A researcher found that the likelihood that a duckling would imprint depended on its age. After hatching, ducklings were kept isolated for different lengths of time and then placed with an adult duck. The imprinting data appear in this table.

Question

Question 1
At what age is a duckling most likely to imprint?(1 point)
Responses

15 hours
15 hours

18 hours
18 hours

24 hours
24 hours

2 hours
2 hours
Question 2
In a natural setting, all the eggs in a duck nest usually hatch within a few hours. Shortly after all the ducklings have hatched, and periodically thereafter, the mother duck will lead them all to a food source and then back to the nest to rest. Given this situation, which ducklings are most likely to imprint on their mother?(1 point)
Responses

Only those that are over one day old
Only those that are over one day old

Only those that are less than 6 hrs old
Only those that are less than 6 hrs old

All ducklings will eventually imprint because of the repeated activity during the critical period
All ducklings will eventually imprint because of the repeated activity during the critical period

Only those that are 10-18 hrs will successfully imprint.

Answer 1

For Question 1, based on the provided information that different ages affect the imprinting likelihood of ducklings, the correct answer would be the age at which they are most likely to imprint. While I don't have access to the specific data table, it's common in studies of imprinting in ducklings to find that the optimal age often falls within a certain range. If we go by known research, ducklings tend to imprint most effectively around 15-18 hours after hatching. Thus, you would select 15 hours or 18 hours depending on the exact data.

For Question 2, in a natural setting where ducklings hatch around the same time and are frequently led by their mother to feed and back, the likely answer would be that all ducklings will eventually imprint because of the repeated activity during the critical period. This implies that the regular interaction with their mother will help facilitate imprinting for all ducklings, even those younger than the most optimal ages.

So, the responses are:

1. 15 hours or 18 hours (depending on data).
2. All ducklings will eventually imprint because of the repeated activity during the critical period.