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AP Biology 5.3 Essential Life Process Information. For what purpose to animals travel in packs, schools, or swarms?

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English Language

Transcript

00:04

Here’s your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by traveling animals.

00:07

It’s why those snakes had to get on the plane…. [Samuel L Jackson with a lot of snakes boarding a plane]

00:10

Seriously, what was Samuel L. Jackson’s problem…?

00:12

They just wanted a nice vacation….

00:14

All right, here we go:

00:15

For what purpose do animals travel in packs, schools, or swarms?

00:19

And here are the potential answers:

00:20

(A) To decrease gene flow (B) To increase the fitness of the individual

00:21

and the survival of the population (C) To increase genetic drift

00:23

(D) To decrease competition between species

00:24

First let's take a look at what happens when animals do hang out together. [Animals hanging out by a pool of water]

00:26

Well, animals that cooperate with each other are often more successful.

00:30

Take wolves, for example... [Two wolves walking in a forest together]

00:32

These two guys hang out together, they eat together, they play Xbox together…

00:35

Okay, fine, one of those things isn’t true. [Wolves playing Xbox together]

00:37

...They usually eat separately.

00:38

Anyway.

00:39

They’re part of a pack.

00:40

And being part of a pack can get you your next meal, or unlock some cool achievements [Wolves in a pack wearing wolf pack t-shirts]

00:44

when you play Call of Duty together.

00:46

And you don’t even have to be part of a blood thirsty, Xbox playing pack.

00:50

You could prefer hanging out with a school of fish and still end up with some sweet benefits. [A fish swimming with other fishes]

00:53

Y’know like...not being eaten.

00:55

So hanging out in groups can either help you find more food or avoid being food. [A pack of wolves with a plate of food]

01:00

Sounds like a pretty good way to increase your chances of survival.

01:03

Now let’s go back to the possible answers, starting with (A), to decrease gene flow.

01:08

Gene flow is the transfer of genes from one population to another.

01:11

It’s basically what happens when two groups randomly bump into each other and make more [Two birds bump into each other]

01:15

babies.

01:17

Which is also why we were terrified of bumping into anyone for a solid ten years of our life...and

01:22

may still have our protective plastic bubble in the garage... [Man rolling around in a plastic bubble]

01:24

So if you hang out in groups, you have a better chance of increasing gene flow, so the answer

01:28

can’t be A.

01:30

Now for answer B.

01:31

We already established that hanging out in groups increases survival, both in real life

01:35

and in Call of Duty.

01:36

And increased survival means that everyone in that group is ‘fitter’. [Wolves hanging out together]

01:41

Except for that one guy who swears by an exercise regime of lifting the remote control once

01:45

every two hours. [A wolf using the television remote]

01:46

So it looks like B is the correct answer.

01:48

But just for fun, let’s take a quick look at answers C & D.

01:50

C is all about increasing genetic drift.

01:53

We know that genetic drift is the change in frequency of a trait in a population.

01:58

Like trying to keep track of how many black sheep are in a flock over 10 years. [Man counting black sheep in a flock]

02:02

If only we didn’t keep falling asleep while we were counting them…

02:05

But we also know that that’s not what we’re looking for, so we can toss it out.

02:09

And we know we can eliminate D, “to decrease competition between species.”

02:14

Hanging out in groups has nothing to do with that. [Wolves in a pack eating together]

02:16

Seriously, ask our Call of Duty buddies.

02:17

No decrease in competition, there...

02:19

It all depends on which species are interacting, how large the groups are and so on…

02:24

And we can’t forget about resources and population densities and yadayadayayada...so

02:28

we can toss out D.

02:29

B is definitely our guy.

02:31

Now back to counting those sheep. [Man attempts to count black sheep]

02:33

This time we’re really going to do it, we’re...we’re….zzzzzzz

02:37

(snore)

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