Download Animal Behavior and Ethology

AP Biology
 Ethology
is the study of animal behavior
 Behavioral
ecology—
studies the
interactions of
animals and their
environments
 Seeks to explain
how specific
behaviors increase
individual
reproductive
success
Behavior that is influenced by
genes is molded by natural
selection and other
evolutionary forces. As a
result, most genetically based
behaviors should increase the
fitness of the individual.
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Associative learning is the process by which
animals take one stimulus and associate it with
another.
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Pavlov taught dogs to
anticipate the arrival of food
with the sound of a bell.
He hooked up these poor dogs
to machines that measured
salivation.
He began the experiments by
ringing a bell just moments
before giving food to the
dogs.
Soon after, the dogs were
salivating at the sound of the
bell before food was even
brought into the room. They
were conditioned to associate
the noise of the bell with the
impending arrival of food.
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A fixed-action pattern is
an innate, preprogrammed
response to a stimulus.
Once this action has
begun, it will not stop
until it has run its course.
This is one of the few
types of animal behaviors
that can truly be said to
be “hard-wired”.
Mating dances of birds
http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=lMbDjNDD4cM
http://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=XgnOQqLhrlw
When a graylag goose sees an egg
outside her nest, she will
methodically roll the egg back to
the nest using her beak. An egg
outside her nest is the stimulus.
She will also retrieve any object
that looks like an egg and once
the FAP has begun, she will
continue the retrieval motions
until she has completed all the
way back to her nest.

In Spring male sticklebacks change color, establish a territory and
build a nest. They attack male sticklebacks that enter their
territory, but court females and entice them to enter the nest to
lay eggs. In a famous experiment by Tinbergen, he showed that
the stimulus that invoked the response was the color of the
fishes’ bellies.
 Habituation
is the
loss of
responsiveness to
unimportant
stimuli.
 This is learned
behavior that
allows the animal
to disregard
meaningless
stimuli.
Prairie dogs give alarm calls when
mammals, large birds, or snakes
approach. When prairie dog towns
are located near trails used by
humans, giving alarm calls every
time a person walks by is a waste of
time and energy for the group.
Habituation to humans is an
important adaptation in this context.
 Jane
Goodall's famous studies of
chimpanzees depended on the chimpanzees
learning to tolerate her presence.
At first,Jane Goodall could only study
chimpanzees from far away, but she
gradually won the trust of the Gombe
chimps, enabling her to study their
behavior up close.
 Imprinting
is an innate behavior that is
learned during a critical period early in life.
Once acquired, the behavior is irreversible.
Salmon hatch in freshwater
streams and migrate to the
ocean to feed. When
reproductively mature,
they return to their
birthplace to breed,
identifying the exact
location of the stream.
During early life, they
imprinted the odors
associated their birthplace.
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In a classic example of imprinting, ethologist Konrad
Lorenz discovered that, during the first day of life, graylag
goslings will accept any moving object as their mother.
When Lorenz himself was the moving object, he was
accepted as their mother for life. Any object presented
after the critical period, including their real mother, was
rejected.
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Insight learning is the
ability to do
something right the
first time with no
prior experience. It
requires reasoning
ability—the skill to
look at a problem and
come up with an
appropriate solution.
http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=fPz6uvI
bWZE
 Observational
learning is the
ability of an
organism to learn
how to do
something by
watching another
individual do it first,
even if they have
never attempted it
themselves.
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This is a type of
associative learning
that is based on trial
and error.
This is different from
classical conditioning
because the association
is made between the
animals’ own behavior
and a response.
The animal connects its
own behavior with a
particular
environmental
response.
B.F. Skinner trained rats to push
levers to obtain food or to avoid
painful shocks.
Learning acquired by operant
conditioning can be forgotten or
reversed if the performed
behavior no longer elicits the
expected response.
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A brightly colored animal
with a chemical defense
mechanism (relies on operant
condition for its survival.
The coloration pattern is
there in the hope that the
predator will, in a trial-anderror fashion, associate the
coloration pattern with the
uncomfortable chemical
experience it had in the past.
This association might make
the predator think twice
before attacking in the
future and provide the prey
with enough time to escape.
Kinesis—a seemingly
random change in the
speed of a movement in
response to a stimulus.
 When an animal is in a
place it enjoys, it slows
down and when in a bad
environment, it speeds
up.
 Overall, this leads to
the animal spending
more time in favorable
environments.

Lifting a log in the forest will
reveal many insects scurrying
around to get out the light.
These movements are kinesis.
 Taxis
is a directed Moths are
attracted to light;
movement in
sharks move
response to a
towards food
when food odors
stimulus.
reach them by
 Movement is
diffusion in ocean
currents.
directed either
toward or away
from the stimulus.
 Movement towards
light is called
phototaxis.
 Migration
is the
long-distance,
seasonal movement
of animals.
 It is usually in
response to seasonal
availability of food
or degradation of
A map depicts the migration of 19 sooty
environmental
conditions (they shearwaters that were tracked using electronic
tags in a recent study. The research showed that
usually occur
the birds (pictured inset) migrated 40,000 miles
together)
a year, flying from New Zealand to the North
Pacific and back. It is the longest animal
migration ever recorded electronically.
 Communication
in
animals is
commonly used in
species
recognition, in
mating behavior,
and in organizing
social behavior.
Chemicals used for
communication are
called pheromones.
 Chemicals that cause
immediate and
specific behavioral
changes are releaser
pheromones (they
“release” the
behavior)
 Those that cause
physiological changes
are called primer
pheromones.

Female moths emit releaser
pheromones to attract male moths.
Ants secrete a releaser pheromone to mark
trails that guide other ants to food.
 Queen
bees, queen termites, and queen ants
secrete primer pheromones that are eaten by
workers. The pheromone prevents
development of reproductive ability.
 Many male mammals spray
urine throughout their
territories(especially
along their borders) to
warn other animals of
the same species to
keep out.
 Many
visual displays are observed in animals
during displays of aggression (agonistic
behavior) or during courtship.
Wolves make threatening gestures by
staring and baring their teeth.
Lowering their tails and lying on
their backs are submissive behaviors.
Two male Sage Grouse are
displaying for each other to warn
the other and make a courship
display for the females
 Sounds
are commonly used to communicate
over long distances, through water, and at
night.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fytkU
HwrgaE&feature=fvwrel
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=937A1ELV
yUs
 This
mode of communication involves touch
in the conveying of a message and is often
used as a greeting.
A major form of primate
tactile communication is
grooming.
Bees provide an example of communication that
involves chemical, tactile, and auditory
components.
 When a bee returns from foraging, to tell the
other bees about his “find”, he dances in a tight
circle accompanied by a certain wag that will
tell the co-workers where the food is. If the food
is farther away, the dance changes to show
direction and distance.
 In addition, to “sweeten” the find, he will
regurgitate a bit of the food to show the other
bees what kind of food they will be finding.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFDGPgXtKU&feature=related
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Agonistic behaviors result from conflicts over
resources. It often involve intimidation and
submission. The battle is often a matter of who
can put on the most threatening display to scare
the other one into giving up.
 Agonistic behaviors
can involve food, mates,
and territory.
Participants do not tend
to come away injured
because most of these
interactions are just
displays.
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http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/life
-videos/
 An
altruistic action is one in which an
organism does something to help another,
even if it comes at its own expense.
 Examples: worker bees are sterile, produce
no offspring and play the role of hive
defenders sacrificing their lives by stinging
intruders that pose a threat to the queen
bee.
Vampire bats
vomit food for
group mates that
did not manage
to find food
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A dominance hierarchy among a group of
individuals is a ranking of power among the
members. The member with the most power is
the “alpha” member. The second-in-command is
the “beta” member—they dominate everyone in
the group except the alpha. Alpha members have
first dibs on everything—mates, food, etc.
Note: Since there is an order,
known by all involved, it reduces
the energy wasted and the risk
from physical fighting for
resources. Dominance hierarchies
are characteristic of group-living
animals.
 Foraging
describes the feeding behavior of an
individual. This behavior is not as random as
it seems as animals tend to have something
called a search image that directs them
toward their potential meal.
When searching for food, few
fish look for a particular
food; rather, they are looking
for objects of a particular
size that seem to match the
size of what they usually eat.
This is a search image.
 Natural
selection favors animals that choose
foraging strategies that take into account
costs and benefits. Food that is rich in
nutrients but far away may cost too much
energy to be worth the extra trip. There are
many potential costs to traveling a long
distance for food.
Territorial individuals defend a physical
geographic area against other individuals. This
area is defended because of the benefits derived
from it, which may include available mates, food
resources, and high-quality breeding sites.
 An individual may defend
a territory using scent
markers, vocalizations that
warn other individuals to
stay away, or actual physical
force against intruders.
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Spider monkeys scream, bark, rattle
branches, and even throw branches and
feces to defend their territory.