Animal Behavior

1. Animal Behavior • Ethology – the study of the behavior of animals in their natural setting.

2. Awarded in 1973 to three men “for their discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behavior patterns.” Konrad Lorenz, Karl von Frisch and Nikolaas Tinbergen Most of their work is from the early-mid 1900’s. Nobel Prize in Ethology

3. Konrad Lorenz • Discovered imprinting (learning/instinct) in newly hatched ducklings and goslings*.

4. Nikolaas Tinbergen • Known for his work on instinct/learning and complex animal behaviors

5. Karl von Frisch • Karl von Frisch is known for two major discoveries about honey bees. • Demonstrated that honey bees have color vision. • Showed that honey bees use a dance language to communicate food locations to other bees*.

6. What is a behavior? A response to a stimulus that results from the interaction of an animal’s body systems. • Stimulus (=signal) carries information • Stimulus  results in a response (=behavior) Why do animals do the things they do?

7. Fully functional the first time the stimulus is received • Ex: Human infants • Stimulus – touch on cheek • Response – turns head in direction of touch and begins sucking response • Stimulus – sudden loss of support (infants under 4 months old) • Moro reflex – arms flung upwards* Innate or Instinctual Behavior (a reflex)

8. Reflex – brain does not play a role! • Stimulus travels to spinal cord and muscles respond Stimulus - Response * *

9. Stimulus: Example – Loud noise • Receptor: nerves able to detect the stimulus – Example – Ability to sense sound • Coordinating process: message travels from nerves to muscles • Effector: Muscle responds to stimulus • Response: Example - Animal is startled Stimulus Response: Summary - Reflex

10. Activity Observing Nervous Responses

11. Acquired behavior developed over time and through experience. • All learning occurs because of biochemical and structural changes in the brain. Learned Behavior

12. LEARNED BEHAVIOR An animal is able to learn because it has the Necessary genes to make the brain changes Example: You can’t “teach” algebra to an elephant An animal is able to learn because it has the Necessary genes to allow it to respond to stimuli Example: You can’t “teach” a blind-cave fish to respond to light!

13. Classical Conditioning Habituation Operant Conditioning Insight Learning Types of Learned Behavior

14. Mentalconnection between 2 stimuli and a response. Classical Conditioning Reading on Pavlov – and classical conditioning

15. Unconditionedstimulus – food • Unconditioned response– dog salivates at food (without being taught!) • Conditioned stimulus(MUST BE paired with unconditioned stimulus) – bell ringing • Conditioned response– dog salivates at bell ringing. Types of Learning: Classical Conditioning - Pavlov Complete worksheet on Pavlov’s dogs

16. Rats: - autoshaping procedure • Light is projected into cage (neutral stimulus) • Brief shock follows (unconditioned stimulus) • Rat shows fear (unconditioned response) Classical conditioning – Auto Shaping of animal behavior

17. What happens the next time light is shown in the cage? _________________________________ _________________________________ Classical conditioning – Auto Shaping of animal behavior After a few trials  Rat shows fear when a light is projected into cage. • Extinction - If a conditioned stimulus (ex. light) is presented in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus (ex. electric shock) then the conditioned response (ex. fear) will stop occurring with light.

18. B) Habituation – a process by which an animal decreases or stops its response to a repetitive stimulus that does not reward nor harm an animal. Types of Learning

19. Learning that is based on trial and error in which an action that is rewarded becomes more frequently performed or an action that is punished becomes less frequent. Operant Conditioning

20. Dolphins jump out of water and are rewarded with food  animal associates the jump with food  trainer uses this learning to cause dolphin to jump. Operant Conditioning Reading on Dolphin Training

21. This continues to “work” as long as dolphin continues to be rewarded In nature—animal eats a toad which tastes badly animal associates toad with bad tasteanimal no longer eats toads) Operant Conditioning

22. Insight Learning • Application of prior knowledge to a new situation – monkeys!

23. Most animal behaviors are a combination of instinct and learning and are a function of genes and the environment. Learning AND Instinct

24. Imprinting – a form of learning in which individuals exposed to certain stimuli, early in life, form an association with the object. The brain of the animal has to be prepared genetically to respond to the stimuli, but the association depends on the external environment. (puppy) Learning and Instinct

25. Example: Two closely related species of birds: blue tits and great tits. Experiment 1 - What is the role of imprinting on the selection of a mate?

26. Experiment 1 – Procedures: Great tit eggs placed in nest with blue tit parents and vice versa. •  Great Tit nest • Blue Tit nest

27. As adults: • Great tits reared by blue tits • 3 of 11 found mates. • All of their mates were blue tits reared by great tits. • Blue tits reared by great tits • 14 mated with blue tits • 3 females mated with great tits Experiment 1– Data

28. In both species there were members of the experimental group who mated with the “wrong” species. Yet, early imprinting affected the great titsmore than the blue tits. None of the great tits had young. All of the blue tits found mates and had young. All of the offspring were genetically blue tits Even the 3 females who mated with the great tits and shared parenting with the great tits had mated with blue tits on the side. Experiment 1 - Analysis and Conclusions Question: Worksheet

29. Experiment 2 - How do animals know their relatives? Belding Ground Squirrel Background • Longest hibernation period (7-8 months) of all mammals. Live in the mountains of CA. Eat enough food during the spring and summer months to last it through its long hibernation. • Male squirrels come out of hibernation about 2 weeks before females. They are ready to mate at that time. • Males are very aggressive to each other and all get injured during the mating period with some killed.

30. Experiment 2 – Background • Females live in colonies with individual burrows where they raise their young. • When females emerge from hibernation they are willing to mate for a total of 3-6 hours. • Females mate with multiple males and their offspring in one litter will have more than one father. • However, only the first two males contribute sperm to the offspring (other matings produce no young)

31. Females feed on vegetation in territories outside of their burrows. Females are very aggressive to each other. They fight to keep other females out of their territory and burrow—an intruder may kill their young. Daughters usually make burrows near their mothers. Females are LESS likely to fight with close relatives than with unrelated females. Experiment 2 - Background

32. Baby squirrels reared in an experimental setting under one of FOUR conditions: 1. Siblings reared separately from each other 2. Non-siblings reared together 3. Siblings reared together 4. Non-siblings reared separately from each other. Experiment 2 - Procedures

33. Non-siblings and siblings who were reared together were mostly non-aggressive to each other when they met. • Non-siblings had more aggressive encounters than the siblings. • Individuals in groups reared separately showed aggressive behavior when they met • Fewer aggressive encounters were seen between siblings than non-siblings.   • Squirrels differentiated between full siblings and half-siblings which are raised together. • Two full siblings (same mother and father) fight less than half-siblings (same mother and different father), and a full sibling is more likely to assist a sibling while being chased. Experiment 2 – Data

34. For Discussion: Which behaviors involved learning in this experiment? Which behaviors involved genetics? How DO squirrels recognize close relatives reared separately? Experiment 2 – Analysis and Conclusions Question: Worksheet

35. Experiment 3 – How does a bird know to sing its song? • White crowned sparrow • In nature, the young begin to sing the song of its parents at 150 days. • The white crowned sparrow always sings the same song as other members of its species.

36. Eggs taken to lab and baby birds were raised under four conditions. • 1. Baby birds raised in isolation. Baby birds exposed to NO songs at all. • At 150 days, all of the birds begin to sing, but the song was merely “twittering” not the full song of the species. Experiment 3 – Procedures and REsults

37. 2. Baby birds raised in isolation. When birds were between 10-50 days (critical period), they were exposed to tapes of white crowned sparrow song. • All were able to sing perfectly at 150 days. Experiment 3 – Procedures and REsults

38. 3. Baby birds raised in isolation. During critical period the birds were exposed to tapes of a different species’ song. • At 150 days they were unable to sing the song. Experiment 3 – Procedures and Results Song Sparrow

39. 4. Eggs taken to lab and baby birds raised in isolation. During critical period the birds were exposed to tapes of a white crowned sparrow song and the song of a song sparrow. • They all sang the song of the white crowned sparrow only. Experiment 3 – Procedures and Results

40. Discuss with your group the role of Instinct Learning Critical period and the ability of white crowned sparrows to sing their species song. Experiment 3 – Analysis and Conclusions

41. Animals, Tool Use, Learning and Instinct Readings in Groups