Chapter 51

1. Chapter 51 Behavioral Ecology- Animal behavior is based on physical systems and processes.

2. Fixed Action Patterns: Type of behavior linked to a simple stimulus. A sequence of unlearned acts that are essentially unchangeable and are carried out to completion once started. Simple (sign) Stimulus: trigger or external clue

3. Example: Male Three-spined Sticklebacks have red bellies and attack other males with red bellies when they invade their territory.

4. Innate Behavior: Nearly all individuals in a population hold the same mannerisms despite varying conditions. Behavior that is developmentally fixed in this way is called innate behavior.

5. Spatial Learning: Part of the memory in an organism responsible for recording information about the environment and its orientation, the higher capacity for this type of learning in an individuals brain, the higher its fitness will be.

6. Example: Wasps locate their nests by learning landmarks around their home.

7. Imprinting— The critical period (the first day or two after hatching) Ex. When a duck follows the first thing it sees when it hatches.

8. Habituation- When animals adapt to their surroundings by dulling/ignoring certain instincts. Example: Prairie Dogs

9. Maturation- The process of becoming mature. Ex. 2 year olds don’t have the brain capacity to learn and understand calculus, however “mature” high school students.

10. Conditioning • Associate learning- the ability of many animals to learn to associate one stimulus with another. Classical conditioning- learning to associate an arbitrary stimulus with a reward or punishment. (Dogs learning to associate food with a sound) Operant conditioning- also called trial-and-error learning, here an animal learns to associate one of its won behaviors with a reward or punishment and then tends to repeat or avoid that behavior. Example would be predators quickly learning to associate certain kinds of prey with painful experiences. (Young coyote and porcupine.)

11. Animal Cognition • Cognition- is the ability of an animal’s nervous system to perceive, store, process, and use information gathered y sensory receptors. • Cognitive ethology- illustrates the connection between data processing by nervous systems and animal behavior. It is the study of animal consciousness or awareness. • Some animals are able to solve problems such as moving a box in order to reach food. In animals that solve problems it makes us aware that its nervous system has a substantial ability to process information.

12. Types of Behaviors Competitive Behaviors - The direct struggle between individuals for environmental necessities or for a common goal.

13. Agonistic Behavior – Competition for resources or mates. Example: Male ground squirrels compete for females and sometimes to the point of injury.

14. Dominance Hierarchy- When within a group, the alpha controls the behavior of all the others. Example: Wolf Packs

15. Kinesis- involves a simple change in activity rate in response to a stimulus. Example would be a bug that is more active in dry areas and less in humid ones. They do not move toward or away from condition but tend to stay there. • Taxis- is a more or less automatic oriented movement toward or away from some stimulus. Example: housefly larvae are negatively phototactic after feeding and they automatically move away from the light to help them ensure that they remain in an area where they are harder for predators to detect.

16. Territory- An area that a species defends usually from members of its own species. Example: Cheetahs in the Sahara

17. Altruism- Instinctive behavior that is detrimental to the individual but favors the survival or spread of that individual's genes, as by benefiting its relatives. Example: Naked Mole Rats