1. 1
   Male peacocks display large, colourful tail feathers and perform an elaborate dance in front of females during the breeding season. Females then choose which male to mate with, often selecting males with the largest, most symmetrical tail displays. In this species, an individual male usually mates with several different females within a single breeding season, but does not remain paired with any one female.

   (a)

   Which term best describes the mating strategy shown by the male peacocks described above?

   [1 mark]

   • Aseveral mates over one breeding season
   • Bseveral mates over a lifetime
   • Ca mate for a breeding season
   • Da mate for life

   (b)

   What is the main function of the male peacock's elaborate tail display?

   [1 mark]

   • AIt is a form of parental care that helps to protect chicks from predators
   • BIt is a form of habituation that reduces the male's response to danger
   • CIt is an example of imprinting, helping chicks to recognise their parent
   • DIt is a courtship behaviour that advertises the male's quality to females

   (c)

   State two other mating strategies, besides 'several mates over one breeding season', that are shown by different animal species.

   [2 marks]

   Total for question 1: 4 marks

2. 2
   A biologist studies goslings (baby geese) that hatch in an incubator without their mother present. In the first day after hatching, the goslings begin to follow the first moving object they see, which in this case is the biologist. Weeks later, the same biologist studies some hens that live next to a busy road. When the hens first heard passing trucks, they ran to hide. After several weeks of hearing the same trucks every day, the hens no longer reacted to the noise and continued feeding normally.

   (a)

   What is the name of the behaviour shown by the goslings, which follow the first moving object they see after hatching?

   [1 mark]

   • Ahabituation
   • Bimprinting
   • Cclassical conditioning
   • Doperant conditioning

   (b)

   What is the name of the behaviour shown by the hens, which stopped reacting to the truck noise after repeated exposure to it?

   [1 mark]

   • Aimprinting
   • Bhabituation
   • Cinnate behaviour
   • Doperant conditioning

   (c)

   Explain, using the information about the hens, why habituation could be a useful behaviour for animals living close to a busy road.

   [2 marks]

   Total for question 2: 4 marks

3. 3
   A dog trainer is training a sniffer dog to detect a particular chemical used in explosives. Each time the dog successfully sits down next to a sample containing the chemical, the trainer immediately gives the dog a food reward. After many repeated training sessions, the dog reliably sits down next to samples containing the chemical, even without receiving a reward every time.

   (a)

   Analyse the training method described above and explain which type of conditioning is being used to train the sniffer dog.

   [3 marks]

   (b)

   Police horses used for crowd control are trained to remain calm around loud noises and large crowds. Suggest how a trainer could use rewards to train a horse to stay calm in the presence of a loud noise, and explain why this method of training works.

   [4 marks]

   Total for question 3: 7 marks

4. 4
   A pair of albatrosses raise a single chick together on a remote island. Both parents take turns flying long distances out to sea to catch fish, then return to feed the chick regurgitated food. While one parent is away searching for food, the other remains at the nest to guard the chick from predatory skuas (large seabirds that attempt to steal or kill unattended chicks), sometimes fighting off attacking skuas directly.

   (a)

   Analyse the parental care behaviour described above, explaining how it could benefit the chick's survival and what risks it could involve for the parent albatrosses.

   [6 marks]

   (b)

   A student wants to investigate whether skuas are more likely to attack unguarded albatross nests than guarded nests, without disturbing the birds. Describe a suitable method the student could use to investigate this, and evaluate one factor that would need to be controlled for a valid comparison.

   [6 marks]

   Total for question 4: 12 marks

End of questions