Logical Reasoning

PT155 · S1 · Q3 When frightened by hunters in a truck

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When frightened by hunters in a truck, healthy gazelles run away quickly, efficiently using the landscape for concealment.

Given that ...

Healthy gazelles react to the scary sight of hunters in a truck by running away quickly, using the landscape for concealment.

Why is it that ....

Healthy gazelles react to the scary sight of a predator (like a lion) by leaping high into the air, drawing the predator's attention and consuming energy that could otherwise be funneled into running away faster?

Evaluate / Goal

We either need to hear about some distinction between hunters and animal-predators that makes "use landscape for concealment" appropriate for the former and appropriate for the latter.

Or we need to hear what good stotting does. It wouldn't be an adaptation if it only did bad stuff (like drawing the predator's attention and decreasing energy to escape). So it must have some positive attribute to it.

3.

Which one of the following would, if true, most help to resolve the apparent paradox described above?

  1. Animals that are startled sometimes

    No Distinction

    This answer doesn't give us any way to understand why the gazelle's response to being startled by a truck is different than being startled by a predator.

    2% picked this

  2. Young gazelles and gazelles that

    Unrelated to Goal

    We don't care about unhealthy gazelles, because the paradox we're trying to explain is about healthy ones. The fact that young gazelles often stot when frightened by a human / truck doesn't really do anything to solve our mystery. Our mystery is why healthy gazelles stot when frightened by a predator (or by anything). Stotting seems to mess up their goal of escaping, since it gives away their position and robs them of precious energy.

    0% picked this

  3. Correct

    To animals that typically prey

    Why this is right

    This helps explain why gazelles bother to stot when running from a predator. It seemed contrary to their purposes (it gives away their position and drains them of energy). But this answer helps to explain the utility of this behavior. Stotting is apparently a signal that predators understand to mean, "This gazelle is strong and very able to escape". Since predators have to conserve their energy, they only pursue prey they think they can catch (usually the sicker, slower, weaker, younger members of the herd). If a predator starts to chase a gazelle and then the gazelle starts stotting, the predator might see this chase as a lost cause and give up.

    Skill tested: Paradox · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

    94% picked this

  4. A healthy gazelle can usually

    Deepens Paradox, if anything

    Our paradox is about why gazelles react differently to trucks than to predators, or about why gazelles react to predators in a manner that seems to mess up their escape plan. If anything, this answer deepens the paradox, because it says that gazelles usually are aware of the predator before the predator is aware of the gazelle. If you see the predator before the predator even knows you're there, then that would be all the more reason to try to make a quiet getaway. If you start stotting, as these gazelles do, then you're actually alerting the predator to your existence!

    3% picked this

  5. While not able to run

    No Impact

    This just lets us know that a gazelle is facing a group of lions at once. Does that explain why the gazelle jumps high into the air, revealing its whereabouts? No. Does that explain why the gazelle wastes running energy on stotting? No.

    1% picked this

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