Transcript Animal Behavior

The quiz
 Ch 54: Community Ecology – help, harm, no effect
 Mimicry
 Trophic pyramid, energy transfer, food webs
 Keystone, engineers, all vocabulary
 Ecological succession
 Ch 55: Ecosystems: Trophic levels, primary production, The cycles,
bioremediation, biological restoration
 Ch 56: Endangered and Threatened, Invasive Species, Habitat Loss,
Overharvesting, Global change, biomagnification, eutrophication,
greenhouse effect, ozone depletion, sustainable
Chapter 51
Animal Behavior
HW: How do females
choose a mate? Article
with questions
Quiz Tmrw – Community
Ecology, Ecosystems,
Conservation, Restoration,
Human Impact, Climate
Change
Will post powerpoint and
behavior video links under class
page > resources.
Ch. 51 Warm-Up
Definitions
1. Term: A behavior that you have learned by watching someone
else.
2. List the 4 modes of animal communication.
3. Term: Very small mallard chicks following their mother.
4. What do you think is the advantage for a species to
be: Monogamous? Polygamous?
5. Describe an example of when you have participated in
reciprocal altruism.
Morality in Animals
You Must Know:
• How behaviors are the result of natural selection
• How innate and learned behaviors increase survival and
reproductive fitness
• How organisms use communication to increase fitness
• The role of altruism and inclusive fitness in kin selection
Introduction
 Ethology:
study of animal behavior
 Behavior: what an animal does and how it does it
 Both genetic & environmental factors
 Controlled by nervous system
 Essential for survival and reproduction
 Homeostasis
 Subject to natural selection over time
Sensory Inputs Stimulate Behaviors
Understanding behavior
 Proximate cause: “how” a behavior occurs or is
modified, internal/external signals
 Ultimate cause: “why” a behavior in context of natural
selection, evolution, selective advantage
1. What are the genetic/developmental mechanisms? (Proximate cause)
2. What are the anatomical/physiological mechanisms? (Proximate cause)
3. What historical pathways led to the current behavioral trait? (Ultimate
cause)
4. What selective processes shaped the behavioral trait? (Ultimate cause)
Bird Migration
Proximate – changes in daylight, hormone levels
Ultimate - Migration for the bird means that it has a selective
advantage over birds that don't, selected for over time, could be due
to long term climate changes, glaciation, disease, taking advantage of
food sources, etc.
Innate behaviors: developmentally fixed
and are not learned
Fixed action patterns (FAPs): sequence
of unlearned acts that are
unchangeable and usually carried to
completion
• Triggered by sign stimulus
• Ensures that activities essential to
survival are performed correctly
without practice
• Eg. goose & egg
BEHAVIOR: A male stickleback fish attacks other male
sticklebacks that invade its nesting territory.
PROXIMATE CAUSE: The red belly of the intruding male acts as
a sign stimulus that releases aggression in a male stickleback.
ULTIMATE CAUSE: By chasing away other male sticklebacks,
a male decreases the chance that eggs laid in his nesting
territory will be fertilized by another male.
Directed Movements
 Kinesis: simple change in activity or turning rate in response
to a stimulus
Kinesis increases the chance that a sow bug will encounter and stay
in a moist environment.
 Taxis: automatic movement, oriented movement +/- from
stimulus (eg. phototaxis, chemotaxis, geotaxis)
Positive rheotaxis keeps trout facing into the current, the direction
from which most food comes.
Ant Colonies
Migration
 Regular, long-distance change in location
 Environmental cues: sun, stars, earth’s magnetic
field, landmarks
Circadian Rhythm: internal biological clock
The circadian clock in the hamster brain signals a
change in coat color according to season by releasing
the hormone melatonin.
The Suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) region is located in
the hypothalamus of the brain. The SCN sends signals
throughout the body in response to dark and light.
 More on Clock Genes:
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/inheritance/clockgenes/
Plants can have two
internal clocks: one
sensitive to light and
the other sensitive to
temperature
Forms of Animal Communication
Signal: stimulus that causes a change in
behavior; basis of animal communication
 Pheromones – chemicals emitted by members of one species that
affect other members of the species (eg. Queen bee, fruit fly, fish,
termites, trees, humans)
 Visual signals – eg. Warning flash of white of a mockingbird's wing
 Tactile (touch) – eg. Male fruit fly taps female fly
 Auditory signals – screech of blue jay or song of warbler
Courtship behavior of fruit flies
Pheromones:
Sweaty T-Shirt Experiment
 When a minnow or catfish is injured
 An alarm substance in the fish’s skin disperses in the water, inducing a
fright response among fish in the area
(a) Minnows are widely dispersed in an aquarium
before an alarm substance is introduced.
Figure 51.9a, b
(b) Within seconds of the alarm substance being introduced,
minnows aggregate near the
bottom of the aquarium and reduce their movement.
Honeybee dance
language
 Used to inform other bees
about distance and
direction of travel to food
sources
HoneyBee Waggle Dance
Fruit Fly: Uses many forms of
communication
Animals communicate, but do they
have a language?
Beluga Whale Mimics Human Speech
Learning links behaviors and
experiences.
Learned behaviors: behaviors that are
modified based on specific experiences
Types of Learning
1. Habituation: loss of responsiveness to
stimuli that convey little or no
information
 Simple form of learning
2. Imprinting: learning + innate
components
 Limited to sensitive period in
life, generally irreversible
 ie. Lorenz’ imprinting in greylag
geese
BEHAVIOR: Young geese follow and imprint on their mother.
PROXIMATE CAUSE: During an early, critical developmental
stage, the young geese observe their mother moving away
from them and calling.
ULTIMATE CAUSE: On average, geese that follow and
imprint on their mother receive more care and learn
necessary skills, and thus have a greater chance of
surviving than those that do not follow their mother.
• Captive breeding programs for endangered
species must provide proper imprinting
models
Pilot wearing crane suit acts as a surrogate parent to teach young
whooping cranes a migration route
3. Spatial Learning
 Cognitive Map: internal representation of spatial
relationship among objects in an animal’s
surroundings (Increases fitness)
Female digger wasp: Covers hole with
sand, Flies directly to it
Birds use spatial maps to relocate
nut caches
Some organisms move
in response to a
recognized object or
environmental cue, a
landmark.
Nest
No nest
Nest
4. Associative Learning: ability to associate one stimulus
with another (eg. monarchs = foul taste)
A. Classical conditioning: arbitrary stimulus associated with
particular outcome (eg. Pavlov’s dogs: salivate with
ringing bell) EX: Pavlov’s dogs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhqumfpxuzI
Classical Conditioning in The Office on Vimeo
B. Operant conditioning: another type of associative learning
 Trial-and-error learning
 Associate its own behavior with reward or punishment
5. Cognition: process of knowing that involves awareness,
reasoning, recollection, judgment
 Problem-solving behavior relies on cognition
6. Social learning: learning by observing others
Vervet monkeys learning
correct use of alarm
calls.
Social Learning Forms Culture
 Social learning and teaching that influences behavior
 Cultural transfer of information can alter behavior and fitness
 Influences our brain function and structure
 Language has the biggest impact
 There is no better or worse human culture.
 Emulate the noblest aspects of every culture and try to learn
 The benefits to brain development or reproduction (survival) would surely
be just as great in exploring others' ways of life as immersing oneself in a
single nation's or group's traditions
Examples of learned animal behavior
 Nut-cracking crow (2:16)
 TED Talk: Amazing intelligence of crows (11:34)
 Chimpanzee problem solving (1:02)
 Chimpanzee problem solving by cooperation (2:14)
 The Morals of Monkeys (16:52)
Selection for survival and
reproductive success can explain
diverse behaviors
Foraging: food-obtaining behavior
 Recognize, search for, capturing, and consuming food
 Minimize costs / Maximize benefits
Forgaging:
Costs and Benefits can help to explain WHY
Shows the
average number
of drops required
to break whelks
from various
platforms.
Mating Behavior & Mate Choice
 Sexual selection: seeking and
attracting mates, choosing and
competing for mates
Promiscuous
Monogamous
Polygamous
(polygynous)
Polyandry
Partners
Many
One
1 M + many F
1F + many M
Structure
Showy
Similar
Showy male
Showy female
Care
None
Much
Male = little
Male = none
Courting Rituals
 Birds of Paradise
 Australian Bowerbird
 Rainbow Courtship
 Begging for Love
 Out of your league?
Ornaments
correlate in
general with
health and
vitality
Agonistic behavior: threats, rituals, and sometimes
combat; settles disputes over resources (mates)
Behaviors can be directed by genes
 Certain behaviors in prairie voles
are under relatively strong genetic
control
 ADH (vasopressin) triggers pairbond formation and aggression by
male voles
 Differences in oxytocin (a hormone) receptors in 2
species of voles
 Monogamous prairie voles vs. promiscuous montane
voles
High oxytocin levels in
prairie voles
Low oxytocin levels in
montane voles
Altruistic social behavior
 Altruism = selfless behavior
 Reduce individual fitness but increase fitness of others in
population
 i.e. bee societies; naked mole rats
 Inclusive fitness: total effect of producing own offspring (pass
on genes) + helping close relatives
 Kin selection: type of natural selection; altruistic behavior
enhances reproductive success of relatives
What does this mean? Explain.
 Geneticist J.B.S. Haldane: “I won’t lay down my life for one
brother, but I would lay down my life for two brothers or
eight cousins.”
Review Question
Natural selection favors behaviors that increase survival
and reproductive behaviors. For each of the following types
of behaviors, describe an example in nature, and justify
how this behavior is adaptive.
(a) Innate behavior
(b) Learned behavior
(c) Cooperative behavior
(d) Chemical signals
Did you get it?
 If an egg rolls out of the nest, a mother grayleg goose will
retrieve it by nudging with her beak and head. IF researchers
remove the egg or substitute a ball during this process, the
goose will not alter her response. What type of behavior is
this? Suggest a proximate and an ultimate explanation.
Class is only 60 minutes today!!
 Please grab:
 Poster Directions, Sample Poster Sheet, Rubric
 Over on Lab Bench #1
 When your entire group (4 people) has arrived – you can start.
 I will check the pre-lab questions while you are working.
 Each group takes a minimum of 5 pillbugs (max of ten)
 Each group needs an experimental hypothesis and null hypothesis.
 Today: Plan and Execute
 Tomorrow: Poster
Gobble. Gobble.
Agenda:
1. FRQ Practice 1-4
Reminder to study!
Use your notes, old quizzes, math practice, podcasts and
Learnerator.
Test on November 30th