Main content
Course: Middle school biology - NGSS > Unit 2
Lesson 2: Animal behavior and offspring successAnimal behavior and offspring success
Reproductive success in animals is tied to the number of offspring that survive. Traits and behaviors that increase chances of reproduction and offspring survival, like mating displays and parental care, boost this success. Examples include peacock's flashy feathers and protective behaviors of penguins and bears. Created by Sal Khan.
Want to join the conversation?
- Welcome to Khan Academy, where nobody knows what a peahen is.(28 votes)
- Peahen is a female peacock. Now u know(17 votes)
- Hello everyone! First question here!
My question is because I don't truly understand at a 100% reproductive success. I mean, shouldn't reproductive success be the ability to produce offspring that are able to survive up to having their own offspring? Like having many offspring or producing strong offspring? Though... That definition would make humans have a low reproductive success-. However by the definition he said, humans have a high reproductive success. Is it that what he is saying is that one thing is the amount of offspring an animal produces (this being reproductive success) and the other thing that allows offspring to survive until they have their own young is animal behavior? This would be that animal behavior is related to reproductive success in making fit animals.
And so, reproductive success and animal behavior are two pieces of the puzzle of making a fit animal!?
Maybe that's what it is? Thanks in advance for any answers ^^ I hope anyone sees this question soon(8 votes)- Hey, Alessandro. Unfortunately, i didn't see your question soon, but i'll still share some of my thoughts, hoping it will be of use to you.
Reproductive success basically includes two parameters: how many offspring can a specie produce (birthrate, or natality), and what percentage of them will survive to adulthood (survival rate).
For an example, one female frog can cast over 1000 eggs at once. That's a very high birthrate. However, she will abandon those eggs, and leave them on their own. Only a few of those 1000 eggs will survive to adulthood, so their survival rate is low.
On the contrary, elephant mother will have only one or two cubs every 3 to 10 years, but, unlike frogs, she will take good care of them, and most of the young ones will reach their adulthood. So, while their birthrate is low, they compensate that with a high survival rate.
This is a very simplified description, but i hope it helps you understand what exactly does reproductive success mean.
Let me know if you have more questions.
Alex(20 votes)
- Will parents lion kill their children if it's hunger(7 votes)
- Yes, lions have been known to kill and eat their weaker offspring.(6 votes)
- Guys did that tree speak Vietnamese
🪖🔪(7 votes)- wow i... WHAT(2 votes)
- Why is everyone making a big deal of "Peahen", I didn't know at first, Now we know, So? What's the big deal? Some people doesn't some people do?(6 votes)
- Welcome to the internet.🫠(8 votes)
- Had to pull the male for this video.(7 votes)
- how about sharks(3 votes)
- Sharks eat their kids i mean the weaklings(8 votes)
- A peahen is a female peacock. Peacocks are males and Peahens are females. Like with chickens! Hens are female and Cocks/Roosters are males.(4 votes)
- Who is this Sal you speak of(3 votes)
- Sal Khan, the CEO of khan academy and the guy who does most of the lessons(5 votes)
- Y'all, Pea_COCK_ is a boy, look at the COCK part, and Pea_HEN_= THINK OF A CHICKEN THANK YOU(4 votes)
- that is what I was thinking(2 votes)
Video transcript
- Let's talk a little bit
about reproductive success, which is related to the
number of surviving offspring that an animal has during its lifetime. An animal that has more
surviving offspring has a higher reproductive success. Now, there's two broad categories of traits or behaviors that might drive reproductive success. One might be behaviors
that increase the chances of an animal producing offspring. And we know that most
animals that we study, not all, but most, reproduce
via sexual reproduction. To do that, they need to mate with an
individual of the opposite sex. And that's why you see
things like peacocks, where these very elaborate
feathers are a way of signaling to members
of the opposite sex, the peahens, that this peacock
here has favorable traits, is attractive to the
peahen, has good health, which signals to the peahen that by reproducing with this peacock, they're more likely to
have reproductive success. They'll have healthier offspring, which are more likely to survive, which are more likely to
then go on and reproduce. And then assuming that
animals are able to mate and able to reproduce, another behavior that you
will see amongst animals that will increase the chances that their offspring will survive, and then be able to reproduce themselves is parental care, or behaviors that protect
offspring from predators. You see that throughout
the animal kingdom. Here are some emperor penguins taking care of their young baby penguin. Here is a mother grizzly bear
taking care of her bears. And here the parental care
might be helping them find food, giving them food, training them, protecting them from other predators or from competitors in some way. And this isn't just amongst
bears, and penguins, and potentially peacocks and peahens. It's all in service to,
at least in some level, reproductive success.