PT104.S2.P3.Q21 > Analytics

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Many birds that form flocks compete through aggressive interaction for priority of access to resources such as food and shelter. ███ ██████ ██ ████████ ████████████ ███████ █████ ███████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █████ █ ██████████ ██████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████ ████ ████████ ██ ██████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ████ ██████ ███████ ███

Phenomenon · Status hierarchy in birds

Top bird has best fighting ability which grants them first dibs on food and shelter. Then next bird get their turn, then next, and so on. Each bird has a position on this status hierarchy.

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Negative Consequence · Maintaining social status is costly: energy, time, and risk of injury

Hypothesis · Status signaling hypothesis (SSH)

Instead of actually fighting to establish social status, birds can instead signal their fighting ability and thereby not have to risk actually getting hurt. A bird's plumage is one such signal of fighting ability.

Rohwer · Sparrow plumage supports SSH

Birds with darker throats win conflicts against birds with lighter plumage, controlling for age and sex.

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Critique of Rohwer · Data doesn't support his claims

Darker plumage birds don't always win conflicts. Also, age is actually a confounder. Age is a signal of status and plumage just happens to darken with age. Hence, plumage is not a status signal for these sparrows.

Experimental Evidence for SSH · Greater titmouse

Width of black breast-plumage stripe signals status. Experiment controlled for sex, age, wing length, and body weight.

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Experimental Evidence for SSH · Greater titmouse

Stuffed titmouse dummies with narrower v. broader breast stripes caused other birds to behave aggressively v. submissively, as predicted by SSH.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)

21.

Which one of the following ███ ██ ████████ █████ ██████ ████████ ████ ███ ████████

Among Harris sparrows, ███████ ███████████ ██████ ██████████ ██████ ████ ██████ ███ ███████

Anti-supported.

15%

Among Harris sparrows, ██████ ████ ████████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ██████████

Supported, because adults have higher status than juveniles. In addition, access to resources is connected to higher status.

73%

Among Harris sparrows, █████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ███████ ████ ██████ █████ ██ ████ ██ ██████ ████ ██████████ █████ ████████

Not supported. We know that adults have higher status than juveniles. We don’t know whether lighter adults have lower status than darker juveniles.

Juvenile Harris sparrows ██████ ██ ██████████ ███████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ██ █████ ██████ █████████

The passage never compares the number of aggressive interactions among juveniles and adults.

Harris sparrows engage ██ ██████████ ███████████ ████ ██████████ ████ ██ ███████ ████████

The passage never compares the number of aggressive interactions among Harris sparrows and titmice.

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PrepTest 104 - Section 2 - Passage 3 - Question 21

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