1. Foraging for Food: Movement to Satisfy Hunger
- Essentials of Feeding
- Animals move to find nutrients not immediately available in their current habitat.
- Predators stalk or chase prey, herbivores wander or migrate in search of fresh vegetation.
- Bees flying from flower to flower to collect nectar and pollen (critical for pollination).
- Wildebeests migrating across the African savannah to access lush grasslands.
Remember that foraging strategies often depend on the type of food an organism consumes, predators move to hunt, while herbivores move to graze or browse.
2. Escaping from Danger: Locomotion as a Survival Mechanism
- Avoiding Predators and Hazards
- Locomotion enables rapid evasion of threats, including predators or natural disasters.
- Speed and agility can confuse predators or allow prey to reach safety.
Springboks in southern Africa rely on high-speed running (up to 80 km/h) and pronking (leaping) to elude cheetahs and alert nearby springboks.
Common Mistake- Many students assume that only prey animals use locomotion to escape danger.
- Predators also move to avoid larger predators or to retreat from unsuccessful hunts.
3. Searching for a Mate: Locomotion for Reproduction
- Ensuring Genetic Diversity
- Animals travel to locate mates, especially in widely dispersed populations.
- This movement prevents inbreeding and maintains a robust gene pool.
- Male American moon moths fly toward pheromones released by distant females.
- Young male lions leave their birth pride and travel to other prides, challenging the dominant male for breeding rights.
Locomotion for mating is not limited to terrestrial animals. In aquatic species like salmon, individuals migrate vast distances to reach spawning grounds where they can reproduce.
TipLocomotion for mating often involves energy-intensive journeys, but the reproductive success it enables makes the effort worthwhile.
4. Migration: Long-Distance Movement for Survival
- Seasonal or Periodic Relocation
- Organisms relocate to avoid food scarcity or harsh climates and, in some cases, to reproduce.
- Often entails extended journeys over great distances.
Salmon migrate from the ocean to freshwater rivers to spawn, then return (or die after spawning), ensuring species continuity.
HintMigration often involves preparation, such as building fat reserves for energy or timing the journey to coincide with favorable weather conditions.
