Transcript Animal Behavior Notes - Twanow

Animal Behavior
 Behavior
 What
an animal does and how it does it
 Influenced by genes and environment (“nature and
nurture”)
 Proximate and ultimate causes
Environmental
stimuli or underlying
genetics/physiology
Evolutionary
significance or
adaptive benefit
Innate Behavior
 Innate behavior
 Developmentally
fixed behaviors
 “Instincts”
 Example:
in cliff-dwelling birds, chicks turn away
from ledges
Innate Behavior
 How do animals “find their way?”
 Kinesis
 Change in activity in response to stimulus
 Example: sow bugs are more active in dry areas and less
active in moist areas
 Result:
Innate Behavior
 How do animals “find their way?”
 Kinesis
 Change in activity in response to stimulus
 Example: sow bugs are more active in dry areas and less
active in moist areas
 Result: sow bugs remain in moist habitats
Innate Behavior
 How do animals “find their way?”
 Kinesis
 Change in activity in response to stimulus
 Example: sow bugs are more active in dry areas and less
active in moist areas
 Result: sow bugs remain in moist habitats
 Taxis
 Automatic movement toward or away from stimulus
 Example: trout orient themselves facing upstream to avoid
being swept away
Learned Behavior
 Learning
 Modification
of behavior resulting from specific
experiences
 Example: young chimps learn to use sticks to collect
termites by watching adults
 Maturation
 Behavior changes because of development (brain and
muscle)
 Example: birds prevented from flying until maturity
will fly without awkward attempts of baby birds
Learned Behavior
 Habituation
 Loss
of responsiveness to common
stimuli
 Example: you no longer hear the
loud fish tank at the back of the
room!
 Imprinting
 Learning
that is restricted to a
certain time period
 Example: geese who spend their
first few hours with humans
identify humans as their species
Associative Learning
 Classical conditioning
 Animals
learn to associate a stimulus with
reward/punishment
 Example: Pavlov rang a bell before he fed his dogs;
they were conditioned to salivate at the sound of the
bell
 Operant conditioning
 Animals learn through
trial and error
(consequences)
 Example: coyotes learn to
avoid porcupines as prey
Social Behavior
 Cooperation
 Competition
 Agonistic
 Threatening
or submissive
behaviors/displays, part of
a “contest”
 Example: one dog bares its teeth, another
tucks its tail
 Reconciliation
 Example:
chimps comfort each other after
aggressive male behavior
Social Behavior
 Dominance hierarchies
 Alpha
(high-ranking) animal is assured access to
food, mates
 Territoriality
 Territories
are established and defended
 Mating behaviors
 Maximize
quantity or quality
of partners
 Examples: courtship
Social Behavior
 Communication
 Visual,
auditory, chemical, tactile, electrical signals
 Example: dance of the honeybees communicates
direction and distance of food sources
Social Behavior
 Altruism
 Unselfish
behavior – decreases individuals chance of
survival but increases survival of others
 Example: ground squirrel’s alarm call warns others,
but “caller” risks being killed
 Why?
Social Behavior
 Altruism
 Unselfish
behavior – decreases individuals chance of
survival but increases survival of others
 Example: ground squirrel’s alarm call warns others,
but “caller” risks being killed
 Why?
 Animals
can increases their genetic fitness by helping
close relatives and offspring that share their genes
 Often called “kin selection”
 Other animals may return the favor – this could be an
adaptive benefit