Ethogram project - Assignment Example

the warthog despite the presence of other animals such as the buffalo (Bubalus, Syncerus, Bos 13), giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), and the antelopes (Antilocapra americana) in the areas where the warthogs were grazing. Early that morning (10.00AM), the adult warthogs (Phacochoerus africanus) cleaned the skin of their offspring using their teeth. Some warthogs were also moving from place to place. At noon (12.00PM), the sun became very hot making the warthogs graze while kneeling and other warthogs moving from one point to another in search of shelter as well as grass.

In the afternoon (2.00PM), the temperature was extremely hot making majority of the warthogs to sleep and a few to spend their time cleaning the fur of others via use of their teeth. Some warthogs that were active however ran in one a large group from one place to another when they saw us driving across where they were grazing. While running, they occasionally stopped and looked at us. The choice of this hypothesis is in tandem with the assumption that warthogs move in groups in order to locate food resources.

Although male warthogs often love solitary life; they move alone from one place to another, majority of the people believe that warthogs move in groups so as to minimize the rate of their predation by predators. The testing of this hypothesis will enable one understand the lifestyle of warthogs as well as the factors that contribute to their movement in groups. The causal question and the hypothesis for this study will expound on the ultimate cause of warthogs social behavior. The social behavior of the warthogs is likely to have evolved with time because of decrease in food resources as well as increase in the rate of predation.

Test for the hypothesis: Information regarding the population of the warthogs in the San Diego zoo will be collected in four different times in a year and their number tabulated for future reference. The information to be documented will include the groups of