BIOL 1902V Notes

January 13th, 2021

Important Info:

• Check culearn for course information (office hours, exam dates, sample questions for
exams, etc.)
• When emailing the professor use the course code (BIOL1 902V) to get a fast response
• When addressing the professor please use “professor Runtz”, not Mike or Dr. Runtz
• You can access self-tests on culearn that aren’t graded to see your understanding of the
material

Lecture 1 Notes:

• Course objectives:
o To gain knowledge on the challenges all living things face and how to solve them
o To appreciate and respect all living things
• Reptiles and amphibians are collectively called “herps”
• Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants, their leaves form a cup full of liquid that catch
insects and kill them
• In class when animals are discussed this includes insects and reptiles, not just mammals
• Natural history involves all animals and plants
• Plants have evolved ways of having sex. When bees and insects pollenate flowers, they’re
being exploited so the flowers can reproduce
• Parasitoids are animals that live inside other animals that eat their flesh and eventually
kill them
• An example of “mutualistic association” is a bird eating flies off of a cow. The cow
benefits by being cleaned and the bird benefits by eating
 • Natural history is the observation of living plants and animals and their interactions. It is
observational science
• Someone with a general interest in natual history is a “naturalist”
• The harvester caterpillar/butterfly is the only carnivorous caterpillar/butterfly in North
America. It consumes aphids
• Topic 1: staying alive
• Appearances is a common defense among animals
• People often come across hundreds of animals in a day but don't notice because they use
camouflage and motionless as a defense mechanism
• Animals use their environment to help blend in, this is called “background matching”
o Ex. Grasslands have vertical lines so animals in these environments use the
vertical lines on its body as defense
• An animal that is known to do this is an American Bittern
• Deer are born with spots on their backs that help them to camouflage in the forest
• Tree frogs can change their colour to match different trees
o Tree frogs “bark mimic”
• There is no great difference between camouflaging, background matching and mimicking
but there are subtle differences
• Seasonal colour change is when animals change their fur to mimic snow in the winter
• Song birds often have stripes on their heads (usually a light and dark stripe) these stripes
are called disruptive patterns
o The stripes break up the outline of the bird to camouflage

Lecture 2 Notes:

• Coincident disruptive pattern is when animals have patterns on them or are a certain
shape that help mimic their environment
o Ex. Angle-winged butterflies have wings that resemble dead leaves
• Masquerading is also like this, using shape to blend in
• Another form a masquerading is when insects blend into bird droppings
• Some animals go farther than forming their body to masquerade, they add materials to
their body to hide better
• “Bicolouration” is when animals can background match in two ways
o Ex. bicolouration is great white sharks which have grey tops and white bottoms,
the animals in the water can’t see them because they blend into the lightness of
the sky and birds can’t see them from above because the grey/blue blends into
the water
• Birds and deer also have bicolouration
• “Countershading” is when there is lightness to animals (deer) that give them less of a 3-
dimensional shape, most countershading animals have lighter bellies and darker tops
• The difference between bicolouration and countershading is that bicolouration is looking
at an animal from two perspectives (above and under) and they can blend in both ways,
countershading is having the parts that would typically be shadowed, lighter to
counteract that and make them look more even and less 3-dimensional
• “Startle patterns” are defense mechanisms that are hidden
o Ex. Underwing moths blend into trees but when they are spotted by birds, they
open their wings which reveal a bright pattern. This pattern startles the bird for
enough time for the moth to try and escape

• If you want to find a moth like this a good way is “sugar baiting”. This is when you put something
sweet like honey or a rotten banana on a tree before sunset and after sunset bring a flashlight
and you can possibly see them
• Another form of startle pattern is “eye spots”, when moth wings open to look like eyes
• Other animals that have startle patterns are snakes and tree frogs
• Some caterpillars release something called an osmeterium. This is a form of antenna that looks
like a snake tongue that scares birds
• Beavers slap their tails against the water to scare predator, this can be called a “startle sound”
• If you want to be friends with a beaver, while it slaps don’t move and stand still (for several hours
to several days) and it’ll allow you to take pictures without it thinking you’re a predator
• An eyed elater is a beetle with large eye spots that are always visible
• Eyespots that are always visible aren’t startle patterns, they’re used as intimidation since they
make the animal look much larger
• Another theory for startle patterns is distraction. If a bird is chasing the moth (shown above) it
will try and grab the bright back wings rather than the front wings, the back wings are less
important for flying
o They can deflect a predators attack (to a non-vital body part)