Question 2: Describe Achieved

Practises Social behaviour & spatial behaviour

No other cattle in the world have stayed as pure as the Chillingham wild cattle, which have never bred with an outside herd. They still roam their historic home, a 365-acre park in England walled off in the 13th century for food and hunting, and are thought to descend from the original wild oxen of England. They number only about 40 to 60, and that is the whole world population. The bulls form a dominance hierarchy whose alpha bull is called the “king”. A challenge is usually settled by ritualised fighting, a show of bellowing, pawing at the ground and flinging dirt and debris about, but now and then one escalates to a full-contact fight that ends in injury or death.

Define a dominance hierarchy, and describe an advantage of the hierarchy for the king and for the females, ritualised fighting, and when fighting may become physical.

The 2023 paper, page 5 ↗ Marking schedule, page 3 ↗

Work it out

Try it on paper first. Stuck? Take one hint at a time.

1 What is a dominance hierarchy?
The organisation of a group by rank, often set by age, sex or fitness, in which higher-ranked animals get first access to resources such as food and mates.
2 What does the king gain?
At the top, he can mate with all the cows, gets first access to food when it is scarce, and is seldom challenged.
3 What do the females gain from having a king?
Protection by the bulls, especially the king, and the certainty of mating with a fit bull.
4 What is ritualised fighting?
A contest settled by display rather than contact: here bellowing, pawing the ground and tossing dirt and debris.
5 What is intraspecific competition, and when does a fight turn physical?
Competition between members of the same species for the same resources, such as mates. A challenge may escalate to full contact when a resource is in short supply, or when a lower-ranked bull tries to take the king’s place.

Answer A dominance hierarchy is the organisation of a group by rank, often set by age, sex or fitness, in which higher-ranked animals get first access to food and mates. The king can mate with all the cows, gets food first when it is scarce, and is seldom challenged; the females are protected by the bulls and are sure to mate with a fit bull. Ritualised fighting settles a contest by display (bellowing, pawing, tossing dirt) instead of contact. Intraspecific competition is competition between members of one species, here bulls competing for mates, and a challenge may become a physical fight when a resource is scarce or a lower bull tries to become king.

What the marker wanted

Achieved Describes, one point each: what a hierarchy is; what ritualised behaviour means; one way the king gains; one way the cows gain; competition within the species; the circumstances in which fights become physical. Four make A4.

The schedule marks the question as one answer from N0 to E8. Achieved points count first: one or two give N1 or N2, three A3, four A4. Above that, two Merit points give M5 and three M6, then one Excellence point E7 and both E8.

In our words, from NZQA’s 2023 marking schedule.

Common mistake

Copying the paper’s description of the herd instead of saying what a hierarchy or ritualised fighting is. NZQA’s 2023 report says Not Achieved answers often did this.

How did it go?

Got it moves it further out. Review brings it back tomorrow.