Animal Behavior Notes!

Behavior

• What an animal does & How an animal does it!

• Think of all of the behaviors of your pet...or a friends’ pet. List them and classify them as either being genetically “innate” or learned.

Behavioral Ecology

• Behavioral Ecology emphasizes evolutionary hypothesis.

• Based on the fact that animals will act in a way that will increase their Darwinian fitness. What does “fitness” refer to in Darwinian terms?

What questions can we ask?• Proximate causes– immediate stimulus & mechanism– “how” & “what” questions

• Ultimate causes– evolutionary significance– how does behavior

contribute to survival & reproduction• adaptive value

– “why” questions

male songbird what triggers

singing? how does he sing? why does he sing?

male songbird what triggers

singing? how does he sing? why does he sing?

how does daylength influence breeding?

why do cranes breed in spring?

how does daylength influence breeding?

why do cranes breed in spring?

Courtship behavior in cranes

what,…how… & why questions

Courtship behavior in cranes

what,…how… & why questions

P & E Practice

• Human Sweet-tooth• Sonar Clicks in Bats

ETHOLOGY

Pioneers in the Study of An. BehaviorKarl von Frisch Niko Tinbergen Konrad Lorenz

Two Classifications of Behavior – Who cares???

• ADAPTIVE ADVANTAGE1. innate behaviors • automatic, fixed, “built-in”, no “learning

curve”• despite different environments,

all individuals exhibit the behavior• ex. early survival, reproduction, kinesis, taxis

2. learned behaviors• modified by experience• variable, changeable • flexible with a complex & changing

environment

Innate behaviors• Fixed action patterns (FAP)

– sequence of behaviors essentially unchangeable & usually conducted to completion once started

– sign stimulus• the releaser that triggers a

FAP

Innate: Fixed Action Patterns (FAP)

Do humans exhibit Fixed Action Patterns?

Digger wasp

egg rolling in geese

Innate: Directed movements

Innate: Migration

Innate & Learned Behavior: Imprinting

Who???

I & L: Imprinting

CRITICAL PERIOD

Learned Behavior

• Associative learning– learning to associate

a stimulus with a consequence

Operant Conditioning

Classical Conditioning

Learning: Habituation

Learning: Problem-solving

• Do other animals reason?

crow

Social Behavior

• Communication/Language• Agonistic Behaviors• Dominance Hierarchy• Cooperation• Altruistic Behavior

a. Language

Communication by song

Communication by scent

Female mosquito use CO2 concentrations to locate victims

Spider using moth sex pheromones, as allomones, to lure its prey

b. Agonistic behaviors

Lizard Behavior

c. Dominance hierarchy

d. Cooperation

e. Altruistic Behavior

kin selection• increasing survival of close relatives

passes these genes on to the next generation

How can this be of adaptive value? Warning Calls