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Animal Behavior
Chapter 43
Animal Behavior
 Ethology: scientific study of how animals behave
 Two types of behavior
 Innate behavior is developmentally fixed meaning
that nearly all individuals in the population
exhibit the same behavior.
 Learned behavior is behavior that has been
modified based on specific experiences.
Innate behaviors
 Fixed action patterns
– a series of
unlearned acts that is
essentially
unchangeable and,
once initiated, usually
carried to completion
Learned behavior
 Habituation – a loss of responsiveness to
stimuli that convey no new information
 EX: birds will eventually ignore a
scarecrow after repeated exposure.
Learned behavior
 Imprinting – actually contains both learned
and innate components.
 The formation, at a specific stage in life, of a
long-lasting behavioral response to a
particular individual or object.
 Includes a sensitive period when certain
behaviors can be learned.
Imprinting
 Example: Lorenz
used the graylag
goose to
demonstrate
imprinting. He
took over the
maternal role for a
group of goslings
Not all examples of imprinting involve
parent-offspring bonding
– Although newly hatched salmon do
not receive any parental care, they
imprint on the complex mixture of
odors unique to the freshwater
stream where they hatch
– This allows salmon to find their way
back to the stream to spawn after
spending a year or more at sea
Insight
 Capable of using reasoned thought and
past experience to solve problems
 – Utilize previous experience with
reasoning to conclude and learn new
things
 Ex: Chimp moving crates in order to
reach a banana.
Spatial learning
 Establishment of a memory that reflects the
environment’s spatial structure
 Ex: A wasp locating its burrow
Associative learning
 Ability to associate one environmental
feature with another.
 Types:
 Classical conditioning
 Operant conditioning
Classical Conditioning
 An arbitrary stimulus
becomes associated with a
particular outcome.
 Ex: These ducks have
learned to associate
humans with food
handouts
 Ex: Dog seeing a leash and
running to the door
Operant Conditioning
 Trial-and-error
learning is a common
form of associative
learning
 An animal learns to
associate one of its
own behavioral acts
with a positive or
negative effect
Movement behavior
 Kinesis – a change in activity or turning rate in
response to a stimulus.
 Ex: Sow bugs response to variations in humidity.
They will move faster in a dry environment,
making it more likely that they will move into a
more moist environment.
 Taxis – an oriented movement toward (positive)
or away from (negative) some stimulus.
 Ex: trout orienting themselves upstream to get
food