Animal Behavior Chapter 51

1. Animal Behavior Chapter 51

2. Why study behavior? • Ethology— the study of behavior

3. Karl von Frisch Niko Tinbergen Konrad Lorenz 1941 | 1973 Ethology pioneers in the study of animal behavior

4. What is behavior? • Behavior • Defined as observable and coordinated responses to environmental stimuli. • Result of genetic & environmental factors • Innate Behaviors • inherited, “instinctive” • automatic & consistent • “Built-in”, no “learning curve” • Despite different environments, all individuals exhibit the behavior • Ex. early survival, reproduction, kinesis, taxis

5. Evolutionary perspective • Learned behaviors • Modified by experience • Variable, changeable • change with experience & environment • Flexible with a complex & changing environment • Ability to learn is inherited, but the behavior develops during animal’s lifetime

6. Levels of Behavioral Analysis • Proximate causes • Immediate stimulus & mechanism • Genetic & environmental interaction • Sensory motor mechanisms • “how” & “what” questions • Ultimate causes • evolutionary significance • how does behavior contribute to survival & reproduction • “why” questions • male songbird • what triggers singing?  how does he sing?  why does he sing?  how does daylength influence breeding?  why do cranes breed in spring? Courtship behavior in cranes  what…how… & why questions

7. Ex. Most people like fatty foods • What is the proximate cause? • What is the ultimate cause?

8. Answers • Proximate cause-Because it tastes good • Ultimate cause- Because it is high in calories which are the stuff the body needs to function

9. Innate Behaviors-developmentally fixed • Taxis • Kinesis • Migration • FAP • Animal Signals & Communication

10. Innate Behaviors-Taxis • Automatic response toward or away from a stimulus. • Automatic movement toward (positive taxis) or from away (negative taxis) a stimulus • phototaxis • Chemotaxis • Examples: • Trout are and swim upstream so as not to be swept away.

11. Innate Behaviors- Kinesis • A change in the activity rate in response to a stimulus. • Randomly directed, unlike taxis. • Example: • Sow bugs are more active in dry areas and less in humid ones; this keeps them in moist environments.

12. Innate behavior: Fixed action patterns (FAP) • Unlearned • Usually carried to completion once started • Triggered by a sign stimulus male sticklebacks exhibit aggressive territoriality

13. Fixed Action Patterns (FAP) Digger wasp • Human babies always smile at a mask with two dark spots for eyes. Do humans exhibit Fixed Action Patterns? The “eyebrow-flash”

14. attack on red belly stimulus court on swollen belly stimulus Fixed Action Patterns Examples • Male stickleback fish will show aggression toward any shape that has a red area.

15. Figure 51.3 Classic demonstration of innate behavior

16. Sandpiper Monarch migration Golden plover Bobolink Complex Innate behaviors • Migration • “migratory restlessness” seen in birds bred & raised in captivity • Migration is learned, but how to learn them is innate • Celestial navigation- by sun, stars, Earth magnetic fields ancient fly-ways

17. Examples of Migration • Monarch butterflies from our area migrate to Mexico in the fall and the next generation flies north in the spring. • Snow geese fly 2,700 km from James Bay, Canada to Louisiana nonstop in 60 hours. • The green sea turtle migrates 2,200 km across the Atlantic ocean from the east coast of South America to Ascension Island (10 km across) every 2-3 years where the adult females lay eggs.

18. Biological Rhythms & Clocks • Circadian Rhythms • “Sleep, wake cycle” • Humans~about 24 hours long • Drosophila the normal clock is 24.2 hrs • Mutant flies have cycles of 19 & 28 hrs. • Diurnal —active during the day • Nocturnal —active during hours of darkness • Crepuscular —having greatest activity during twilight hours or at dawn or both

19. Biological Rhythms & Clocks • Lunar cycles • Ex. • Grunion swarm from April-June when the spring tides occur

20. Biological Rhythms & Clocks • What controls the biological clock? • No single mechanism—an interaction of a number of biochemical processes • The pineal gland is thought to play a role in the timing system of rats, birds and some other vertebrates. • In mammals, regions of the hypothalamus are involved.

21. Biological Rhythms & Clocks • How much is internal and how much is governed by external clues? • Answer: There is usually a strong endogenous (internal) component, but an exogenous (external) cue is necessary to keep the behavior properly timed in the real world.

22. Animal Signals & Communication • An action by a sender that influences the behavior of a receiver. • Does not have to be purposeful • Ex. bat sound pulses influence moth evasive behavior.

23. Communication: Chemical • Works both day and night

24. Social interaction requires communication • Pheromones • chemical signal that stimulates a response from other individuals • Ex. Female moths secrete chemicals which attract males. • Cheetahs and other cats mark their territory with urine, feces, and anal gland secretions. • alarm pheromones • sex pheromones

25. Female mosquito use CO2 concentrations to locate victims marking territory Spider using moth sex pheromones, as allomones, to lure its prey Pheromones

26. Communication: Auditory • Faster than chemical and also effective both night and day. • Can be modified by loudness, pattern, duration, and repetition. • Ex. Male crickets have calls and birds may have one song for courting, another for distress, and still another for marking territories. • Humpback whales have complicated songs. • Nonhuman primates have up to 40 different vocalizations.

27. Communication by song • Bird song • species identification & mating ritual • mixed learned & innate • critical learning period • Insect song • mating ritual & song • innate, genetically controlled

28. Communication: Tactile • Occurs when one animal touches another. • Ex. A male leopard nuzzles a female’s neck to calm her and to stimulate her willingness to mate.

29. Honey bee communication • dance to communicate location of food source • waggle dance • Discovered by Karl von Frisch in the 1940s. Waggle dance indicates both distance to and direction of food.

30. Communication: Visual • Most often used by species that are active during the day. • Contests between males involve threat postures and possibly prevent fighting. • Ex. Male birds often put on courtship dances to attract females. • Much human communication is nonverbal such as smiling, blushing, body posture.

31. Learned Behavior: Modified behaviors by experience • Habituation • Imprinting • Associative learning • Classical conditioning • Operant conditioning • Cognition

32. Learning: Habituation • Loss of response to stimulus • “Cry-wolf” effect • Decrease in response to repeated occurrences of stimulus • enables animals to disregard unimportant stimuli • ex: falling leaves not triggering fear response in baby birds

33. Innate & Learning: Imprinting • Learning to form social attachments at a specific sensitive (critical ) period • both learning & innate components • Konrad Lorenz- spent time with geese hours after hatched

34. Figure 51.9 Imprinting: Konrad Lorenz with imprinted geese Imprinting Konrad Lorenz

35. Conservation Conservation biologists have taken advantage of imprinting by young whooping cranes as a means to teach the birds a migration route. A pilot wearing a crane suit in an Ultralight plane acts as a surrogate parent. Wattled crane conservation teaching cranes to migrate

36. Associative learning • Learning to associate a stimulus with a consequence • Operant conditioning • BF Skinner • Trial & error learning • Associate behavior with reward or punishment • Classical conditioning • Pavlovian conditioning • Associate stimuli with reward or punishment

37. Operant Conditioning Gradual strengthening of stimulus-response connections. Examples: Teaching an animal a trick by rewarding correct behavior with affection or food. B.F. Skinner’s experiments Rats connect sugar treat with pressing a lever.

38. Operant conditioning • Skinner box B. F. Skinner mouse learns to associate behavior (pressing lever) with reward (food pellet)

39. Critical period • Sensitive phase for optimal imprinting • some behavior must be learned during a receptive time period As a brood parasite, the Cuckoo never learn the song of their species as a nestling. Song development is totally innate.

40. Classical conditioning • Ivan Pavlov’s dogs • connect reflex behavior (salivating at sight of food) to associated stimulus (ringing bell)

41. crow Learning: Cognition • Ability for nervous system to store, perceive, and process information problem-solving tool use

42. Social Behavior • Some animals are largely solitary and join with a member of the opposite sex only for mating; others pair, bond and cooperate in the raising of offspring. • Still others form a society in which members are organized in a cooperative manner. • Society— a group of individuals of the same species that cooperate in an adaptive manner; e.g. bee hive, flock of birds, wolf pack, school of fish.

43. Social behaviors • Interactions between individuals • develop as evolutionary adaptations • Result in survival and reproductive success • Agonistic behaviors • Dominance hierarchy • Cooperation • Altruistic behavior

44. Social behaviors • Agonistic behaviors • Threatening & Submissive rituals • symbolic, usually no harm done • ex:territoriality, competitor aggression

45. Social behaviors • Dominance hierarchy • social ranking within a group • Pecking order

46. Dominance Hierarchies • A higher ranking animal has greater access to resources than a lower ranking animal. • Decided by confrontation during which one animal gives way to another. • Once established, little or no time is wasted in fighting. • Dominant male mate more often with the females.

47. Territoriality-- Protecting an area against other individuals. • Male songbirds sing to signify their territories and other males know to stay away. The song also alerts females to presence of a male. • May be adaptive—tends to reduce conflict, to control population growth, and to ensure the most efficient use of resources by spacing organisms throughout a habitat.

48. Social behaviors • Cooperation • working together in coordination Pack of African dogs hunting wildebeest cooperatively White pelicans “herding” school of fish

49. Social behaviors • Altruistic behavior • Reducesindividual fitness but increases fitness of others in a population • kin selection • increasing survival of close relatives passes these genes on to the next generation How can this be of adaptive value? Belding ground squirrel

50. Examples of Altruistic Behaviors • In social insects such as bees, only the queen bee and her mate reproduce. • A female chimp often mates with several males in a group because they are all related and share genes in common.