Imagine that 4 years from now you are snorkeling in the Bahamas near a mangrove
ID: 93137 • Letter: I
Question
Imagine that 4 years from now you are snorkeling in the Bahamas near a mangrove and as you go around a corner, you witness a female lemon shark giving birth to pups. You are so amazed watching this, that you don't notice a tiger shark swimming past you until it starts to go after the newborn lemon sharks as food. At this point, 3 other female lemon sharks that are not giving birth fight with and eventually chase off the tiger shark. After you start breathing again and thinking how no one will believe what you just witnessed, you think back to BS 162 and remember that according to behavioral ecologists, the goal of any individual organism should be to maximize fitness. What are two possible explanations for the behavior of the 3 other female lemon sharks? How could chasing off a large tiger shark increase their fitness?Explanation / Answer
This behaviour is called as Kin Selection. It is an altruistic behaviour of an organism to favour the reproductive success of its relatives. Chasing off the the tiger shark would put themselves (the lemon sharks) in danger but would ensure the survival of young one of their species. This would mean that their race/species would survive and would be saved from extinction, Hence this behaviour takes into consideration the fitness of the species or race as a whole (in the long run) rather than for a specific individual(s).