Raising Someone Else's Young: teacher key

Animal Families, grade 9 edition, written for 9th grade. Why would an animal help raise young that are not its own? Meerkats, scrub-jays, wolves and chimpanzees show how helpers, relatives and unrelated group members share the work.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. Who normally takes the place of a dominant female meerkat who dies?
   • A male helper
   • The oldest subordinate female, often a daughter (answer)
   • An unrelated visitor
2. How do pairs with helpers compare with pairs without helpers in cooperatively breeding birds?
   • They fledge fewer young
   • There is no difference
   • They fledge about one and a half times more young (answer)
3. What does the vampire bat study show about sharing?
   • Bats share with relatives and non-relatives alike (answer)
   • Only relatives share
   • Bats never share
4. What do orca pods teach through apprenticeship?
   • Singing songs
   • Building dens
   • Hunting and parenting skills (answer)
5. What does subordinate mean here?
   • Lower-ranking (answer)
   • Oldest
   • Strongest

Words

• monopolises: keeps for itself
• subordinate: lower-ranking
• apprenticeship: learning from experts
• fledge: learn to fly
• dialect: group sound pattern