Then why can everyone basically maintain a kind of peace? The phenomenon of missing arms and legs is not common, only occasionally seen. This is because there is a dominant hierarchical sequence among animals in this social group. We also tell you the definition of dominance rank sequence, which is the hierarchical system formed in this animal community, and this is dominance rank sequence. This system is that animals rely on their own strength to occupy or obtain corresponding status through competition. In this case, from big to small, from strong to weak, this sequence is a hierarchical sequence.
For example, we sometimes go to the countryside to help the poor and call on farmers to raise chickens. As a result, some farmers said that according to your request, our NTU teacher told us to raise grass chickens, saying that grass chickens were more expensive. One of the characteristics that grass chickens need is free range, so it is free range. I found that it was not good to raise more after free-range, because I went to Sihong to have a look. Farmers said: We have 100 chickens, they have 30 chickens and they have 20 chickens. Their welfare is quite good. A hundred chickens at home lay eggs together, which is not as good as theirs. What's going on here? Later, I said that you should divide it into several henhouses and build multiple henhouses. Why? Just keep twenty or thirty chickens in the henhouse. You have so many chickens together, these chickens have to line up to fight together, ranking second. But they came second, because there were too many to remember the location. After playing for a few days, they didn't know who the other party was, so they played all day. But there was still a chicken, so we told it. Also, he said he would separate the rooster from the hen. This is even more unnecessary. Don't divide it, because of what? Cocks and hens should not be separated when they are together. Because the rooster hen, he said that hens can't be bullied! That's not true. The hen also lines up, and so does its queen and rooster. For example, there is a king, the king of chickens. The king and queen of chickens are all made by themselves. Whether this hen can be a queen does not depend on the rooster, which is different from human beings. The human emperor refers to who the queen is, but the chicken is not like this. The cock does not interfere with the hen queue. Roosters don't take part in how hens attack. Similarly, cockfighting does not rely on the support of hens, but does its own thing, just like this.
And the bee-picking dance. This honey-picking dance tells other partners in the nest that I have found the source of honey by dancing this dance, dancing the eight-character dance and shaking the dance. There is a place where flowers are in full bloom and there is a lot of honey for everyone to pick. How to collect powder? How to get there? How to go this way? Which way? How soon will you arrive and how long will it take? It just uses the angle of the sun and the bird's nest to dance, so everyone passed. It doesn't have to take everyone. It can show them the coordinates of the honey source by dancing. Tactile communication is a process in which animals communicate information through direct or indirect physical contact. Tactile communication is actually a quite common way of communication. In nature, there are many animals that are blind and deaf. What shall we do? They also need to communicate, otherwise how can they know each other and meet each other? Especially during the breeding season, this time through tactile communication.
Let's talk about the tallest animal again, because we just said that tactile communication is really the way of those deaf-mute and blind animals, which is very important and the only means of communication. But for monkeys, they have auditory communication, visual communication and tactile communication. Monkeys cut hair together. We think it is very important to cut their hair together. Because their society wants to maintain the stability of their society, that is, the superior hierarchical sequence has been established and will be maintained after it is established, so what? There are conflicts at ordinary times. How should we solve these conflicts? We should cultivate each other together. In fact, we have talked about monkeys catching lice for monkeys before. In fact, they have their meaning, and they don't necessarily need to be combed when they itch. Sometimes it's not really physical needs, but psychological and behavioral needs. You see, if the status is equal, there are two male monkeys with equal status. When they comb each other's hair together, it means friendship, friendship and alliance. I'll comb your hair, and you'll help me thin it. If the little male monkey washes and grooms the big male monkey, and the low-ranking male monkey washes and grooms the high-ranking one, it means a kind of ingratiation, so flattery is not a patent of human beings, animals also have it, and monkeys will flatter it. Let's talk about the fourth type, chemical communication. Chemical communication is a way of communication in which animals transmit information by releasing chemicals. Some animals want to divide territory, and dividing territory means discharging urine on a mark, such as a mound or this tree. Speaking of chemical communication, I also want to tell you one thing, that is, we have a lot of dogs now, and many residents have dogs at home. Especially when you take it out for a walk, it urinates a little here and a little there. It won't pee all at once, and it's too uncivilized. What about this? We should give these dogs a fair evaluation. They are not uncivilized, this is an instinctive expression of them. Because where the owner took it, it thought that place was its sphere of influence. Its sphere of influence, it will tell other dogs that this is my territory, so it will pee. This pee is not for the need of excretion, but for the need of dividing territory.
Electrical communication means that animals can test the objects in the surrounding environment and feel the surrounding information by changing their own electric fields. These are mainly some lower animals. They are in the water, like fish, and spread by this power line in the water. After the power cord is bifurcated, the surrounding objects may cut off the power cord, so it can feel whether the object is stone or wood, a small fish, prey or enemy. This is a kind of perception of the surrounding environment, and more importantly, they should communicate with each other, especially in the breeding season, and recognize each other. Is it suitable for you whether the other person is a woman or a man, whether the individual is big or small? If a huge individual who is not suitable for himself comes, like his own kind, and eats himself, it will be no good and he will have to avoid it. So they have to be the right size. Therefore, through this power line, the size and density of the power line can make the other party feel their own personality and essence. Courtship is very important for reproduction. Today we are going to talk about courtship behavior of some animals. Some of them not only mean mating and reproduction, but also mean something else.
The first thing I want to talk to you about is courtship. Let's talk about its definition first, that is, an animal's behavior or morphological structure of attracting the opposite sex and rejecting the same sex is called courtship display. Why do you want me to show off? What are the benefits of animals showing off their courtship? Tell you here, what are the benefits of courtship?
First, it has the advantage of attracting the opposite sex. Second, the same sex can be excluded. Of course, it doesn't like the same sex competing with it for spouse resources. The third is to promote the gonad development of heterosexual individuals, and the fourth is to prevent hybridization with heterogeneous individuals. Because courtship shows off whether peacock or sika deer, this morphological structure is unique to species, so it will not cause hybridization, that is, hybridization between different species. The fifth is to help expose the weakness of courtiers. For example, there is a pheasant, a pheasant in the mountains. We call this pheasant pheasant. In order to find a clearing in the Woods during courtship season and breeding season. Then around this clearing, the hens flew to the tree together. Why did they fly to the tree? As an audience, watch. Then in a short time, a lot of male pheasants came up in the clearing. Why did they come? They're not fighting, they're fighting. This game is not a battle, but a dance. Some dances are beautiful, while others are ugly. Some fly into the sky and do two somersaults in the air. Some people fell black and blue, but they didn't fall. Well, the performance is over, and the pheasant with the best performance swaggered out of the meeting. So a large group of hens ran away with it. Some of them are because of its poor performance, or maybe it is just the first time that it has performed on stage, and it is just sexually mature and can't be done, so no hen will go with it when it comes out. Therefore, it has to study hard and practice hard, and come back next year. This exposed the weakness of the suitor. So that females can make the best choice.
There is another thing to talk about in courtship, which is homosexuality. Homosexuality exists in the animal kingdom, and it has been found from birds to mammals. Of course there are lower ones, such as amphibians. Of course, it may be like a toad, that is, when it can't see and doesn't know whether the other person is a woman or a man, it will hold the right one.
Here, let's talk about why animals are gay. This must have its biological significance. First of all, the first one is to suppress attacks, which has an inhibitory effect on attacks. Conflicts often occur between animal groups, which is the antagonistic conflict we mentioned earlier. Therefore, it is natural to live together, and this kind of confrontation is impossible. What do we do? Naturally, there will be some actions to suppress this confrontational attack. Among them, exchanging goods, singing folk songs, dancing together, combing each other's hair, hugging each other and so on are all very similar to courtship. Like orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos, it is easy to fight together, and once they fight over trifles, they will fight to the death. But they also died out quickly. Why? Sometimes it's a courtship or sex to calm it down. This is the first function, and this is the meaning of biology.
The second function is to release energy, or to relieve tension. During the mating season, a bachelor who can't find a spouse may be influenced by the courtship and reproductive behavior of other similar people nearby. Under this stimulus, he will also find a partner. I can't find it. It is in a same-sex group. What are we doing? Homosexuality may happen. Take an experiment done by Lawrence as an example. Lawrence, he put two turtledoves together, a male turtledove and a female turtledove Because of the female turtledove, the male turtledove will ask for a mate from the female turtledove. When it courted the female turtledove, the courtship had already begun. Ok, then we'll take the mother turtledove away. After taking it away, its courtship behavior has already happened. What should we do if we finish it? At this time, the male turtledove can't find the female turtledove, and she is in a hurry! Walking around the cage, he saw a rooster and asked him to marry him. Although the rooster ignored it, he also went to courtship. What should I do in the end? Take this cock away, too. After taking it away, it finally had no choice but to woo a pile of rags again. There happened to be a pile of rags on the ground, so it made love to them. It can catch anything, whether it's a rag or a mop. Its courtship feature is very simple, that is, turning around this goal, taking pictures of its wings, turning around it bit by bit, even climbing onto a mop or rag, and then making this mating gesture. Even in the end, Lawrence found behaviorists interesting. He took the rag and left the empty field. What do you do? As a result, it courted in the open field. Because the courtship behavior has been triggered, it can't be terminated after it is triggered. It has to complete its courtship behavior, even reproductive behavior. So an animal like this, do you think if it meets a male turtledove, can it not courtship? So this environment naturally induces it to be gay.
Next, let's talk about the mating relationship and strategies of animals. Marriage system refers to all kinds of marriages in the population. After the courtship of animals, the wedding will be held. Get married after the wedding. After marriage, this kind of family takes many forms. But there are two basic types, one is monogamy, which is called family happiness strategy and monogamy. This kind of monogamy is called family happiness strategy. What does this mean? It refers to the investigation and selection of male individuals who are loyal to their families by female individuals. Specifically, female individuals take a passive form of hesitation and waiting. Even if he wanted to, he just sat there waiting for a long time. Because of what? It wants male courtship individuals to perform as much as possible, perform these courtship behaviors, and perform, and at the same time make huge and difficult-to-repeat engineering projects. What do you mean? That is, you should build this nest very big and beautiful, and then decorate the room to beautify the environment and so on. In other words, you build this nest very big and find enough food, so that you can never build a second nest. Otherwise, you build a second nest and have a second room. That won't do. So, this is the family happiness strategy. So this is a female individual with the right to choose. That's all, that is to say, just like early human society, the phenomenon of bride price and the collection of bride price. When my daughter marries you, you have to lose everything, so that you can give this dowry and I can marry my daughter to you. On the other hand, since you have lost everything, you can only marry my daughter once, and you can't marry someone else's daughter, because you can't marry again. This is also an effective one, which comes from the most primitive purpose, and the early primitive purpose is probably such a thing.
The second form, the basic type, is called polygamy. For example, like a chicken or rooster, it can have wives in groups. Why can wives and concubines flock together? Let's look at this hen again. It brought chickens. No matter when it hatches an egg, no matter whether it hatches an egg or takes a chicken after hatching, it will not let the cock near. It won't let the rooster get involved. The rooster has nothing to do. Of course he will go to the second, third and fourth, right? And hens don't care. This is polygamy, which is chosen by women. . Some individuals sacrificed their own interests, even their own lives, for the benefit of the collective or other individuals. We have seen the wedding of spider and mantis. The wedding of Spider Mantis was tragic, it was a man, not a woman. The male mantis or the male spider is very happy after finding the object, but it is gone soon after the wedding. Why? It was eaten by a female spider. The female spider will eat it. Then it is willing and voluntary, and it is willing to dedicate its body as a nutrient to the female spider. This is an extreme altruistic behavior.
Anyone who has ever raised a chicken knows that once a chicken sees food, it will make a sound while eating. What kind of noise does it make? The sound of food calling is "Ji Ji Ji", and this sound is food calling. After making this sound, the other chickens came together when they heard this sound. So, if these chickens are eating, they will keep making noises during the eating process. No matter how much food there is, they will summon their own kind to eat together. What are the benefits of it? Chickens are weak and easy to die. If it is hungry for a meal or two, it will die. After it found food, it asked everyone to eat and saved everyone. The next day, when other chicks find food, they will bark and ask it to eat. In this case, it is for everyone, and everyone is for it. In this case, I am for everyone, and everyone is for me, so I will tide over the difficulties. But when you grow up, you see, when you grow up, it will stop barking and there will be no food. When chickens grow up, they don't order food. When they find something to eat, they eat it themselves. This extreme self-interest behavior has also come. Moreover, it is not only eaten by itself, but also eaten by other chickens. It will beat it away, and it will beat it away and peck each other with its own strength. Why? Selfish. Why has it become so selfish? Why do you become selfish when you grow up? Chickens are good, but they become so bad when they grow up. Actually, they are not. We still use biological function to explain. At this time, the chicken grew up. When you grow up, you are sexually mature. It can lay eggs every day and copy its genes every day. Copying one's own genes is more effective than saving food and giving it to individuals of this blood relationship, which may not reach octupole. Because the eggs it lays don't know what percentage of genes are the same as it, and the eggs it lays are the same, so it is better to copy them by itself. So at this time, it is selfish. This selfishness is what the gene wants it to do, and it is what the gene wants it to do. Genes command it and command this carrier. Now you must be selfish. You must take care of yourself and let your individual grow better. Not when I was young. Be altruistic. Of course, we don't mean that all grown-up chickens are selfish, and everything is selfish. Sometimes it has to show altruism. For example, when an eagle comes, it will scream. Just like dogs and mice on the grassland, they scream, and this warning signal is altruism. The opposite of altruistic behavior is egoistic behavior, and we are going to talk about an extreme egoistic behavior here, which is the pro-killing behavior of animals.
Let's talk about infanticide, infanticide, that is, we have seen the lion king compete for hegemony on TV. Two lions fought, and finally, an old lion king was defeated. The new lion king occupied his territory, and all the lionesses in this territory were his wives. Ok, but some lionesses are breastfeeding and nursing their cubs. That won't do. It's nursing, and it can't be in heat to be its wife during lactation. What should I do? So the lion will try his best to kill the cubs, which is infanticide. So at first, everyone was thinking, why did the male lion kill the young lion? That's because it is eager to exercise its privileges as the lion king. The little lion was killed and the lioness began to resist. She can't resist, but she has no choice but to face the reality. Then stop breastfeeding, milk is no longer secreted, and then enter a new round of estrus, becoming the concubines and queens of the new lion king. This is infanticide.
The second pro-killing behavior we discussed was cannibalism of larvae. There is a kind of shark in the ocean called tiger shark. Tiger sharks can produce more than 100 eggs at one time. Then in the belly, viviparous, of course, wanted to hatch a small shark, but in the end, there was only one, only one. There are so many young sharks, sometimes we catch a female tiger shark, and when we cut open our stomach, there are many, 100 or even 200 young sharks inside. But if it is really in nature, it will be produced, so it will be produced. What happened to the others? Others were eaten by one of the fiercest tiger shark cubs. When it was in the womb, it killed its brothers and sisters, then ate it, and finally it was born. When he came out, he was a very good and vicious killer.
The most typical example. Cuckoo's mother is very selfish. She put the eggs in the chicks in the mountains, and then let the big tits raise her offspring. But how selfish is this cuckoo, the little cuckoo hatched in this egg? Arch the eggs of other big tits out of the nest as soon as they come out. If those big tits hatch birds, it will push them out of the nest and kill them, whether they are eggs, birds or small tits, leaving only one. In this case, the foster parents of the great tits carefully raise and feed one. This is also a typical example of larva cannibalism. Another thing is that some animals can be abandoned. How to abandon it? It is an animal group or family that expels and abandons individuals with abnormal and weird behaviors. We can't use ethics to evaluate it or judge how it is done. There are biological reasons for this. Because of a strange animal, the animal's behavior has changed. It is very strange, and it is probably sick. What should I do if I get sick? Objectively speaking, it is likely to infect the whole group, so it must be isolated. How to isolate? They don't have a hospital either, that is, if everyone leaves you, don't follow everyone and don't mix in groups. You got involved and hurt everyone, so you abandoned it. This is an effective isolation measure, because some individuals who behave strangely or are prone to illness can at least show that their genes may have some defects. The reproduction of this individual in the group is also not conducive to the expansion of this species' genes. The appearance of animal pro-killing behavior is not accidental, it must have certain inevitable factors and inevitable factors of existence. Living things always have to adapt to the changes in this environment. In fact, animals that can quickly adapt to environmental requirements can survive in the competition.
Bee dance is the representative of social behavior. Professor Karl Hong Frish is a world-famous biologist and beekeeper. More than 40 years ago, when he did a bee training experiment with honey coated paper, he found that as long as one bee found this honey source, many or even hundreds of bees would fly over soon. All these bees flew from the first hive to eat bees. Obviously, this bee announced the discovery of honey source in the "home". In order to find out the truth, he made a beehive with his spleen on one side and glass on the outside for observation.
In order to study the behavior of the first bee eater who discovered the honey source, he put a dish of syrup near the hive. When the first bee came to feed, he marked the bee with colored dots. When the bee flies back to the hive, the first thing it has to do is to give most of the syrup to other bees, and then it dances what Professor Frish calls a "round dance". It turns once in one place, turns left once, that is, counterclockwise (see solid line in figure 13), and turns right once, that is, clockwise (see dotted line in figure 13), and repeats many times with great force. After about half a minute, I moved to another place and continued this round dance. Finally, it always goes back to the honey source to suck syrup.
When the feed bee dances, the bees near it become extremely excited. When it turns in circles, swarms of bees follow it and put their tentacles close to its body. Suddenly one of the bees turned and left the hive, and the other bees turned and flew away from the hive one after another, heading for the honey source. These bees returned to the hive after sucking syrup and danced a "round dance". In this way, the more bees dancing in the hive, the more bees will appear at the honey source. Obviously, bees dance in the hive to report where there is food.
Professor Frish put the same plates of syrup in the east, south, west and north directions near the hive. As a result, bees began to dance "round dance" in the hive. A few minutes later, new bees appeared on all the syrup plates at the same time, which showed that the "round dance" only informed the companions: "fly out and look near the hive." Didn't say which direction to look for.
Professor Frish found that bees at the feeding place marked 10 m and 300 m away from the hive danced "circular dance" after returning to the nest, while bees returning from the feeding place farther away danced completely different dances. They first run a short distance in a straight line, and their abdomen swings quickly from side to side, then turn left for 360 degrees, then go straight, then turn right for 360 degrees, and so on for several times. He called this dance a swing dance (that is, the "8" tail dance) (Figure 14).
Figure14 "8" tail dance
Figure 15 Bee Tail-wagging Dance Orientation
The wagging dance not only announces that there is abundant food in the distance, but also tells how far the food is from the hive. The results of 3 885 observations show that the distance can be accurately expressed by the number of laps in a certain time (15 s). 100 m feeding back the dancing bee, 15 s jumped 9 ~ 10 full circle; 200 m is 7 laps; Run four and a half laps at 1 000 meters; At 6,000 meters, there are only two laps. It can be seen that the distance from the honey source is close and there are many dance circles. The farther away, the fewer circles. If there is wind, the direction of honey collection is against the wind, and the speed of bee dancing will slow down, but it will speed up when it is downwind.
Experiments show that bees can point out the feeding direction with the sun as a reference when performing tail wagging dance (Figure 15). When the sun and the honey source are in the same direction, bees look up in a straight line of wagging their tails. When the sun is opposite to the honey source, it runs upside down. When the honey source is on the left side of the sun, the straight running line of bee dance forms an anti-clockwise angle with the gravity line of the earth. When the honey source is on the right side of the sun, the straight running line of bee dance forms a clockwise angle on the right side of the gravity line of the earth.
Another source of information in information transmission activities is the fragrance of flowers. There are signs that these smells are attached to the waxy epidermis of bees. In the process of reconnaissance bee dancing, other worker bees have ample opportunities to smell the fragrance, and then when it "looks around" in the field, it will selectively respond to the smell. Some scientists think that this kind of communication may be as effective as the dance itself.