Answer 1:
Great question! As you probably know, there
are different forms of mimicry. For example, a
moth may look like a wasp. There is also mimicry
like a bird copying songs that it hears.
For the first kind of mimicry, animals have to
have a certain appearance, which is obviously
innate. They also have to have behavior that
matches their appearance. It doesn't help much
to
look like something if you dont behave in a way
that adds to the disguise. For example, if
you're
a caterpillar disguised as a bird dropping, you
cant be moving around during the day because you
wont fool anyone. In all of the cases of mimicry
disguises I can think of, the behavior seems to
be
innate. Of course, a behavior can be both. That
is, an animal can have a basic program for a
behavior that it fine tunes with experience, but
getting eaten doesnt leave much room for learning
to do better. The broken-rays mussel. It
has an extension of its body that looks and
behaves a lot like a fish: mimic-mussels
We know for certain that it didnt learn to
make
those movements by watching fish because it
doesnt
even have eyes! Another way we can tell whether
a
behavior is innate is whether animals do it right
after they hatch, are born, etc. because they
havent had time to learn anything. Many
mimics are short-lived species so they dont have
much time to learn. Most dont get any parental
care, so they are not taught. Mimics have to be
rare to be successful, so they may not have
others
to learn from. (Why should mimics be rare?)
The second kind of mimics are the ones who
imitate sounds as part of their own songs. They
clearly learn the specific noises. Heres a great
video of a superb lyrebird imitating construction
noises: video-mimic.
The ability to imitate and the behavior of
doing so are innate. Scientists think that this
sort of imitation allows the male to advertise to
the female that he is old enough to have learned
a
lot and that he is in such good shape that he can
spend a lot of time singing. This may convince
the female that she should mate with him.
What are some of the pros and cons of learning
vs. innate behavior? Why arent we born already
programmed with a lot of skills? Why cant a
mouse
learn as much as a person can? If questions like
these interest you, you may want to study animal
behavior. Thanks for asking, Click Here to return to the search form.
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