Imagine that 4 years from now you are snorkeling in the Bahamas near a mangrove and as you go around a corner, you witness a female lemon shark giving birth to pups. You are so amazed watching this, that you don't notice a tiger shark swimming past you until it starts to go after the newborn lemon sharks as food. At this point, 3 other female lemon sharks that are not giving birth fight with and eventually chase off the tiger shark.
After you start breathing again and thinking how no one will believe what you just witnessed, you think back to BS 162 and remember that according to behavioral ecologists, the goal of any individual organism should be to maximize fitness.
1. What are two possible explanations for the behavior of the 3 other female lemon sharks? How could chasing off a large tiger shark increase their fitness?
2. How could you test or differentiate between the two explanations in part 6a?