Download Animal Behavior

Animal Behavior
The link between where we have been and where
we are going…
Behavior Links…
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Genetics
Morphology
Physiology
Ecology
• Niche
• Habitat
• Evolution
• Behavior is an indicator
that tells us something
about all of these things!
Behavioral Ecology
• Behavior = everything an animal does & how it does it
• INNATE = inherited
• LEARNED = develop during animal’s lifetime
• Behavior is part of phenotype acted upon by natural
selection
• lead to greater fitness?
• greater reproductive success?
• greater survival?
Questions to Ask When Observing
Behavior
• Proximate causes of
behavior
• “how” & “what”
• How does a songbird sing?
• What is the immediate trigger
of the singing?
• Ultimate causes of
behavior
• evolutionary
significance
• “why” questions
• Why does a crane imprint?
• Why is this advantageous?
Types of Behaviors
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Innate
Fixed Action Pattern (FAP)
Imprinting
Associate Learning
Habituation
Observational Learning
Insight
Inherited
Reflex
Complex
Problem
Solving
Innate Behaviors
• Inherited (DNA)
• Automatic all
individuals exhibit the
behavior
• Triggered by a stimulus
Innate Behavior Example
• Coordinated movements
(walking, swimming, etc.)
that occur in response to an
external stimulus
• Taxis = change in direction
• automatic movement
toward (+ taxis) or
away from (- taxis) a
stimulus
• phototaxis
• chemotaxis
• Kinesis = change in rate of
movement in response to a
stimulus
Fixed Action Pattern (FAP)
• Inherited
• Sequence of unlearned,
unchangeable behaviors
that are usually
conducted to
completion once
started
• sign stimulus triggers FAP
attack on red belly stimulus
court on swollen belly stimulus
FAP Example
Digger wasp
Imprinting
• Both innate & learning components
• Learning at a specific critical time
Konrad Lorenz
Imprinting Example
• Salmon Run
• During critical period, the
animal acquires memory of
certain salient stimuli in its
"home" environment (taste of
the host plant, smell of the
nest site, etc.)
Associative Learning
• Learning to associate one feature of
the environment (stimulus) with
another
• Operant conditioning
• trial & error learning
• associate behavior with reward or
punishment
• Classical conditioning
• Pavlov’s Dogs
• associate a “neutral stimulus” with a
“significant stimulus”
Operant conditioning
• Skinner box
• “trial & error”
mouse learns to associate behavior (pressing lever)
with reward (food pellet)
Classical conditioning
• Ivan Pavlov’s dogs
• Connect reflex behavior (salivating at sight of food) to
associated stimulus (ringing bell)
Habituation
• Learned, no innate, inherited
component
• Loss of response to stimulus
• “cry-wolf” effect
• Learn not to respond to
repeated occurrences of
stimulus
• Increases the fitness of the
species overall
Spatial Learning
• Establishment of a
memory that reflects
environment’s spatial
structure
• Behavior changes or is
established by spatial
memory
• Digger wasps
Observational Learning
• Watch & learn
• Memory of patterns or events when there is no
apparent reward or punishment
Cognition
• Requires intelligence
and social behaviors
• Process of knowing
represented by
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Spatial awareness
Reasoning
Recollection
Judgment
• Original Thought
Problem Solving
Types of Social Behaviors
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language
agonistic behaviors
dominance hierarchy
altruistic behavior
territoriality
mating behavior
Language
• Honey bee “waggle dance”
communication
• Dance shows location of food
source
Agonistic Behaviors
• threatening & submissive rituals
• symbolic, usually no harm done
Dominance Hierarchy
• Social ranking within a group
Altruistic Behavior
• Reduces individual fitness but increases fitness of
recipient
• Paradox: self-sacrificial men “would, on average, perish
in larger number than other men”
• KIN SELECTION  meerkats
• Old view: survival of the fittest organism
• New view survival of the fittest GENE (family genes)
Territoriality
• Define: methods by which an individual (or group) protects its
territory from others of its species
• Mark boundaries, chase, fight
• Increases during breeding season
• Cost: might get hurt (survival risk)
• Benefits: uninterrupted mating, raise young in area with less
competition (reproductive benefit)
Mating & Parental behavior
• Genetic influences  behavior changes at different stages of
mating (Innate)
• Environmental influences can modify behavior (Innate and
Learned)
• Depends on:
• Quality of diet
• Social interactions
Social Interaction Requires Communication
• Pheromones
• chemical signal that stimulates a response from other
individuals
• alarm pheromones
• sex pheromones
Pheromones
Female mosquito use CO2
concentrations to locate victims
marking territory
Spider using moth sex
pheromones, as allomones,
to lure its prey
The female lion lures male by spreading sex
pheromones, but also by posture & movements
Regulatory Genes and Behavior
• Genetic manipulation
of fru gene
• Changes who is courting
who in both male and
female fruit flies
• Implications of sexuality
in all animals?