Question 2: Discuss Excellence

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.

Discuss the behaviours that have led to the success of the herd.

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 Start from the explain answer: how do ritualised and full-contact fighting together make a strong herd?
Ritualised display settles almost every challenge without injury, so energy goes into survival and breeding rather than recovery. Full-contact fighting decides the few contests display cannot, so the fittest bull is king. The result is an orderly herd bred from fit fathers.
2 What does that give the king and the females?
The king fathers most calves, passing on his alleles. The females are protected and their calves have a fit father, so more calves survive: both gain reproductive success.
3 Why might a challenge still escalate?
When a scarce resource is at stake, or a lower-ranked bull is fit enough to try for the king’s place, neither will back down from display alone.
4 Why is that undesirable in this herd in particular?
The 40 to 60 animals are the entire world population, closed to outside breeding. A bull injured or killed loses his alleles from an already tiny gene pool, lowering variation and the herd’s survival and reproductive success.
5 So on balance?
Ritualised fighting keeps such losses rare while the hierarchy still lets only the fittest breed. That is why the herd has lasted: the behaviours increase its survival and reproductive success.

Answer Ritualised display settles almost every challenge without injury, so the bulls’ energy goes into surviving and breeding; full-contact fighting decides the few contests display cannot, so the fittest bull becomes king. The king then fathers most of the calves, passing on his alleles, and the females gain protection and calves with a fit father, so more calves survive: the hierarchy increases reproductive success for both. Challenges escalate when a scarce resource is at stake or a lower bull is fit enough to try for the king’s place. In this herd that is costly: its 40 to 60 animals are the whole world population, closed to outside breeding, so a bull injured or killed takes his alleles out of an already tiny gene pool, lowering variation, survival and reproductive success. Ritualised fighting keeps those losses rare while still letting only the fittest breed, which is why these behaviours have kept the herd successful.

What the marker wanted

Achieved The describe points: hierarchy, ritualised behaviour, the king’s and females’ advantages, intraspecific competition, when fights turn physical.
Merit Those explained: success for the king and the females, only the fittest breeding, ritualised fighting avoiding injury, the gene pool, and why escalation happens.
Excellence Discusses two things. First, both kinds of fighting, display and full contact, and how they make a strong herd, with more survival and reproductive success, including the advantages of the hierarchy for the females and the king. Second, why ritualised fighting may escalate, and why that is undesirable: an injury or death can take alleles out of a gene pool that is already tiny, lowering survival and reproductive success. One gives E7, both E8.

One answer, N0 to E8. Excellence points come last: one gives E7, both give E8.

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

Common mistake

Explaining the benefits to the king and the females, and both kinds of fighting, without relating them to survival and reproductive success. NZQA’s 2023 report says that is where Merit answers stopped.

How did it go?

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