Now listen to part of a lecture in a biology class.
Ok, uh, so a good example of this, found right there in North America, is something an animal called the American Pronghorn does. Prong Horns, as you may know, are a kind of deer-like animal, they live out in the open grassy plains, somewhat in the middle of America, and they are super fast. Pronghorns are, in fact, noted for being the fastest animal in the western hemisphere. Once a Pronghorn starts running, zoom! None of its present predators, like the bobcat or the coyote can even hope to catch up with it. It's off in a flash! Ok, so why then do Pronghorns run so fast? That's the question.Well, it turns out that quite a long time ago, I'm talking tens of thousands of years, things on the grassy plains used to be very different for the Pronghorns, because back then, lions used to live on the plains, chasing and preying upon the Pronghorns, and lions, of course, are a very swift-moving mammal, much faster than the bobcat or coyote or other predators you’d find on the plains today.But, now, however, lions are all extinct in North America, they’re no longer predator of the Pronghorn. Tens of thousands of years ago, though, the lions were there chasing the Pronghorns. So back then, the Pronghorn’s speed was critical to its survival.
Using the example of the pronghorn and lion, explain the concept of a relict behavior.
Relict behavior refers to a kind of behavior in animals that was critical to their survival a long time ago but serve no purpose now due to the change of the environment. In the lecture, the professor takes the American pronghorn that lives in North America. It's known as the fastest animal in the western hemisphere, and none of its present predators, like bobcat or coyote, can catch up with it. However, the pronghorn was fast for a reason a long time ago. Tens of thousands of years ago, there were lions on the grassland, and lions preyed on pronghorns. Since lions were very fast, the pronghorns, in order to survive, had to run for their life. That was how the pronghorn gained its speed. However, lions were extinct then, so the primary reason for the pronghorn's speed was gone. But the behavior remained, and became what's known as relict behavior. (153 words)
