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Animal Behavior
AP Biology
Innate Behaviors
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Innate behaviors are behaviors that are genetically inherited.
Behavior influenced by genes can be selected on by natural
selection, so these behaviors should increase the fitness of an
organism in some way.
Types of Innate Behaviors
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Instinct
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EX: In mammals, care for
offspring by female parents is
instinctual
Fixed Action Patterns (FAP)
Imprinting
Fixed Action Patterns
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Follow a regular, unvarying pattern
Initiated by a specific stimulus
Behavior is usually always carried out to completion
Examples:
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When a graylag goose sees an egg outside her nest, she
will roll it back into the nest. She will also retrieve any
object that resembles her egg. Even if its removed
completely she’ll go through the motions of moving an
egg back into the nest.
Male stickleback fish defend their territory against other
males. The red belly of males is the stimulus for
aggression. Any object with a red underside will be
attacked.
Imprinting
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An innate program for acquiring a specific behavior
Requires an appropriate stimulus during the critical period
Once acquired, the behavior is irreversible
Examples:
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In the first two days of life, graylag goslings will accept any
moving object as their mother for life. Even a real mother
introduced after the critical period will be rejected
Salmon hatch in freshwater streams and migrate to the ocean to
eat. When they are ready to mate, they return to their birthplace to
breed, identifying the exact location of the stream. During early
life, they imprint the odors of their birthplace.
Learned Behaviors
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Behaviors acquired through a process of
learning
Types of Behavioral Learning
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Associative Learning
Habituation
Observational Learning
Insight
Associative Learning
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When an animal learns that two events are connected.
 EX: Dog learns that the smell/sight of food leads to
eating (they will then begin to salivate)
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Types of Associative Learning
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Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Spatial Learning
Classical
Conditioning
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A form of A.L. in which
an animal responds to a
substitute stimulus
Example
 Psychologist Ivan Pavlov found that if after
repeated experiences in which a bell were rung
before a dog was given food, the dog would
salivate when the bell was rung alone
(no food present). Dogs associated the
bell with food.
Operant
Conditioning
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Also known as trial and error
learning
Occurs when an animal connects its own
behavior with a particular response.
This is how we train animals- positive and negative
reinforcement.
Example:
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Psychologist Skinner trained rats to push levers to obtain food or avoid
painful shocks.
Extinction: when a learned behavior no longer exhibits the
expected response, the learning can be reversed or forgotten
Spatial Learning
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When an animal associates attributes of a
location with the reward it gains by being able
to identify and return to that location
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Tinbergen observed wasps using pinecone
markers to return to their nests. If the markers
were removed, wasps could not find the nest.
Habituation
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It allows an animal to disregard a meaningless
stimuli
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The stimuli in question triggers an innate behavior,
not a learned one (different from extinction)
Example:
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Sea anemones pull food into their mouths. If they
are stimulated repeatedly with non-food items
(sticks, for example) they will then begin to ignore
the stimulus.
Observational
Learning
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Occurs when animals copy
the behavior of another animal w/o any previous +
reinforcement of the behavior
Example:
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Japanese monkeys usually remove sand from food by
brushing them with their hands. One monkey discovered that
dipping food in water more easily rid the food of sand.
Through observational learning, many of the other monkeys
began to use water to clean their food.
Insight
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When an animal, exposed to a totally new situation
and without prior experience or observation,
performs a behavior that generates a desirable
outcome.
Example
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A chimpanzee placed in a
room with food beyond their
reach will stack boxes up to get
to the food.
Kinds of Behavior
Learned
Innate
Imprinting
Instinct
Habituation
Observational
Learning
Insight
Associative
Learning
FAP’s
Classical
Conditioning
Operant
Conditioning
Spatial
Learning
Animal Movement
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Kinesis- undirected change in activity level/turning rate
of animal in response to a stimulus.
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Taxis- directed movement towards or away from a
stimulus.
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Example: when bugs scurry when a rock is lifted.
Phototaxis is movement towards light, chemotaxis is towards
a chemical.
Example: moths fly towards light.
Migration- long distance, seasonal movements to find
food or better environmental conditions.
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Example: whales, birds, elk, insects, and bats all move to
warmer climates during the winter.
Animal Communication
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Chemical- pheromones are chemical animals secrete to
communicate.
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Visual- animals will make displays to show aggression or
courtship.
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Example: Wolves will threaten each other by showing their teeth or
show submission by lying on their backs
Birds of Paradise
Auditory- making sounds.
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Example: ants mark their trail, urine spraying, primer pheromones in
queen bees and termites
Example: frog calls, whale songs
Tactile- touching
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Example: Monkeys will groom each other, wolves will greet
dominant males with a lick
Foraging Behaviors
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Feeding: Goal is to maximize amount of food eaten while
minimizing energy used and risk of injury or attack
Herds, Flocks, & Schools provide advantages:
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Packs
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Concealment: Most individuals are hidden in the middle.
Vigilance - Individuals can trade off foraging and watching for
predators- two eyes are better than one!
Defense
Cooperation in catching prey
Search images
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Learning to search for an abbreviated image of the target or goal
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EX: searching for a book, seeing a cop car
Social Behaviors
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Agonistic Behaviors- specific aggressive and submissive ritualized
behaviors that exist to establish dominance hierarchy but minimize
injury
Dominance hierarchies- where there is a pecking order indicating
status and power
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Minimizes fighting for food and mates
Territoriality- defending an area for food and/or mating.
Altruism- seemingly unselfish, fitness-lowering behaviors where an
organism helps another animal.
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Usually occurs between relatives. This is called kin selection
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Leads to inclusive fitness (the fitness of the group with similar genes)
EX: Belding’s ground squirrels give alarm calls when predators are near. This
risks that squirrels safety but protects the group, which not coincidentally, is
made of closely related females