Transcript Relating to the Environment

Relating to the Environment
Adaptations and the
Environment
• What is an adaptation?
• What is the role of genes in
adaptation?
Adaptations
• An adaptation is a trait that enables an
organism to survive and reproduce in
its environment.
– Examples: mimicry and camouflage
Mimicry
• Monarch Butterfly
• Viceroy Butterfly
• Mimicry will allow for the survival of the
mimic because predators will confuse
the two animals. This will only work as
long as the mimic’s population stays
well below the numbers of the model.
– Remember the chocolate bugs!
Camouflage
• Camouflage allows
for the survival of a
particular species
because they will
blend into the
background making
it harder for
predators to find
them.
Reproductive Adaptations
Organisms have many adaptations that
help ensure that reproduction will take
place. For example, many flowers have
brightly colored petals or strong scents
that attract insects. The insects pick up
pollen, which contains sperm cells and
carry it to other flowers. This enables
the sperm in the pollen to fertilize an
egg in the second flower.
Inherited Traits and Survival
• Most adaptations are traits or
characteristics that offspring inherit
from their parents.
Porcupine
Pasque flower (see pg 599)
Adaptation and Environmental
Change
• If an organism’s environment changes,
the characteristics that it has inherited
help determine whether it can adapt to
the changed environment. For
example, if an organism has adapted a
very specialized diet in which it can eat
only one thing, then that organism will
not adapt to change easily.
• This is what has happened to the Giant
Panda. The forests that grow bamboo,
the panda’s only food, have partially
been destroyed. Since their food supply
has been
reduced the
numbers of Giant
Panda have
drastically
decreased.
Animal Behavior
• What are the functions of most of an
animal’s behaviors?
• How does instinctive behavior
compare with learned behavior?
Animal Behavior
• Most behaviors are characteristics that
help an animal survive or reproduce.
• Behaviors are caused by internal or
external stimuli.
• A stimulus is a signal that causes an
organism to react in some way. The
organism’s reaction to the stimulus is
called a response.
Sea Star Example from book
Page 601
• The sea star is
hungry (internal
stimulus.)
• The sea star finds
a clam.
• It pries the shell
open and then it eats the clam.
• This feeding behavior helps the sea star to
survive in the ocean environment.
Instinctive Behavior
• An instinct is a behavior pattern or
response that is inborn. For example,
a newborn kangaroo instinctively
crawls into its mother’s pouch and
attaches itself
to a nipple.
• Like learned behaviors, instinctive
behaviors are responses to stimuli.
• Earthworms, for example, instinctively
crawl away from a bright light. The
light is the stimulus, and the
earthworms respond by moving away.
Learning
• Learning is the process that leads to
changes in behavior based on practice
or experience.
• Unlike instincts, learned behaviors
result from an animal’s experience and
are not usually perfect the first time.
• There are three main types of learning.
– Conditioning, trial and error learning, and
insight learning.
Conditioning
• Learning to connect some kind of
stimulus with a good or bad event is
called conditioning.
Example: A dog sees its owner pick up a
leash and gets excited because he knows
that he will be going for a walk.
What do these stimuli mean to you?
1. a brief tone heard through the overhead
speaker
2. Ms. Kasem quietly raises her hand
Trial and Error Learning
• Trial and error learning occurs when
an animal, through repeated practice,
learns to perform a behavior more and
more skillfully.
Insight Learning
• When you solve a
problem or learn
how to do
something new by
applying what you
already know,
without a period of
trial and error, you
are using insight
learning.
Imprinting
• In imprinting, certain newly hatched
birds and newborn mammals learn to
recognize and follow the first moving
object they see, which is usually their
mother.
• Imprinting involves both instinctive
behavior and learning. The young
animal has an instinct to follow a
moving object, but it does not know
what its mother looks like.
• The newly born animal must learn from
experience what object to follow.
• Imprinting helps keep young close to
their mother for protection and food.
• Imprinting also enables animals to
learn what other animals of their own
species look like.
• Explain what functions behavior has
for animals
• Contrast instinctive behavior with
learned behavior.
• How is trial and error learning different
from insight learning?