tpo1-6 listen to the part of the lecture in the biology class.
For today’s discussion, we’ll review the case study on how some animals behaviorally adapted to their environments. Now, you had to read about 2 animals species: the eastern marmot and the Olympic marmot.
The marmot rodents, they are large ground squirrels, about the size of an average house cat and they living variety of habitats. And even though they spend the significant portion of the year hibernating. According to this case study, marmots are still considered excellent subjects for animal behavioral. Why is that?
Well, when they are not hibernating, you can find them in open areas. and they are pretty active during the day, which makes them easy to observe, right?
w: Uh-ha, so first let's discuss the eastern marmots, they reside throughout the eastern region of north American there is a temperate climate, where the growing season lasts for at least 5 mouths of the year, which is when they do all their mating playing and eating.
m: Oh I see, at first I wasn’t sure what growing season meant, just for the reading.
But now I get it. It is the amount of time, it takes for them to grow, right? so it would be 5 mouths?
w: oh, I'm sorry, but no. it has nothing to do with that. It is not about the time takes for eastern marmots to grow. It's when the food is available ,that is when it is not covered in snow and there is no frost covering the grass and vegetative parts of a plant’s herbs and the flowers that marmots like to eat, so growing season refers to the availability of the food they eat, OK? SO, now, how would you describe the eastern marmots’ the social habits?
Well,there is the territorial, and loner,and just so aggressive even with other eastern marmots and their mating ritual is just so impersonal.
Uh-ha? Now they emerge in the spring for hibernation, the mating process begins. For them, well, they come together to make and then they go to the separate ways. Then about 6 to 8 weeks after birth, the offspring leave their mothers.
Really? Just 6 weeks? It that possible for the offspring to make it on their owns so young?
well, it's not if they aren’t ready for the real world, because they are. Remember, they mature quickly and weather is nice. also they live in open fields where there is lots of edible vegetation. So roughly 6 weeks after birth, eastern marmots are just old enough to take their chances of surviving and temperate environment. So how does this relative behavior?
Oh, i get it. Since the climate’s not too bad, the eastern marmots don’t have to rely on each other to much, and they really don't need to stay together as a family to survive either.
Uh-ha, any contrast the olympic marmots ,what about them?
well, they live together as a family and take care of the young until they are at least 2 years old. They are really friendly with each other and what i really like is that they even have greeting ceremonies. and they are not at all the aggressive
are territorial like eastern marmots. So their social behavior is so different from the eastern marmot because of the climate where they live?
That's seem to so bizarre.
Well, the olympic marmots inhabit meadows high in the Olympic mountains where the weather conditions are much harsher. So there is a lot more wind and snow. The growing seasons only lasts about 2 to 3 mouths. So in that much shorter poried of time, all the olympic marmots, male and female, eat play work and nurture young together. Because the climate is so harsh, cooperating increases the survival rate of the olympic marmots. They keep their young at home until they are physically able to survive on their own.
This could explain why the social behavior of the olympic marmots is so unlike that on that of the eastern marmots.
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