Answers
100 - Do playfights train meerkats for the real fights, or are they just fun?
What is the reason for meerkat play remains a mystery?
200 - What was the youngest recorded age for allolactation? 9 months
What is 9 months?
300 - There is no such thing as a truly altruistic act said this 18th century philosopher.
Who is Immanuel Kant?
400 - But in standing sentinel duty, offering food to begging pups, teaching young and other altruistic acts, non-parental meerkats seem to have disproved his belief. In truth, it seems to be that meerkats and other altruistic species are benefiting in some way from their "altruism". By helping to rear enough of one's relatives, an animal can help pass on as many (or more than) these as from rearing their own young. What is is they are hoping to pass on?
What are genes (or demon seed)?
500 - In a study published in Science in Oct. 2003, it was shown that within 15 bird and 3 mammal species tested, altruistic helpers are better at distinguishing close from distant relatives and non-relatives in those species where they get the most benefit from helping relatives pass on their genes (i.e. you must make discriminations much better when you have more to gain). Name one of the bird and one of the mammal species studied.
meerkats
dwarf mongooses
kookaburras
scrub jays
western bluebirds
Australian magpies
Seychelles warbler
pied kingfisher
Scoring
Tosca-Quirkie - 650 (Excellent answer for 300 so you got half points. Although he was a 17th-century philosopher, Thomas Hobbes' account of human nature as self-interested cooperation has proved to be an enduring theory in the field of philosophical anthropology and is probably a more accurate explanation of meerkat behavior as well!)
Squirrelly - 1000 points
Jtutton - 1400 points Winner!
Thank you all for playing!
Free Forum Hosting
Important Announcement
Prev Message
