Q32 - Reciprocal Altruism in Blood-Sharing Vampire Bats
Female vampire bats live in colonies made up of unrelated females and their offspring, and they feed exclusively on blood of herbivores. The fully-fed bats often share some of the blood that they collected with bats that are starving, and are more likely to receive blood from these individuals when they themselves starve.
Using the information and data, determine which of the statements are true or which are false.
A. Kin selection plays an important role in evolution of the sharing behavior in vampire bats.
B. Vampire bats are likely to live in colonies only for short periods of time.
C. The bats showing this behavior have higher indirect fitness than if they would not do so.
D. Vampire bats are able to recognize and remember other individual bats.
Question reproduced from IBO 2016, Theoretical Paper A, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 - attributed to the International Biology Olympiad. Open the full exam PDF · Community solutions (unofficial)