Animal Behaviour

1. Animal Behaviour AP Campbell Chapter 51

2. Ethology – the study of animal behaviour under natural settings • Pioneered by Niko Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz ...contrast with... Behaviourism – the study of animal behaviour under laboratory settings

3. Explaining animal behaviours Tinbergen’s four questions: • What stimulus elicits the behaviour, and what physiological mechanisms mediate the response? • How does the animal’s experience during growth and development influence the response? • How does the behaviour aid survival and reproduction? • What is the behaviour’s evolutionary history?

4. Proximatecauses Ultimatecauses Explaining animal behaviours • How? What immediate mechanisms are responsible for the behaviour? • How behaviours are stimulated and produced • How the behaviour develops • innateness and experience • Why? What selective advantage has the behaviour provided? • How the behaviour promotes reproductive success • How the behaviour originated and has been changed over evolutionary time

5. Concept 15.1 Discrete sensory inputs can stimulate both simple and complex behaviours.

6. Fixed action patterns (FAPs) Innate and highly stereotypical behaviours • once initiated, they are carried out to completion • have well-defined stimuli

7. Example: Greylag goose’s egg-retrieval behaviour Goose will carry the behaviour to completion even if: • egg slips away • experimenter pulls away egg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUNZv-ByPkU

8. FAPs are triggered by something in the environment: a sign stimulus or releaser. Example • Stimulus for greylag goose egg retrieval: an egg-shaped object located near the nest • Goose will carry out behaviour with: • doorknob • golf ball • egg much too large

9. Example: Aggression in male three-spined stickleback fish Males defend their territory and will attack any males that enter their territory. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfcGZCGdGVE

10. Sign stimulus for aggression response is red colour. • Realism of model does not have an effect.

11. In regards to the aggression response in the sticklebacks, • What is the proximate cause of the aggressive response? • Suggest an ultimate cause for the response.

12. Oriented behaviours Environmental cues provide stimuli that organisms use to orient themselves. • Kinesis – Response is not directional. • e.g., increased movement in response to changes in humidity • Taxis – Response is directed, depends on location of stimulus. • e.g., some fish orient themselves to facetowards water currents

13. Rhythmic behaviours • Many animal behaviours display a circadianrhythm. • oscillating pattern of activity based on a 24-hour cycle • Rhythmic behaviours are controlled by a circadianclock within the body. • sensitive to signals about light and dark cycles

14. The biochemical mechanism has a geneticbasis, but receives input from the environment. Evidence for genetic basis: • Organisms can maintain some rhythmicity, even in the absence of environmental cues.

15. Human natural “free-running” circadian clock is on a 25-hour cycle. Light/darkness cues entrain rhythm to a 24-hour cycle.

16. Circannualrhythms: Display yearly cycles • migration patterns • mating cycles • hibernation patterns Underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. • genetic basis + environmental input

17. Migration: A regular, long-distance change in location • Common amongbirds and fishes • Orientation cues: • celestial bodies • magnetic field Monarch migration http://youtu.be/_-nnc6dWUJg

18. Why migrate? • Migration is costly: • energy consumption • loss of life • Potential benefit: • resource availability • Proximate cause:Changing seasonal patterns • Ultimate cause: • Benefit of resource availability outweighs potential and realized costs

19. Communication Stimuli transmitted between organisms are called signals (a.k.adisplays). The signal can change the behaviour in another organism. Communication is the transmission of signals.

20. Aphid alarm pheromone http://youtu.be/UhpAxt2XSBQ Cicada http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjLiWy2nT7U Four forms of communication: • chemical (pheromones) • visual • auditory • tactile Fruit fly courtship http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXXqQ2zJVMA

21. Honey bees use the “waggle dance” to signal the location of food sources http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7ijI-g4jHg&feature=related

22. Primary form of communication is usually related to the organism’s lifestyle. nocturnal animals • olfactory, auditory diurnal animals • visual

23. Summary Environmental stimuli interact with genetically-programmed responses to produce behaviours. • Fixed action patterns are innate stereotypical responses to simple stimuli. • Oriented movements such as kinesis, taxis, and migration require response to environmental cues. • Circadian and circannual rhythms are entrained by environmental inputs. • Communication is important for relaying messages among individuals.

24. Homework Complete Chapter 51 Reading Guide (Concept 51.1) Complete applicable terms on vocabulary sheet Tomorrow... Further exploration of proximate causation: • How does experience influence the development of behaviours?