An Introduction to Animal BehaviorBy

Essam M. AbdelfattahBSc., MSc., PhD

EthologyAnimal Behavior

• Scientific study of animal behavior in their natural or usual environment

• Study of habits and customs of animals• Founders of this study = famous behaviorists

Lorenz and Tinbergen• Earned Nobel Peace Prize in 1973 for their work• Big Theory = Animal’s behavior evolved through

the animal’s interaction with its environment

What is animal behavior?

• Behavior: is the way in which animal interact with its surrounding environment, both– Animate Environment= (humans, other animals,

plants)– Inanimate Environment= (objects, places, sun, air)

• All acts performed by animals (feeding, drinking, fighting, etc..

• Response of animal to a certain stimulus

Aim of ethology (7 T)1. To find and establish the optimum environmental

condition2. To know what is going within the animal mind and

understand the body language3. To diagnose disease (normal Vs. abnormal)4. To examine and treat animals (how to handle

animals)1. Select method of restraint acc. To behavior of animal

5. To achieve animal reproduction and raise livestock (sexual and maternal behavior)

6. To achieve animal welfare which will lead to high performance and production

7. To know the actual causes which induce the behavioral disorders or vices

Behavior and animal production• An understanding of the behavior of livestock

will facilitate handling, reduce stress, and improve both handler safety and animal welfare. Large animals can seriously injure handlers and/or themselves if they become excited or agitated.

• Stockman, farm manager, animal transporter, and designer of animal houses have to be aware of farm animal behavioral informations

• Feeding behavior: – what is the type and amount of food that animal

need, feed conversion efficiency, control of feeding

• Reproductive behavior:– Successful mating– Survival of young animals

• Social behavior– Knowledge of floor space and stocking density are

important for animal production

Behavior and veterinary medicine• Knowledge of behavior is important for handling

and restraint of animals for surgeon• Diagnosis of diseases: change in behavior is first

signs of disease (loss of appetite, altered activity, loss of grooming)– E.g. horse suffering from colic

• Diagnosis and treatment of different behavioral problems in pets (behavioral therapy)– Examples include pets with unacceptable elimination

behaviors or are aggressive to people or other animals.

How is behavior determined?

• Is behavior inborn (instinctive) and predetermined?

• Or is it a function of learning and the environment?

Nature (biology) vs. Nurture (environment)?

How is behavior determined?

Both!

Behavior is a blend of innate behavior (inherited) and acquired (learned) behavior`

Classification of animal behavior

1. Inherited behavior (innate, unlearned, instinctive, native)– Important for survival and conservation of species

2. Acquired behavior (learned)– Adopt useful method for survival within their

environment

Inherited behavior• Includes two types:1.Behavior of maintenance– Constant behavioral patterns needed to

maintain animal life (self-maintenance) such as ingestion, elimination, rest and sleep

2.Reproductive behavior– Behavioral patterns occurring during

reproduction needed to maintain animal species– Sexual behavior– Maternal behavior

Maintenance behaviors• Ingestive behavior:• Related to anatomy and physiology of each species

(prehension)• Related to nature of food (herbivorous, carnivores,

omnivorous)• Including feeding (ingestion of solid feed), drinking (ingestion

of water and milk)• Understanding of ingestive behavior (how to search for, to

locate and to ingest food) is critical to animal production.– Horse = cropping by incisors– Cattle = eating by tongue– Sheep and goat = incisors and lips– Dog = gulping the food

Eliminative behavior• Evacuation of faces (defecation) and urine (urination)• Posture or stance of elimination differ between

species,– Horse: following defecation turn and smell the spot– Cattle: raising of tail and arching of back– Dog: raising one leg and urinate to substrate– Cats: toilet behavior– Birds: defecate by leaning forward, raising the tail and

spreading the feather• differ between sexes, – Male dog cock one leg and urinate while females usually

squat• Differ with social status: increase with fear

Grooming behavior (body care)• Including: – Care of the body (natural grooming)– Thermoregulation (regulate body temperature)

• Self-Grooming (Auto-grooming)= animal take care of its own body through licking and rubbing (parts that can reach)– Body licking, nose licking, rolling, scratching

• Function– Keep body clean (One good indicator of general health) – Free from ecto-parasites– Free from foreign objects (faces, urine, mud)– Reduce risk of diseases

• Mutual grooming (social or allo-grooming)• One animal take care of another animal

(herdmates)• Function (biological and social):– Remove ecto-parasites from parts that animal can not

reach– Take care of wounds– Reward for the groomer (obtain salt and vitamin D)– Promote and cement relationship between individuals– Reduce aggression and tension– Maintain social structure

Reproductive behaviors• The activities or actions during reproduction includes:• Sexual behavior:• Male sexual behavior

– Pre-copulatory (courtship/libido)– Copulatory (erection, mounting, ejaculation, dismounting)– Post-copulatory (quiet period, flehmen response)

• Female sexual behavior – Estrous cycle (length, type, signs)

– Ovulation (type, time)– Best time of mating

• Maternal behavior (care-giving behavior, Epimeletic, attentive)

Maternal behavior (Epimeletic)• Feeding and keeping of the offspring from danger by

dam (female) which is important for survival of animal• Pre-parturient– signs approaching parturition– Nest-building (rabbits)– Isolation and shelter-seeking (sheep)

• Parturient (stages of birth)• Post parturient– Licking behavior (maternal licking and imprinting)– Sucking behavior – Brooding in chickens

• Low maternal behavior (rabbit)• High maternal behavior (dog)• Maternal behavior is innate behavior however

experience play a role• Factors influence the expression of maternal

behavior:• Internal factors– Hereditary (gene expression)– Hormones (Prolactine)– Experience

• External factors– Smell, sound, and appearance of newborn

Two classes of maternal behavior

• Polytocous species (dog, cat, rabbits, mice, rat)– Altracious young– Young entirely depend on mother

• Monotocus species (horse, cattle, camel, sheep)– Precocious young– Low maternal behavior

Types of embryos• Precocial: when newly born resemble adult

and can feed, move and defend themselves e.g. Lamb of sheep.

• Altricial: when are helpless without parent can’t survive e.g. mice, rats, dogs.

• Precocial Altricial

• Paternal behavior: in which both parents (male and female) take care offspring equally

• E.g. many species of birds (pigeon) and fish (take care of egg and fries)

• Male parental behavior: in which male take care offspring – Not common in animals (primates)– Common in birds (dark eye junco)

Care soliciting behavior (Et-epimeletic)• Care-soliciting behavior is a variety of behavioral

activities manifested to solicit attention, care, or help from other individuals. For example, some dogs exhibit this behavior during thunderstorms unnecessarily to get 'love' from owners.

• Usually manifested by young animals so called ‘’ infantile behavior’’ when was under stress or danger (distress call)– Chicks……….. Chirp– Calves…………bawl– Lambs………..bleat– Puppies………whine or yelp

Agonistic behavior• Aggression: a physical act or threat of action by an

individual which cause pain or injury or reduce freedom of another individual

• Agonistic behavior: any behavior associated with threat, attack or defense (escape, passivity, aggression)

• Function of aggression in animal life:– To obtain food– To facilitate access to another sex– To establish social dominance– To win territory– To protect their young

Types of aggression• Social aggression– who will be dominant over whom– To form peck order (social hierarchy)– Type of social grouping

• Territorial aggression– Keep animals out of home area

• Pain or fear- induced aggression– Treatment of abscess

• Irritable aggression– Hungary, fatigued, sick, old animals

• Maternal aggression– To protect young and equal to male attack

• Sexual aggression– Competition between animals of same species to obtain a

sexual partner– In some species such as the cat, mating accompanied with

aggression

• Predatory aggression– Food-getting behavior– Some animals attack to obtain food

• Infanticide– Killing of very young animals by adult– Female rodents kill pups– Rabbits eating their young

Allelomimetic behavior (mimesis, contagious, gregarious or mimetic)• In which two or more animals do the same

thing at the same with some degree of mutual stimulation and coordination.

• Beneficial: – maintain social group and provide safety– Encourage feeding behavior

• Harmful:– Spread of vices between members of group

Shelter-seeking behavior

• Looking for optimum environmental condition to avoid predators

• Some animals find shelter from bodies of other animals

• Other animals find shelter within farm, barn or from objects like trees

• Thermoregulation

Exploratory behavior (investigatory behavior)

• Explore their environment to obtain information for survival by using sense organs

• Differ between species and individuals• Allow time for investigation in new area

• Signaling between one animal & another– Greeting e.g. sniff, hug, kiss– Aggression e.g. charge, bite, hit, fight– Non-aggression e.g. patting, head butting, stroking

• Verbal signaling (vocalization)– E.g. bark, howl, hoot, chirp

• Non-verbal signaling• E.g. body, head, ear, & / or tail position• Showing teeth, smiling, sign language

Motivation (motivated behaviors)• Behavior of maintenance and reproductive behavior

related to what is called motivation• Motivation: the internal state of animal that causes

the immediate behavioral response• Each organism born have a variety of biological needs• Need: something that is required physiologically e. g.

need for food, water, sex• When the need is not satisfied, the drive is aroused

• The drive: is psychological consequence of need

• Once the animal in high drive state (motivated), the animal start to move

• So we can observe 3 stages in animal’s behavior:

1.The searching phase (Appetitive behavior)2.Consumatory behavior (achievement of the

goal)3.Phase of quiescence (satiation)

• Need– Hunger– Thirst– Sexual drive

• Goal– Food– Water– Other sex

Acquired behaviors

• Domestic animals have ability to learn• They adopt new useful methods for survival

within their environment• Animals acquire many behavioral patterns

through learning• Learning– Development of behavior through experience– Determine final shape of innate behaviors– 7 types of learning

Types of learning• Habituation• Is waning of a new response to a repeated stimulus• Simplest form of learning• Occur rapidly if stimuli are given close together• Importance of habituation– Filtering large amounts of information received from

surrounding environment– Waning of the responses of farm animals to handling

procedures and housing conditions

• Animal learns to ignore frequent, harmless stimulus• E.g scarecrow, habituation to observer

• Associative learning• Animal learns to associate unrelated response with a

stimulus• Two types of associative learning:• Classical conditioning (CR type I, Pavlovian

conditioning)• In which animal associate a response with a certain

stimulus as a result of reinforcement• E.g. Pavlov’s experiments– Bell ringing, food, salivation– Bell ringing salivation (even if no food is given)

Pavlov’s experiment

How dog training works

Reinforcement• In conditioning animals modify their behavior in such

way to obtain maximum reward and avoid punishment

• Positive reinforcement…. Giving animal favorite food• Negative reinforcement…. Punishment

• Classical conditioning– E.g. 1. suckling by calf, squeezing of teat

release of oxytocine– 2. Jangling of milking equipments, sight of calf

release of oxytocine

Operant conditioning (CR type II, trail and error)

• In which animal learn to behave in a certain way through repeated practice

• Trail & error learning- animal tests conditions for desired response

• In which animal is motivated by thirst, hunger, fear but no UCS

• E.g. Skinner box (B.F. Skinner)• Animal learns that a behavior gets a certain response– E.g. rat presses lever to get food

Operant conditioning

• Because the animal uses behavior as instrument in getting a reward, it is usually called instrumental conditioning

• Operant used because the animal response in some way operates on the environment

Reinforcement• Positive reinforcement– Used for strengthens a response– Giving animals favored food e.g. grains

• Negative reinforcement– Used for removing unwanted response– Punishment such as hitting

Imprinting• Definition:• A process that occurs when an animal learns

to make a particular response to only type of animal or object

• Both innate and learned• Occurs during a definite critical time period

(within first 36 hr)• Irreversible (once learned, can’t be changed)• Conard Lorenz with duckling

Imprinting

• Animals learn to follow their mothers just after parturition or hatching (attachment behavior)

• Lambs and colts are most ones can be imprinted to other animal, human, objects

Insight learning (Reasoning)• Highest form of learning• The immediate understanding, and response

to new situation without trail and error• Was identified by Wolfgang kohler while

studying the behavior of chimpanzee• Insight learning is the abrupt realization of a

problem's solution• insight learning is often at the root of creative,

out of the box, thinking (Inventions and innovations)

• Insight learning is considered a type of learning because it results in a long-lasting change. Following the occurrence of insight, the realization of how to solve the problem can be repeated in future similar situations

Imitation (observational learning)• Animal learns by observing another animal• Albert Bandura, a Canadian-born psychologist,

gets credit for developing and popularizing observational learning theory

• observational learning can be understood via four distinct concepts:

• attention, retention, motor reproduction, and reinforcement

Taste aversion (bait shyness)• Taste aversion is a learned response to eating

spoiled or toxic food. When taste aversion takes place, you avoid eating the foods that made you ill. Taste aversion can be so powerful that sometimes you also avoid the foods that you associate with an illness, even if the food did not cause the illness

• Psychologists John Garcia and Robert Koelling studied taste aversion in 1966 while researching the effects of radiation on laboratory rats

Exploratory learning (latent)• Animals learn all characteristics of

surrounding environment and remember its landmarks

• Acquire new information about environment

Learning• Learning occurs in a variety of ways:– sometimes it is the result of direct observation of

another– other times, it is the result of experience through

personal interactions with the environment.– response to an environmental stimulus– as a result of trial and error– Kohler's theory of insight learning became an

early argument for the involvement of cognition, or thinking, in the process of learning.

Type of adaptation

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPKlryXwmXk