1 / 29

Animal Behavior

Animal Behavior. meerkats. What is behavior?. Behavior everything an animal does & how it does it response to stimuli in its environment innate inherited, “instinctive” automatic & consistent learned ability to learn is inherited, but the behavior develops during animal’s lifetime

tstuart
Download Presentation

Animal Behavior

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Animal Behavior meerkats

  2. What is behavior? • Behavior • everything an animal does & how it does it • response to stimuli in its environment • innate • inherited, “instinctive” • automatic & consistent • learned • ability to learn is inherited, but the behavior develops during animal’s lifetime • variable & flexible • change with experience & environment

  3. Why study behavior? • Evolutionary perspective… • part of phenotype • acted upon by natural selection • lead to greater fitness? • lead to greater survival? • lead to greater reproductive success?

  4. Evolutionary perspective • Adaptive advantage? • innate behaviors • automatic, fixed, “built-in”, no “learning curve” • despite different environments, all individuals exhibit the behavior • ex. early survival, reproduction, kinesis, taxis • learned behaviors • modified by experience • variable, changeable • flexible with a complex & changing environment

  5. What questions can we ask? • Proximate causes • immediate stimulus & mechanism • “how” & “what” questions • Ultimate causes • evolutionary significance • how does behavior contribute to survival & reproduction • adaptive value • “why” questions • male songbird • what triggers singing?  how does he sing?  why does he sing? Courtship behavior in cranes  what…how… & why questions how does daylength influence breeding? why do cranes breed in spring?

  6. Niko Tinbergen Konrad Lorenz Ethology pioneers in the study of animal behavior

  7. male sticklebacks exhibit aggressive territoriality Innate behaviors • Fixed action patterns (FAP) • sequence of behaviors essentially unchangeable & usually conducted to completion once started • sign stimulus • the releaser that triggers a FAP

  8. BEHAVIOR: A male stickleback fish attacks other male sticklebacks that invade its nesting territory. PROXIMATE CAUSE: The red belly of the intruding male acts as a sign stimulus that releases aggression in a male stickleback. ULTIMATE CAUSE: By chasing away other male sticklebacks, a male decreasesthe chance that eggs laid in his nesting territory will be fertilized by another male. Figure 51.4 • Proximate and ultimate causes for the FAP attack behavior in male stickleback fish

  9. Innate & Learning: Imprinting • Learning to form social attachments at a specific critical period • both learning & innate components Konrad Lorenz

  10. BEHAVIOR: Young geese follow and imprint on their mother. PROXIMATE CAUSE: During an early, critical developmental stage, the young geese observe their mother moving away from them and calling. ULTIMATE CAUSE: On average, geese that follow and imprint on their mother receive more care and learn necessary skills, and thus have a greater chance of surviving than those that do not follow their mother. Figure 51.5 • There are proximate and ultimate causes for this type of behavior

  11. 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. teaching cranes to migrate

  12. imprinting/critical period in humans? 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.

  13. Learned behavior • Associative learning • learning to associate a stimulus with a consequence • operant conditioning • trial & error learning • associate behavior with reward or punishment • ex: learning what to eat • classical conditioning • Pavlovian conditioning • associate a “neutral stimulus” with a “significant stimulus”

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

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

  16. Animal Behavior Review Questions • Match the description/example with the correct behavior category • A. Classical conditioning • B. Fixed Action Pattern • C. Imprinting • D. Operant conditioning • Highly stereotyped sequence of behaviors that, once begun, is usually carried to completion • Learning that occurs during a specific time period; generally irreversible • Triggered by a sign stimulus • Association with irrelevant stimulus with a fixed physiological response • Trial and Error learning

  17. Mating Behavior and Mate Choice • Mating behavior • Is the product of a form of natural selection call sexual selection • The mating relationship between males and females • Varies a great deal from species to species

  18. (a) Since monogamous species, such as these trumpeter swans, are often monomorphic, males and females are difficult to distinguish using external characteristics only. Figure 51.25a • In monogamous relationships • One male mates with one female

  19. (b) Among polygynous species, such as elk, the male (left) is often highly ornamented. Figure 51.25b • In a system called polygyny • One male mates with many females • The males are often more showy and larger than the females

  20. (c) In polyandrous species, such as these Wilson’s phalaropes, females (top) are generally more ornamented than males. Figure 51.25c • In polyandrous systems • One female mates with many males • The females are often more showy than the males

  21. crow sea otter Learning: Problem-solving • Do other animals reason? chimpanzee problem-solving tool use

  22. Social behaviors • Interactions between individuals • develop as evolutionary adaptations • communication / language • agonistic behaviors • dominance hierarchy • cooperation • altruistic behavior

  23. Language • Honey bee communication • dance to communicate location of food source • waggle dance

  24. Communication by song • Bird song • species identification & mating ritual • mixed learned & innate • critical learning period • Insect song • mating ritual & song • innate, genetically controlled Red-winged blackbird

  25. Social behaviors • Agonistic behaviors • threatening & submissive rituals • symbolic, usually no harm done • ex: territoriality, competitor aggression

  26. Social behaviors • Dominance hierarchy • social ranking within a group • pecking order

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

  28. Social behaviors • Altruistic behavior • reduces individual fitness but increases fitness of others • kin selection • increasing survival of close relatives passes these genes on to the next generation I would lay down my life for2 brothers or8 cousins! How can this be of adaptive value? Belding ground squirrel

  29. Figure 51.33 • In naked mole rat populations • Nonreproductive individuals may sacrifice their lives protecting the reproductive individuals from predators

More Related