting the egg from harm.

Answer: The migration for butterflies west of the Rocky Mountains fly to California; butterflies east of the Rocky Mountains fly to Mexico.

Answer: Student answers will vary based on their position. Examples of acceptable answers might include: “I do not think it is possible to write an ethogram for butterfly migration because it would be very difficult to follow the butterfly while it is flying,” or “I think you could make an ethogram for a butterfly in its summer home, but not while it is migrating.”

Answer: If only one scientist observed polar bears washing, the claim that polar bears like to keep clean might not be accepted. Others could come up with multiple explanations for this behavior. Only by multiple observations from multiple sources can data be accepted in the scientific community.

Answer: Social behavior in mammals is much more complex than with other kinds of animals. Mammals feed their young with milk, and the babies take a long time to become adults. The area of the brain that helps animals remember social rules is very big in mammals. Many more species of mammals are able to recognize and remember individuals than other types of animals, such as birds.

Answer: Wolf B is the alpha wolf or one of the pack leaders and wolf A is a subordinate or younger member of the pack.

Answer: The male spider courts a female by scraping his mouthparts against a surface and tapping one of his legs.

Answer: The Banggai Cardinal Fish is different from the spiders because the male spiders court the female spiders, but, with the Banggai, the female fish courts the male fish. The male fish is the one who takes care of the young while the female guards the nest.

Answer: Being cute helps a baby survive because it makes the mother want to take care of it and help it live.

Answer: A mother killdeer will lie on the ground away from her nest and hold up a wing and pretend that it is broken. When the predator starts toward the mother, she flies away. This keeps the predator away from the nest.

Answer: The wasps have radio tags that give very accurate information about their location.

Answer: The orangutans at the zoo are using computers to learn a language. If they learn the language, they will be able to “talk” to humans about what is going on in their minds.