Transcript What is Behavior?

Chapter 51
Animal Behavior
What is Behavior?
• Behavior is what an animal does
and how it does it.
Ecology:
Interaction between organisms and the biotic and
abiotic environment
• Abiotic- non living; e.g., temperature, light,
dissolved gas, water
• Biotic- living; e.g., predators, prey, mates
Behavioral Ecology
The study of the behavior of organisms within an
evolutionary framework.
• e.g., communication, finding food,
protection from predators
Proximate causes
• External stimuli- changes in day
length and temp
• Internal stimuli - hormone levels
Winter plumage
Breeding plumage
Ultimate causes - address the evolutionary
significance for a behavior and why natural
selection favors this behavior.
• Why did a behavior evolve?
• Is it adaptive?
• Does it contribute to reproductive success?
Example: birds that migrate have a selective
advantage over birds that don't/didn't, selected
for over time, could be due to long term climate
changes, glaciation, disease, taking advantage
of food sources, etc.
A. Behavior - What an animal does and how it does it.
- some behavior is learned, some behavior is
inherited
B. To some extent ALL behavior has a Genetic Basis
1. some is totally genetic - which implies heritable
2. some is learned but relies ENTIRELY on
genetically based mechanisms
C. In general, behavior is a response to some
environmental stimulus
Innate Behaviors – inherited, instinctive
A. programmed by genes;
B. highly stereotyped (similar each time in
many individuals)
C. Four Categories
1. Kinesis
2. Taxis
3. Reflex
4. Fixed Action Pattern
1. Kinesis: "change the speed of random movement in
response to environmental stimulus“
2. Taxis: "a directed movement toward or away from a
stimulus; positive and negative taxes
3. Reflex: "movement of a body part in response to
stimulus".
4. Fixed Action Pattern (FAP): "stereotyped and often
complex series of movements, responses to a specific
stimulus", hardwired, however, not purely genetic, may
improve with experience
a. programmed response to a stimulus
b. stimulus of FAP = "releaser", sometimes called "sign
stimulus“
c. examples:
- courtship behavior
- rhythms - daily (circadian); annual (circannual)
• Many stream fish exhibit positive rheotaxis
– Where they automatically swim in an upstream
direction
Direction
of river
current
(b) Positive rheotaxis keeps trout facing into the current, the direction
from which most food comes.
Figure 51.7b
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p82L4i
• Ethology is the study of how animals behave
in their natural habitat.
– Karl von Frisch: bee communication
– Niko Tinbergen: herring gull experiment;
digger wasps
– Konrad Lorenz: imprint in geese
Karl Von Frisch- communication in bees
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7ijIg4jHg
Herring gull experiment by Niko
Tinbergen
Releaser Stimuli- stimuli that release FAP
E.g., Chick and red dot on gull parents beak
triggers feeding response- parent regurgitates
food
Laysan albatross feeding chick
Egg rolling behavior in geese is a Fixed Action
Pattern
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWcadcVB
XKU
Male three-spined stickleback shows
aggression at models with red undersides
Life-like model
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfcGZCGd
GVE
• Migration Behavior.
– Migration is the
regular movement
of animals over
relatively long
distances.
– Piloting: an animal
moves from one
familiar landmark
to another until it
reaches its
destination.
Whale Migration Routes
• The behavior is adaptive - signs that natural
selection is at work
a. survival may depend on behavior, learning
not an option (one chance only)
b. animals with simple NS may not have
capacity to learn
- not strictly true, "simple" animals learn
c. social interactions dependent on survival
require rigid performance of roles
mating rituals, termite mounds
Learning - Learned Behavior: Five Categories
A. Imprinting
1. a strong association learned during a specific
developmental period
a. "sensitive period" or "critical period"
b. imprinting of baby geese on mother - Lorenz
baby geese imprint on mother within hours of
hatching
will imprint on any object during that period
2. learning a releaser for an innate FAP
Goose imprinting by Conrad Lorenz
Geese imprint on the first moving (with sound) object that
they see after birth
There is a selection of a specific period of time (critical
period) for social attachment and mate recognition in
geese (to ensure geese imprint on the same species)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqZmW7uI
PW4
Imprinting in conservation biology:
Need to minimize/eliminate human
presence while raising California Condors
ps://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=imprinting+with+califor
ndors
B. Habituation
1. decline in response to a harmless,
repeated stimulus
filter - prevents animal from wasting
energy/attention on irrelevant stimuli
adaptive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNCIU3O76E
Niko Tinbergen
Hypothesis:
digger wasps use
visual landmarks
to keep track of
her nests
Move pine cones
C. Spatial
Learning-
Visual cue is
arrangement pattern
rather than objects
themselves
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFn4hCZ
D. Conditioning - laboratory setting
1. classical conditioning
animals make associations - Pavlov's dog associates bell
with food, begins to salivate, can be extinguished and later
followed by recovery (unconditioned stimulus - meat,
unconditioned response - salivation, conditioned stimulus bell, conditioned response - salivation)
animal learns to perform an "old" response to a new stimulus
Pavlov's dog
- place dried meat powder in dog mouth - salivation
- associate with bell - salivation to bell
Stimulus first, behavior second
(but of course there is an expectation of reward second)
•
Trial and Error Learning
– This is called trial-and-error learning - an
animal learns to associate one of its own
behaviors with a reward or a punishment.
Observational Learning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQwJXvlT
WDw Octopus opening jar with crab
Practice and exercise may explain the
ultimate bases of play
• Play as a behavior has no apparent external
goal, but may facilitate social development or
practice of certain behaviors and provide
exercise.
E. Insight, reasoning
1. manipulating concepts in the mind to arrive at
adaptive behavior
2. mental trial-and-error
3. internal memory stores are used as additional
sensory/information source
All examples of tool-using:
•
chickadees/tits and opening milk bottles
•
Egyptian Vulture - uses rocks
•
Cocos Finch - uses splinters of wood
•
North American Gulls, Northwestern Crow - smash
clams on sandy beaches
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4Tm9Qd
Sociobiology places social
behavior in an evolutionary context
• Social behavior is any kind of interaction
between two or more animals, usually of the
same species.
Orca and Weddell Seal
Orcas chasing Dusky Dolphin
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
Social Behavior in Vertebrates
A. Predator Avoidance Behavior
-mimicry
- schooling
B. Reproductive Behavior
-competition
-territoriality
- displays
C. Parental Behavior
D. Communication
E. Cooperative Behavior
-warning alarms
Competitive social behaviors often
represent contests for resources
• Sometimes
cooperation
occurs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3xmqbN
Fig. 51.18
sRSk
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Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
• Agonistic behavior is a contest involving
threats.
– Submissive behavior.
– Ritual: the use of symbolic activity.
– Generally, no harm is done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6Fx3C
aJhgk
Fig. 51.19
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6Fx3C
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• Reconciliation behavior often happens
between conflicting individuals.
Fig. 51.20
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
• Dominance hierarchies involve a ranking
of individuals in a group (a “pecking order”).
– Alpha, beta rankings exist.
• The alpha organisms control the behavior of
others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJvATG3
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
bHbo
• Territoriality is behavior where an individual
defends a particular area, called the
territory.
– Territories are typically used for feeding,
mating, and rearing young and are fixed in
location.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQI5KUf
Natural selection favors mating
behavior that maximizes the quantity
or quality of mating partners
• Courtship behavior consists of patterns that
lead to copulation and consists of a series of
displays and movements by the male or
female.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQI5KUf
M2xc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQI5KUf
Vogelkop Bowerbird
• Parental investment refers to the time and
resources expended for raising of offspring.
– It is generally lower in males
– Females usually invest more time into
parenting (fecundity, egg size, care of
offspring)
– Females are usually more discriminating in
terms of the males with whom they choose to
mate.
• Females look for more fit males (i.e., better genes),
the ultimate cause of the choice.
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
• Mating systems differ among species.
– Promiscuous: no strong bond pairs between
males and females.
– Monogamous: one male mating with one
female.
– Polygamous: an individual of one sex
mating with several of the other sex.
• Polygyny where a single male mates with many
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7jfemales.
fZQ0ok0
• Polyandry one female mates with several males.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7jfZQ0ok0
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– Pheromones are chemicals released by an
individual that bring about mating and other
behaviors.
• Examples include bees and ants.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcHt5n3
NGK0
Fig. 51.26
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The concept of inclusive fitness can
account for most altruistic behavior
• Most social behaviors
are selfish, so how do
we account for
behaviors that help
others?
– Altruism is defined
as behavior that
might
decrease individual
fitness, but increase
the fitness of others.
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
Fig. 51.28
Altruism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5DcOEzW
Fig. 51.29
1wA
Copyright © 2002
Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
– Inclusive fitness: How can a naked mole
rat enhance its fitness by helping other
members of the population?
• How is altruistic behavior maintained by
evolution?
• If related individuals help each other, they
are in affect helping keep their own genes in
the population.
• Inclusive fitness is defined as the affect an
individual has on proliferating its own genes
by reproducing and helping relatives raise
offspring.
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
– Kin selection is the mechanism of inclusive
fitness, where individuals help relatives
raise young.
– Reciprocal altruism, where an individual
aids other unrelated individuals without any
benefit, is rare, but sometimes seen in
primates (often in humans).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZTAW0v