Transcript Quick Tour Through Animal Behavior

Quick Tour Through Animal
Behavior
Like I said in class (sorry juniors – you
were taking the ACT)
Behavioral ecology is my true love when it
comes to biology. If I could have figured out
how to make a living and make a positive impact
on the world by pursuing this area, I would have.
So it breaks my heart a little to know that I can’t
spend the kind of time on this topic that I would
like…
• But due to time constraints, we need to move
quickly and effectively through the AP
standards that cover this area…

The transition
• Realize that animal behaviors are responses
made by organisms…responses to stimuli
detected by nerves.
• And those responses are the result of
signaling cascades.
• 
Chapter 43
– Behavior: any action that can be observed and
described
– Behavioral ecology: studies how behavior is
controlled, how it develops, evolves, and
contributes to survival and reproductive success.
Take a prairie dog for example…
• Prairie dogs live in colonies (called towns)
• When a predator is sighted, a prairie dog will
stand on top of its mound and start vocalizing
(give an alarm call)
• Essentially, alerting the predator to its
presence and exact location.
• Why would an individual do this? This
behavior seems counterintuitive…
Behavioral Ecologists design
experiments to test hypotheses
• http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/b
oa_ambushesrat?source=relatedvideo
• So why do they do it?
• How does it increase the fitness of the
individual?
• Sacrificing yourself “for the good of the group”
(altruism) does not work as an explanation
unless there are genetic relationships…and
strong ones at that…
AP Standard:
• Natural selection favors innate and learned
behaviors that increase survival and
reproductive fitness.
Innate behavior
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What you are born knowing how to do
developmentally fixed
under strong genetic control
Exhibited in the same form in a population despite
external and internal environmental differences
Examples:
• Kinesis: change in activity in response to a
stimulus
• Taxis: automatic, oriented movement toward
or away from some stimulus
• Migration: timing specifically seems to be
under genetic control – the “where to” seems
to be learned
learning
• Behavioral change resulting from experience
• Examples:
– Habituation
– Spatial learning
– Trial and error
– Conditioning
Back to the standard…
• Organisms are going to behave in ways that
favored by natural selection
– Benefits MUST outweigh the costs
– Sometimes its not so obvious…
AP standard
• Cooperative behavior tends to increase the
fitness of the individual and the survival of the
population.
– Benefits must outweigh costs
Pack Behavior
• http://www.discovery.com/tvshows/life/videos/cheetahs-hunt-ostrich/
– Benefits?
Predator Warning
• http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/wildkingdom/videos/prairie-dogs-sound-thealarm/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcB5kySU
xWA
– Benefits?
Herds, flocks, and schools
• What’s the benefit?
Swarming Behavior
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Sw
arm
• http://io9.com/this-video-of-a-honeybeeswarm-reveals-why-humans-cant-1522411422
– This article highlights bee social structure
AP standard
• Living systems have a variety of signal
behaviors or cues that produce changes in the
behavior of other organisms and can result in
differential reproductive success
Example: territorial marking
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ebTTQo
AmDU
• Lions mark territory with scent and
vocalizations
• Interspecific (with hyenas and leopards) and
intraspecific (with neighboring lion prides)
competition deterred
What is this elephant saying?
• How does this behavior improve the success
of this elephant?
AP Standard
• Animals use visual, audible, tactile, electrical
and chemical signals to indicate dominance,
find food, establish territory and ensure
reproductive success.
examples
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Bee dances (tactile – for finding food)
Fireflies (visual – for mating)
Bird songs (territory and mating)
Territorial marking (scents and vocals)
Pack behavior (dominance vs submissive displays)
Rutting season (competition/sexual selection)
– Animal Minds Video: we watched in class 3/3
– http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/inside-animalminds.html