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Understanding Animal Behavior: Instincts, Learning, and Survival Strategies

Explore the fascinating world of animal behavior, from innate reflexes and instincts to learning processes shaped by experiences. Discover how animals respond to environmental stimuli, learn survival strategies, and exhibit social behaviors crucial for their survival and reproduction.

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Understanding Animal Behavior: Instincts, Learning, and Survival Strategies

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  1. Chapter 34Animal Behavior

  2. What is behavior? • Response to an environmental stimulus • Response = a single, specific reaction to a stimulus • Stimulus = any kind of signal that carries information and can be detected • Individuals with behaviors that make them more successful at surviving & reproducing will produce more offspring

  3. (Organisms respond to a stimulus due to interaction of sense organs, nervous system, endocrine system, and muscles)

  4. Innate behavior • Inherited, controlled by genes • 1) Reflexes: • Short & quick, with no conscious control • Serves a protective function

  5. 2) Instinct: Longer, complex pattern of behaviors (may have several parts & take weeks to complete)

  6. Learning • Not controlled by genes, can be changed through practice or experience • How might this be of survival value? (This… …not this!)

  7. 1) Habituation • Learning to “ignore” a repetitive stimulus that neither harms nor rewards the organism

  8. 2) Conditioning (associative) • A) operant (trial & error) • Begins with a random behavior • “Skinner” boxes

  9. B) Classical (stimulus  reward or punishment) Pavlov’s dogs

  10. 4) Insight • An animal uses previous experience to respond to a new situation • Chimps finding ways to use tools to get the banana

  11. Instinct & Learning Combined • Imprinting • An animal forms a social attachment (innate drive) to another organism (not just Mom) soon after birth (learn from experience) • Konrad Lorenz’ geese

  12. 5) Behavioral Cycles • Many animals respond to periodic changes in the environment with daily or seasonal cycles of behavior • A) Migration • B) Hibernation • C) Circadian rhythms – daily patterns

  13. 6) Courtship • Part of an overall reproductive strategy that helps many animals identify healthy mates

  14. 7) Social Behavior • A group of related animals of the same species that interact closely and often cooperate with one another • (Helping a relative survive increases the chances that the genes will be passed along)

  15. 8) Competition • Some animals have behaviors that help prevent others from using limited resources • A. Territoriality • B. Aggression

  16. 5) Communication (bee dance discovered by Carl von Frisch)

  17. a) Chemical • Pheromones • Hormones secreted by organisms that are recognized by others of the species

  18. b) Visual • Using “displays” to communicate without language • Baring teeth, etc.

  19. c) Auditory • Using sounds or songs to mark territory, etc. • Whale’s song

  20. d) Language • Using symbols to represent ideas (primarily in animals with complex nervous systems, memory & insight)

  21. Questions?

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