How We Know How Babies Grow: teacher key

Baby Animals, grade 11 edition, written for 11th grade. Silver threads, nest boxes, droppings and drones. See how scientists follow young animals, what the long records show and what is still a mystery.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. What did Konrad Lorenz show about birds hatched in an incubator?
   • They follow whatever they first see (answer)
   • They never learn to walk
   • They need three parents
2. Why did scientists choose great tits for the Wytham study?
   • They nest far from people
   • They readily use nest boxes and can be marked with leg rings (answer)
   • They never leave the woods
3. How do researchers study baboon stress without disturbing the animals?
   • They watch from helicopters
   • They test hormones in droppings (answer)
   • They band the babies
4. What did the Wytham records show about spring?
   • It has moved earlier (answer)
   • It has moved later
   • It has not changed
5. Why might Matthew Halley's argument matter to scientists?
   • It shows they must check even famous old reports against the evidence (answer)
   • It proves Audubon was right
   • It shows banding is illegal
6. What does altricial mean here?
   • Helpless at hatching and staying in the nest (answer)
   • Ready to run at once
   • Able to fly

Words

• altricial: helpless at birth
• precocial: ready at birth
• imprinting: early following
• monotremes: egg-laying mammals
• generations: family stages
• hormones: body chemical signals