Question

It turned out that the probability of a whelk breaking was the same for a whelk dropped for the first time as for an unbroken whelk dropped several times previously. If the probability of breaking instead increased, what change might you predict in the crow’s behavior?

Short answer

When the breaking probability of whelk increases, then the crow will take its flight to lower height to break open the whelk.

Step-by-step solution

Bird

The warm-blooded and egg-laying creature that adapts for flight to locomote in search of food like insects, eggs, and small mammals is called bird.

The anhinga, crow (Corvus), quail, chick, pigeon, hen, goose, turkey, guinea fowl, sulids, Columbidae, frogmouth, grebes, sandpiper, boobies, cuckoos, albatrosses, and hummingbird are several examples of birds.

The morphology of the crow (the black-colored passerine bird) includes forehead, crown, throat, iris, upper breast, tail, rump, nape, mantle, breast, leg, and lower underparts.

Snail

The small invertebrate with a soft body and spiral-shaped shell that resides in freshwater and consumed by predators like a crow is called a snail.

Examples of snails include achatinidae, marine snail-like whelk, pond snails, physidae, cassidae, olive snail, latia, apple snail, nudibranch, and moon snails.

The distinct features associated with snail are long life, hibernation, hermaphrodites, slow motion, soft foot, head, neck, and hard shell as a protective covering.

Crow’s behavior

The crows favor larger whelks with high calorific content; crows reduce their ascending flight when choosing their height of the drop. This provides them the advantage of utilizing less energy in repeatedly trying to break open larger whelks on the rock.

When crows fly to lower heights with increased chances of whelk breaking, this flight will require less energy expenditure to break open the whelk.