What are the proximate and ultimate causes for attack behavior in male stickleback fish?

Question

some bio questions i just dont know how to answer pls help.

also, what are the proximate and ultimate causes for geese imprinting on their mother?

and, how might imprinting interfere with captive rearing conservation efforts?

Answer 1

The proximate cause of a behavior is the stimuli that causes the behavior, in this case the red belly of another stickleback (if I remember the generic example correctly).  The ultimate, or evolutionary, cause, is that it preserves the first stickleback's territory and mating grounds (I think).

I don't know the proximate cause for imprinting, but the ultimate cause is learning: a gosling can learn how to swim, what predators to avoid, what to eat, and so on by watching its mother.

Imprinting can interfere because goslings imprint on their handlers, who can't really teach them anything of much use to a goose in the wild, so when they are released they don't know how to take care of themselves.