Lecture 4

- Large eyes – to gather low light

- Snowshoe Hare have eyes with lots of RODS in the retina
- Rods are much better for low light conditions
- Cones give sharp and colour vision
- Animals active in the night have more rods than cones
- Nocturnal animals displays eyeshine
- Tapetum Lucidum – A special layer of cell behind the retina that any light that passes through
the sensory cells is bounced forward again therefore conserving the light that was coming in and
using it forward. (reflective layer that helps the animal see better in low light conditions)
- Birds don’t have tapetum lucidum
- More eyes allows for more complete vigilance (more safety and more time to eat)
- FLOCKING offers two advantages, one of which is MOBE EYES, thus better VIGILANCE
- Two types of Flocking – Single-species flock (sandpiper, waxing) and Mixed Species Flock
(migrating birds examples Pine Warbler and Yellow-rumped Warbler)
- Difference lies in the food resource type. Benefits are the same for both flock types, more eyes
to watch for danger.

PLANT DEFENCES

- Trees and other woody plants have external ARMOUR

- Seeds can be protected inside the tough coats
- Spines = modified leaves (defensive structure)
- Prickles are epidermal outgrowth like hairs
- Hawthorns are another type of prickly defence
- Thorns are modified branch
- Plant hairs are called TRICHOMES
- Some TRICHOMES have a little ball that when open have a chemical that is used as a defence
- Water Smartweed is a type water plants which don’t have trichomes on leaves in water but if
water goes away, trichomes appears on the leaves.
- Structural Element such as CELLULOSE, HEMICELLULOSE AND PECTIN make plant tissues hard to
digest
- LIGNIN gives leaves stiffness, nuts and cherry pits their hardness
- SILICA is found in horsetails and grass.
- Other digestibility reducers are not structural components are astringent (drying component)
such as Tannins (have a drying affect, making it hard to digest)
- Some plants can make calcium which is also used as a deterrent
- Arum plants have calcium oxalate crystals in their leaves
- Jack-in-the Pulpit is also called the Arum
- Terpenoids – Monarch Butterfly eat Milkweed that produces cardiac glycosides
- Terpenoids taste bitter. Terpenoids do not contain Nitrogen (just give animals give bad taste)
- Terpenoids are a major group of plant chemical toxins
- New pine cones have RESINS contain TERPENOIDS
- Another plant defended by TERPENOIDS is POISON IVY (Also have RESIN)
 - Toxins that contain NIGROGEN are called ALKALIODS (get into animals digestive system and
cause a lot of damage inside their body)
- Asters defended with ALKALIODS
- Buttercups also contain ALKALOIDS
- Alkaloids interfere with digestion by binding to digestive enzymes; some are sugar mimics
- Constitutive Defences are defences that are always present (teraponids and alkaloids)
- Inducible Defence are defences that are made by the plant when the plant needs it (hydrogen
cyanide (HCN)) found in cherry
- Bracken also contain HCN
- Some chemical disrupt digestion by interfering with digestive proteins
- A wounded leaf sends out WOUND HORMONES when attacked by predators
- Some plants produce INSECT GROWTH HORMONES
- Bracken Fern is loaded with PHYTOECDYSONES
- Two main hormone in insect development
A) Moulting Hormone (MH) – helps them develop in the next stage
B) Juvenile Hormone (JH) – produce during the larvae stage
- Balsam Fir contains PHYTOJUVENULE HORMONE
- Insects that eat a plant with phytojuvenule hormone do not produce

REPRODUCTIVE HORMONES

- Some plants can produces chemical that can stop the reproduction in mammals and insects
- Phytoestrogen when animals eat that it would mess up an animal’s reproductive system
- PHOTOXINS – very nasty side affect (releases a toxin onto the animal then when it comes in
contact with the sunlight it will burn and damage)
- Somes plants advertise their defence
- MUSTARDS advertise their defence
- Plants use aposematic colours

LECTURE 5

- Rock Polypody is loaded with MOULTING HORMES = PHYTOECDYSONES

- Bracken Fern is loaded with PHYTOECDYSONES
- Insects mature too quickly and die
- When is plant is under attack, an alarm is sent to other parts to prepare themselves
- Chemical messenger = Phytohormones (jasmonic acid, ethylene and salicylic acid) travel through
the plant, initiating biochemical responses

ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS

- Sub-zero temperatures, water turns into ice, water expands

- Insects that depend on the external temperature and not the internal temperature are known as
ECTOTHERMS
- Eastern Wolf – Endotherms
- How animals deal with extreme cold? – animals stay active
- Mammals grow more hair (thicker and denser)
- Guard Hairs – grow longer and thicker hair
- Dense UNDERFUR – traps body heat
- Birds grown bulkier feather of two kinds which are
a) Contour Feather on the outside
b) Down feather underneath
- Animals also add extra layers on the inside
- Mammals have two types of fat (Cotton tail rabbit)
a) Subcutaneous fat for insulation = warmth
b) Internal Brown Fat for burning for warmth
- Birds add subcutaneous fat for fuel
- Shivering is an important means of thermogenesis (generating heat)
- They SHIVER to generate heat
- COLOUR CAN PROVIDE WARMTH
- Black can absorb the heat better but it also expels the heat more than white
- Dark colour under windy and cold conditions lose more body heat than white does because
white helps trap more heat
- WHITE IS A BETTER COLOUR TO WEAR DURING THE WINTER
- Pale colours retain body heat better (Snowy Owl)
- Gloger’s Rule – Northern animals tend to be in lighter in colour than it southern counter part
- Animals hairs that lack pigmentation i.e. white in colour helps keep body heat next to the body.
- Snowshoe Hares gain 27% in the coat’s insulations value by being white
- What body shape is best for the cold? Large ears, long legs, long tail is not
a) Short extremities are better (because it loses heat faster) (Allen’s Rule)
b) Low SURFACE AREA:VOLUME ratio (more rounder shape) (Bergmann’s Rule)
- Better to have a smaller area to volume ratio
- Warmer it is more heat is lost
- Beavers, Mallards use countercurrent Heat Exchanger which enables them to have a larger
surface area to volume during the winter
- Blood is flowing down from the heart down to the foot and back from the foot back up to the
heart and heat is exchanged and this process is known as COUNTERCURRENT HEAT EXCHANGER
OR RETEMIRABILE
- Tucking extremities under a wing can also help keep them warm
- How an animal breathes in winter also conserves heat and energy
- Foxes have a counter current vessels in snouts helping them to conserve heat and energy
- Breathe with their mouths closed allowing the counter-current vessels
- SITES where the birds choose to sleep is important i.e. the place where the bird choose is known
as ROOST SITE
- CONIFEROUS TREES offer more warmth
- Woodpeckers stay inside cavities overnight
- Black-capped Chickadees go inside cavities too
- Flying Squirrels HUDDLE (BETTER SA:V RATIO IS BETTER ALLOWING MORE HEAT)
- Mustkrat Lodge build their own shelters
- Beavers build their own lodges
- Lodges are structures that beavers live inside and dam build to block water
- Beavers add mud for insulation
 - The snow also helps insulate the lodge
- Small animals find warmth under the snow
- Subnivean space – little space below the thick layer of snow where they can move and survive
during cold temperature to keep them warm
- Snow birds also find warmth in the snow – Ruffed Grouse Snow Bed
- On cold days animals can BASK in the sun (Ruffed Grouse)
- Basking can be done when birds sleep
- On cold nights Black-Capped Chickadees lower their body core temperature by 12C, entering a
deep sleep called TORPOR
- Shivering is an important means of thermogenesis

LECTURE 6

- Shivering can lower body temperature

- Snakes are ectotherms and they survive by going below the frost line and becoming DORMANT
- DORMANCY = BEHAVIOURAL FREEZE AVOIDANCE
- Northern Water Snake leaving its HIBERNACULUM
- All adult turtles and most hatchlings escape subzero temperature by going to the bottom of
ponds and lakes (Snapping Turtles)
- Bull Frogs follow the same
- American Toads dig down beneath the frost line
- Insects do dormant and use ANTI FREEZE system called GLYCEROL = CRYOPROTECTANT (Ex.
Wolly Bear)
- Praying Mantids lay eggs in overwinter
- OOTHECA is where Praying Mantids lay eggs
- Walking Sticks also lay eggs over winter
- When no ice forms inside the body = SUPERCOOLING (i.e. stays liquid below zero)
- Female mosquitoes, wasps, bumbles bee survive during the winter (only queens survive)
- Angle-winged Butterflies (males and females) spend winter in the butterfly stage
- SILK MOTHS overwinter as a PUPA in a COCCON
- Goldernord Gall Fly Grub and its is frozen but alive
- CRYPROTECTANTS inside the cells
- ICE NULEATING SITES between them
- If a animal survives after being frozen is knows as FREEZE TOLERANT
- Gray Tree Frogs stay near the soils surface and freeze (Wood Frog, Spring Peeper, Chorus Frog)
borrow down the ground and freeze (FREEZE TOLERANT)
- Snapping Turtles are not freeze tolerant so they go to the bottom of the lake and they lay eggs
in the spring
- Painted Turtles also their eggs in the ground, but they don’t come during the spring and they
stay frozen during the winter an they are FREEZE TOLERANT BUT ONLY AS HATCHLINGS!!
- Raccoons are endotherms cannot freeze but some do become DORMANT
- Raccoons under periods of LETHARGIC in a sheltered den
- Chipmunks undergo longer periods of TORPOR = “HIBERNATION”
- Lower heartbeat, low temperature but awaken every few days
- Bats undergo a light “HIBERNATIONS”, high heartrate, low body temp and easily aroused
 - How do Black Bears spend the winter? Spends time in den
- Bears don’t urinate or defecate during winter, they have a TAPPEN which is a rectal plug that
keeps them from fouling the winter den
- Ture or Deep Hibernators (heartrate and body temperature falls to zero)
a) Ground Hog is the worlds largest true hibernators
b) Jumping Mice are also TRUE OR DEEP hibernators
- Subzero temperatures = 2nd problem for winter is the MOBILITY
- MOOSE legs are 2meter tall
- Snowshoe Hare hoop during the winter
- Huge hind feet help the snowshoe hare during the winter
- Fisher and Martin have huge hind feet
- Ruffed Grouse have snowshoes grow every winter (bigger SA)
- Ptarmigan have dense feathers around toes
- Small mammals travel through the subnivean space
- White-tailed Deer move to a YARD (sheltered are with less snow and more food)
- A BROWSE LINE identifies where White-tailed deers feed in winter
- Otter use their body to slide on their bellies

LECTURE 7

- Many other escape sub-zero temperatures by MIGRATION

- Songbirds migrate
- Monarch Butterflies migrate
- Red Bats Migrate too
- Most of our bird migrate
- Arctic Tern are the migration champion (Arctic to Antarctic 20,000km roundtrip each year)
- Red Knot is the new world migration champion
- Main reason of migration is lack of food
- Fat powers the flight
- Semipalmated Sandpiper put on fat (double their body weight in 10days)
- Most songbirds migrate only at night (300-500kms)
- Travel at night is bc of safety, air is calmer, cooler air
- Blue Jays only migrate in the day time
- Hawks and Eagles and vultures soar up by holding wings out on a THERMAL, then glide down to
the next THERMAL and then soar up on it.
- Thermal Hopping is when the birds use air to move up
- Slotted wing weathers for extra lift (Turkey Vulture)
- Swallows migrate in the daytime
- They are fast fliers and burn up a lot of fuel when they move
- Hummingbirds also migrate in the day time
- Sandpipers fly by day and by night (8days)
- Both diurnal and nocturnal migrants use the Earths Magnetic Field
- Rhodopsin is a retinal photopigment
- Geese fly in a “V” shaped flock because by flying behind wingtip of the bird ahead it gains free
lift. (conserve energy)
 - BANDING helps keep track of birds that migrate
- Songbirds are caught in very fine nets called MIST NETS
- GEOLOCATORS measure the amount of light available in the daytime (records the time and
place the bird were)
- MOTUS tower (30kms) help pick up signal when birds fly over and help identify and provide info
about the bird
- Only half of all the birds that migrate return

SUBZERO PROBLEMS FOR PLANTS

- Ice inside their cells kills plants

- Many plants go dormant in the soil under the snow
- Plants become COLD HARDY through ACCLIMATION
a) Excess water is withdrawn and evaporated from leaves (increase the particle concentration
increases)
b) Water is drawn out of the cells, which increases solute concentration
c) Protective sugar added to cells increasing solute concentration
d) Membrane becomes more flexible
- The first stage of acclimations is triggered by a change in the PHOTPEROID
- PHYTOCHROMES = Light sensitive photopigments
- Causes the cells to go dormant
- Make plant more responsive to cold temp
- The second stage is triggered by cold (but not sub-zero) temp
- In winter the green in the tree enables chlorophyll to use sun’s energy to create heat, no
photosynthesize
- Retaining needles creates new problem = damage by solar radiation
- SOLUTION: XANTHOPHYLL pigments

LECTURE 8:

- The process by which plants become COLD HARDY is ACCLIMATIONS

- The first stage of acclimation is triggered by a change in PHOTOPERIOD (where the days become
shorter)
- Phytochromes in plants help the plant help measure day light and help prepare for sub zero
temperature
- Causing the cells to go dormat
- Make plant more responsive to low temperature
- Second stage is triggered by cold temperatures (0 to 10C)
- SKUNK CABBAGE has an unusual adaption for the cold as it turns up the heat
- DESICCATION is another problem that plant faces because it contains water
- CONIFERS retain their leaves so their size and shape is small
- Leaf surface is small- Close stomata (helps hold water avoids dryness) and thick cuticles
- ROCK POLYPODY is an evergreen fern
- It reduces leaf surface area by rolling them up
- DECIDUOUS trees have big leaves with a larger surface area so to avoid the loss of water they
DESSICCATE i.e. drop the leaves
 - Where does the colour come from on leaves? – photosynthesis
- Most of the colour is already in the leaves, hidden by the green chlorophyll
- Female RED MAPLE TURN YELLOW and Male Red Maples turns red
- Red colour is produced by a pigment called ANTHOCYANINS (helps generate heat)
- Leaf loss help solve a second problem associated with sub-zero temps – THE WEIGHT OF THE
SNOW
- BALSAM FIR have a spire shape
- Black Spruce are SPINDLY
- EXCESSIVE heat can cause DESSICATION (DRYING OUT)
- In extreme heat, plants reduce leaf surface area by rolling
- Heat can be shunted to body parts with a greater surface area, such as the abdomen (ex dragon
fly)
- Dragon reduce their surface area facing the sun by assuming a position called OBELISK
- STILTING is a process where the dragonfly raises up their body to provide some shade
- The Rete Mirabile is bypassed and more blood shunted to the extremities
- By diverting more blood through the tail, 90% more heat is lost than when rete mirabile is in
operation
- Honeybees are SOCIAL INSECT that work together to keep themselves cool
- In the hive, bees use their wings to keep themselves cool
- PANTING is a form of evaporative cooling
- Birds don’t sweat. They pant, allowing more air to ass over the respiratory surfaces
- BEES also use EVAPORATIVE COOLING
- VULTURES excrete on their legs!!
- MOURING DOVES allow their internal temp rise to 45C using the HYPERTHERMIA (going over) to
help keep themselves cool

CHALLENGE #3 NUTRITION

- Plants make their own food by the process of photosynthesis

- Animals eat plants or eat other animals
- Eating plant is know as HERBVOIRE
- Maple Spindle Gall Mites eat plants from the inside
- Liquid of plant Nector is also a source of food
- Some animals eat dead plant material knows as DETRITIVORE (EATING DEAD PLANT MATERIAL)
- Clams are filter feeding
- Black Fly are filter feeders
- BLACK FLY larvae FILTER FEED with Largar Brushes (pull food out of the water)
- Dabblers or Puddle Ducks and Mallard use filter feeder
- LAMELLEA is a special structure on the swans beak that help filter
- Tongues also help filter the food from the water (NORTHERN SHOVELER)
- To get NECTAR the insects require a long PROBOSCIS
- Hummingbird have a LONG TONGUE to get the nectar
- The HYOID HORNS extends the tongue
LECTURE 9

- STYLETS is a feature that sucking bugs have that helps them sucks food
- How do animals deal with ingestion?
- Slugs and snails break off plant tissue using RADULA (present inside their mouth)
- Caterpillars have modified MANDIBLES
- Some caterpillars that eat leaves from the inside are Leaf Blotch Miner
- Miner = caterpillars that are inside the leaf and feed from the inside
- INCISORS are front teeth are beaver teeth that never stop growing and self sharpen
- They have orange teeth bc it contains iron
- Moose have large cheek teeth to grind up the food
- Cheek teeth = molars and premolars
- Masseters muscles power the teeth
- Mandibles, radula and cheek teeth all physically break down plant material, perform they very
same function but arise from different origins are known as ANALOGOUS STRUCTURES
- Ruffed grouse use gizzard to eat their food
- Slugs and snails produce digestive enzymes
- Rumen is present into herbivore mammals to help digest through bacteria (ex moose)
- Food is processed twice by a bringing it back up by a process called RUMINATION
- CAECUM is in rabbits and beaver that help in the digestion
- Animals that eat their dropping is called COPROPHAGY
- Porcupines have a large gut their digestive tract is about 26% of their total weight
- Fruit-eating specialist BOHEMIAN WAXWING
- Ingest food quickly and quick digestion
- The bigger the gape the faster the ingestion
- Cedar waxwing have large gapes for fast external processing
- Short intestines for fast internal processing
- Seeds Dispersers are when animals dropping contain the seeds that are left behind in the poop
- Seed eaters are SEED PREDATORS
- American Goldfinches have fine bills for?
- Red Crossbill use the crossover tips to get inside the pinecone and opens it and pull the seeds
out using the tongue
- Red squirrels bite off the cone scales with their incisors
- Plants also have chemical defences to overcome
- Some herbivores sequester the toxin (Monarch Butterfly)
- Some sequesters but avoid most of the chemicals by cutting the veins of the plant before eating
the plant tissues and this phenomenon is know as VEIN DRAIN
- Some herbivores use enzymes to neutralize the toxins and this is known as MFO (Mixed
Function Oxidases)
- Red-headed Pine Sawflies eat pine needles
- Monarch caterpillars eat only milkweed
LECTURE 10

- Balsam Fir = very low sodium

- Aquatic plants = High sodium content
- Water shield = 500 times more sodium and moose store this sodium in their rumen
- Road Salt = sodium chloride

Eating other Animals

- Advantages:
a) More return for the effort (proteins already packed)
b) Easier to digest
- Disadvantages
a) Animals can be hard to find
b) Often prey is well protected
c) They fight back
- PREDATIONS – is the act of eating other animals
- Some animals eat from the inside while the animal is alive – PARASITOID (kills the animals that
its feeding on)
- Parasites – live on the inside
- Scavengers are animals eat dead animals
- Hawks (DIURNAL BIRDS OF PREY)
- Have large eyes to collect more light and large number of CONES for visual acuity
- Frontal placement of eyes for depth perception
- OWL hunt at the night. Use their large eyes
- Owls are have lots of rods which are light sensitive which are rich in GLYCOGEN
- Eyes are placed in the front and the only drawback of the front eyes is that they have large blind
spots. Owls can turn their heads 270degress
- BULL FROGS have large eyes too
- Dragon flies have compound eyes ie there are multiples eyes put together
- WHIRLIGIGS are predatory beetles that can see above and below the water at the same time.
The eyes are large and partly submerged
- SPIDERS have 8 eyes
- Jumping spiders move their retinas to change their field of view
- Crab spider are also VISUAL hunters
- FOXES have large pinnae
- Owls have FACIAL DISK that captures sound
- Boreal Owls have asymmetrical EAR openings which are offset and different shapes
- WIDE HEADS provides horizontal sound separation
- ASYMMETRICAL EAR OPENINGS = vertical separation of sound which helps accurately
pinpointing of sound
- Bat detectors convert the inaudible sounds to a beeping on the machine
- BATS use ECHOLOCATION
- Shrew use ULTRASOUND to hunt
- FLEMEN is a posture which also helps enhance sense of smell by allowing more scents to pass
onto the JACOBSON’s ORGAN and thus allow an animal to better catch a scent.
- Snakes use their tongues to analyze the air helping to locate the animal to hunt
- Raccoons have touch-sensitive front paws
- Birds have a similar feature called Rictal Bristles (rictal – around the mouth)
- Star-nosed MOLES have ELMERS organs in their nose protuberances
- Help analyzes what its touching
- Sandpipers have HERBST CORPUSCLES in the bird bill
- Woodpeckers have HERBST CORPUSCLES in the tips of their tongues
- RATTLE SNAKES have HEAT PIT that lies between the eyes and the nostrils and can detect
changes as small as 0.001C

Lecture 13

- Moose ticks are called winter ticks because they get on the moose during the winter and gets off
during the fall
- Black-legged Deer Tick carry a disease called LYME DISEASE
- Mites are ectoparasites are related to ticks
- Mites are on the water
- Mites and Ticks are ectoparasites (live on the outside on the insect)
- Are biting insects ectoparasites? No But leeches ticks etc are OBLIGATE PARATIES
- Baby Clams (Glochidium) are ectoparasites
- How do they find a host? Ticks finds host by QUESTING
- Ticks detect carbon dioxide, humidity and temperature
- Ticks have mouthparts that they use to cut through the skin
- Barbs on hypostome
- Leeches have mouthparts to hold it and other part is for sucking the blood
- Anticoagulated to keep the blood flowing
- FLATTENED body shape to climb through the feathers and hairs
- Claws to grip
- Herons have a PECITINATE TOE
- Parasites that live inside the host are called endoparasite
- CUTEREBRA (Bot fly) is endoparasite only as larvae
- Deers have a parasite called BRAINWORM
- The larvae leave the deer in its dropping
- A slug or snail becomes the intermediate host when it eats the dropping
- Deer are the parasite DEFINITE HOST
- Why does the BRAINWORM only kill moose?
- Robins are the DEFINITE host for a parasite FLUKE
- Parasitic Castration