Outline

1. Animal Behavior

2. Outline • Nature versus Nurture: Genetic Influences • Nature versus Nurture: Environmental Influences • Learning • Adaptive Mating Behavior • Female Choice • Male Competition • Dominance Hierarchy • Territoriality • Animal Communication • Sociobiology and Animal Behavior • Altruism versus Self-Interest

3. Genetic Basis • Behavior - observable and coordinated responses to environmental stimuli • Nature (inherited) versus nurture (environmental) questions are still debated • Genes influence development of neural and hormonal mechanisms controlling behavior • Studies on identical twins separated at birth • Can be used to determine extent of inherited behavior • Sometimes remarkably similar in preferences, taste, personality tests, etc.

4. Nest Building Behavior in Lovebirds

5. Feeding Behavior in Garter Snakes

6. Behavior Undergoes Development • Some behaviors seem to be stereotyped • Fixed Action Patterns (FAP’s) • Originally assumed to be elicited by a sign stimulus • Increasingly thought to develop after practice

7. The Phenomenon of Learning • Operant Conditioning • Gradual strengthening of stimulus-response corrections • Trick-training in birds • Imprinting • Imitate behavior observed during sensitive period • Goslings follow any moving object after birth

8. The Phenomenon of Learning • Song Learning in Birds • Avian brain is especially sensitive to acoustical stimuli during a sensitive period • Social experience appears to have an even stronger influence over development of singing

9. Pecking Behavior in Laughing Gulls

10. Classical Conditioning

11. Behavior Is Adaptive • Sexual selection - Adaptive changes in females and males that lead to differential reproductive success

12. Raggiana Bird of Paradise

13. Female Choice • Courtship displays help males and females recognize each other for successful mating • Good Genes Hypothesis • Females benefit from selective choice by securing sperm with good genes • Run-Away Hypothesis • Females choose mates on the basis of traits that make them attractive to females

14. Male Competition • Is access to mating is worth the cost of competition among males • Question is studied by cost-benefit analyses • Do positive effects (benefits) outweigh negative effects (costs)? • If yes • The behavior is evolutionarily stable • The behavior will survive or increase • If no • The behavior is evolutionarily UNstable • The behavior will decrease or disappear

15. Dominance Hierarchy • Males and females have separate dominance hierarchies • Higher-ranking individuals have greater access to essential resources • Baboons form temporary consort pairs with females • Males may monopolize estrous females • Or may assist females or form friendship groups to secure future matings

16. A Male Olive Baboon Displaying Full Threat

17. Territoriality • Territoriality is protecting an area against other individuals • Red Deer Stags (males) compete for groups of hinds (females) • Hinds only mate with one stag • Harem Master must be large and powerful to fight off challengers • Means less body fat • May be more likely to starve in bad times, and have shorter life expectancy

18. Competition Between Male Red Deer

19. King Hussein and Family

20. Animal Societies • Society - a cooperative organization that extends beyond sexual and parental interests

21. The Queen Ant

22. Altruism versus Self-Interest • Altruism • Behavior that involves a reduction in direct fitness • Loss may be compensated by an increase in indirect fitness • Inclusive fitness includes • Reproductive fitness of self, and • Reproductive fitness of relatives • Genetic relatedness may underlie many/most acts of apparent altruism

23. Inclusive Fitness

24. Communicative Behavior • Communicative Behavior • Chemical • Pheromones designate chemical signals that are passed between members of the same species • Auditory • Faster than chemical communication • Can be modified by loudness, pattern, repetition, and duration • Visual • Used by species active during the day • Contests between males make use of threat postures • Saves energy by avoiding fighting

25. Use of a Pheromone

26. A Chimpanzee With a Researcher

27. Communicative Behavior • Tactile • Occurs when one animal touches another • Gull chicks peck at the parent’s beak in order to induce the parent to feed them • Foraging honeybees • Return to the hive and perform a waggle dance • Indicates the distance and direction of a food source

28. Grooming Among Baboons

29. Communication Among Bees

30. Sociobiology and Animal Behavior • Sociobiology • Applies the principles of evolutionary biology to the study of behavior in animals • Assumes individuals derive benefits from living in a society that outweigh costs • Advantages include • reproductive success • Predator avoidance • Assistance in rearing offspring • Finding food

31. Sociobiology and Animal Behavior • Societal Disadvantages • Crowding • Resource allocation • Spread of disease

32. Nest Helpers • Green Wood-hoopoes • One breeding pair per flock • Other sexually mature members may help feed and protect fledglings and protect the home territory • Helper is contributing to survival of its own kin • Helper is more likely than nonhelper to inherit parental territory

33. Outline • Nature versus Nurture: Genetic Influences • Nature versus Nurture: Environmental Influences • Learning • Adaptive Mating Behavior • Female Choice • Male Competition • Dominance Hierarchy • Territoriality • Animal Communication • Sociobiology and Animal Behavior • Altruism versus Self-Interest

34. Animal Behavior