Blog Response to Sep. 10

An animal is said to exhibit altruism when their behaviors are putting themselves at risk, but are benefitting other organisms. Another way to think about altruism, is if an organism exhibits altruistic behavior, they are reducing their own reproductive fitness while at the same time increasing other organisms' reproductive fitness. That is, the respective number of offspring each organism would potentially produce.  For example, vervet monkeys give off warning calls when a predator is near in order to warn fellow monkeys. However, in making these calls they are actively putting themselves at risk to the predator itself. 
This example also brings up the the theory of kin selection, which is as simple as it sounds. Kin selection is the theory that organisms are more altruistic towards members of their own species, rather than those who are not. 

This short video shows how different calls made by the vervet monkeys indicate different types of predators. Give it a watch!

Comments

  1. Peyton WilsonSeptember 19, 2020 at 6:15 PM

    Jess,
    I think you did a very good job differeniating the altruism from kin selection and the video was very interesting. It isn't very easy to explain the difference between two such similar concepts but you did it very well.
    Peyton

    ReplyDelete
  2. Morgandy HaggardSeptember 20, 2020 at 2:23 PM

    Hey Jess! You did a great job defining both altruism and kin selection! I also loved the example you used and enjoyed watching the video, this example made the concept much easier to understand! Great job on your blog post!
    - Morgandy

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hayley WebsterMay 3, 2021 at 2:35 AM

    Jess, I feel like you did a good job of highlighting both the differences and similarities between kin selection and altruism. I also really enjoyed the video, and felt it did a great job of supporting your statements.

    ReplyDelete

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