Reading Questions

The questions below are to help you digest and think about the required readings.  Be prepared to answer these on exams.

Questions For Readings, Test Practice and Review

50% of the questions on an exam will be the same as or similar to the questions you see here or that you have seen in class handouts.

Pika Populations reading questions

1. The author mentions that pika may not be able to survive temperatures of 77°.  Is 77° too hot or too cold for the pika?
2. Pikas don’t hibernate.  What is their strategy for finding enough food to eat in the winter?
3. How might a pika thermoregulate if it were feeling too warm?  Too cold?
4. Describe habitat for the pika.

Restoring Antelope Reading Questions 

1. What caused the pronghorn’s numbers to dwindle?
2. What’s wrong with the name “antelope?”
3. Why is the pronghorn so fast?  What evolutionary pressure promoted such great speed?
4. What is one of the challenges to reintroducing the pronghorn?
5. What kind of habitat damage might have impacted the pronghorn?

King of the Mountain Reading Questions

1. According to the researchers, what is the advantage of mountain goats being so aggressive? (There are two answers to this).
2. What is the evolutionary advantage of having dominant nannies?
3. Give evidence that the mountain goat is precocial.
4. How did Oreamunos americanus become genetically isolated from their Asian progenitors?
5. From a biological point of view, defend the position that the Olympic population of mountain goats ought to be killed.

"What is Warm Blooded?" Reading Questions  

1. Why is “warm blooded” a poor way of describing the distinctive mammalian trait?
2. Define poikilothermy and endothermy.
3. Give an example of a non-homeothermic mammal from our book.  Defend your answer.
4. Describe the advantage and disadvantage of homeothermy for mammals.
5. Large elephants live in hot places.  Does this contradict the article?  Explain.
6. Why must a shrew eat more calories than a horse?
7. The small, active, warm blooded hummingbird eats nectar.  In light of the article, why might that be shocking?  What would you have expected from the hummingbird?
8. What is the chemical formula for sugar?

Related to bats and butterflies

1. From the reading, give an example of an animal that migrates east and west rather than north and south.
2. Why do bats migrate?
3. If a bat shivers in the early morning in August in Vancouver, that is not a problem.  If he shivers in December, why will that be a problem?
4. Would it be wise for a large bat to spend the winter in a heated attic?  Explain.
5. Conservationists tried to save bats by modifying cave entrances so that bats could come and go, but people couldn't.  Often results were negative.  Explain why.

Gray Whale Questions

1. How many babies were counted in March 2005?
2. Why are gray whales called the canaries of the sea?
3. How many whales were counted in 1970?
4. Some people believe economics helped to prevent whales from being hunted to extinction.  Discuss this possibility in terms of the article.
5. What happened in 2000?

Sea Otter Revival Questions

1. According to the article, how many sea otters were counted (in 2004)?
2. realizing that there are two sides to a debate, what would you recommend if you were a policy maker regarding sea otters and the potential conflicts in Washington?
3. Explain one of the ecological advantages of otters in a given area?
4. Genetically, explain why Washington’s sea otters are vulnerable.

Red Tree Vole Questions

1. How do biologists get the voles to appear for tagging?
2. Describe the red tree vole’s habitat.
3. What specifically are the biologists trying to ascertain in this study?
4. According to the article, why are owls valuable/instructive when studying tree voles?
5. According to the article, what do the tree voles eat?

Pygmy Rabbit Update Questions

1. What did the genetic work reveal about the rabbits?
2. What will the genetic composition of those rabbits be?
3. Name three things that may have caused the decline of the pygmy rabbits.
4. Describe the habitat needs for the pygmy rabbit.

Bears In Winter by Bernard Heinrich (in class handout)

1. Describe where a bear might den according to author Bernard Heinrich.
2. Why would a bear feed voraciously in late summer but not eat much at all in the days before it hibernates?
3. Heinrich explains that when bears hibernate depends on several factors. Mention one of these.
4. Humans’ waste nitrogen goes into ________. During hibernation, bears’ waste nitrogen goes into _________.
5. Humans would not tolerate hibernation very well. Describe one physiological capability that a hibernating bear has that humans do not have.
6. Find and memorize a formula for converting Celsius temperatures into Fahrenheit. Convert 35° C to Fahrenheit ________.

Whale in Alaska

1. Is the whale a male, female, young or old?
2. Why did one biologist hope the whale was not an albino?
3. Tell me something you thought was interesting about the article.

Wolverine in California

1. How was the picture of the wolverine in California taken?
2. What did the California Wolverine article say about dogs?
3. How would you explain the presence of the wolverine?  Your speculations must reflect logical biological thinking.

Prairie Racer Questions:

1. Why are pronghorns so fast?  They are far faster than coyotes or other predators in the west.
2. How did bison and pronghorn partition their resources?
3. Describe some of the adaptations that facilitate the pronghorn’s speed.
4. Would you say that the pronghorn is genetically vulnerable to extinction?  Explain your reasoning.