Download Animal Behavior

 What is behavior & Why study
it?
 Behavior

everything an animal does & how it
does it
 link between animal & its environment


innate = inherited or
developmentally fixed
learned = develop during animal’s
lifetime
 Why study behavior?


part of phenotype
acted upon by natural selection
 lead to greater fitness?
 greater reproductive success?
 greater survival?
 When studying Animal Behavior,
there are different questions to
ask….What questions do we
ask?
 Immediate (proximate) causes
What is immediate stimulus &
mechanism
 “how” & “what” questions
(not WHY)

 Ultimate causes
evolutionary significance
 how does behavior
contribute to survival
& reproduction
 “why” questions

 44.1 Behavioral Genetics
 Genes affect behavior

Genes that affect structure
and activity of the nervous
system affect the way animals
react to a stimulus
Example:
Garter snakes and food
preferences
Coastal garter snakes prefer
to eat banana slugs
 Inland garter snakes ignore
banana slugs
 Hybrids have an intermediate
response


Why? See genes
 Inland snakes lack a
genetically determined ability
to associate the scent of slugs
with food
 In addition…Mutations that affect metabolism
or structural traits also affect behavior
 In order to further clarify the
genetic basis of behavior,
we can also use
comparisons among species
 Example…
Pair-bonding in prairie voles
Prairie voles mate for life
 Mountain voles are
promiscuous
 Prairie voles have more
oxytocin receptors than
mountain voles
 Prairie voles injected with a
drug that blocks action of
oxytocin dumped their
partners

 Ex. Oxytocin (OT) Hormone


that acts in labor and
lactation; can influence pair
bonding, aggression,
territorality … in some
species…
Oxytocin Receptors in Prairie
Voles
Knockouts and Other
Mutations
 Maternal behavior in mice

Mice with oxytocin receptors
knocked out do not lactate,
and are less likely to retrieve
pups removed from the nest
 Male fruit flies with a mutation
in the fruitless gene lack
certain brain neurons
Do not perform normal
courtship movements
 Court other males as well as
females

 Types of behaviors
I. Innate (instinctive) behaviors

automatic, fixed, “built-in”
 despite different environments,
all individuals exhibit the
behavior
 triggered by a stimulus
II. Learned behaviors

modified by experience
 variable
 triggered by a stimulus
 I. Innate behavior
A. Fixed action patterns (FAP)


sequence of behaviors
essentially unchangeable
& usually conducted to completion
once started
sign stimulus
 releaser that triggers FAP
 Fixed Action Pattern
 Ex. Cuckoo Bird: Instinctive
(innate) Behaviors: The cuckoo
bird is a social parasite that lays
its egg in other birds’ nests
The foster parents instinctively
respond to the cuckoo’s open
mouth by feeding it
The newly hatched cuckoo
eliminates competition by
instinctively rolling other eggs out
of the nest
 Fixed Action Patterns (FAP)
 B. Directed movements
 Taxis


change in direction
automatic movement toward
(positive taxis) or
away from
(negative taxis) a
stimulus
 phototaxis
 chemotaxis
 Kinesis

change in rate of
movement in
response to a stimulus
 C. Migration
 Complex behavior, but still
under genetic control

“migratory restlessness” seen in
birds bred & raised in captivity
 Migration
 Following ancient fly-ways

navigate by sun, stars,
magnetic fields
 D. Imprinting
 Learning at a specific critical
time forming social
attachments

both learning & innate
components
 Konrad Lorenz (pioneer in
field of animal behavior)
showed ‘imprinting’ in geese
 Baby geese follow the first
large object that bends over
them
 Imprinting
 Video: Ducklings following
 Critical period in some
species
 II. Learned behavior
A. Associative learning:
learning to associate one
feature of the environment
(stimulus) with another
( 2 types)
1. Operant Conditioning
 An animal modifies its voluntary
behavior in response to
consequences of that behavior;
trial and error
 Example: Reward of food for
pressing a lever
 Operant conditioning
 Skinner box
 2. Classical conditioning
An animal’s involuntary response to a
stimulus becomes associated with
another stimulus presented at the
same time
Example: Salivation in Pavlov’s dogs
stimulus & reward/punishment
 Ivan Pavlov’s dogs
connect reflex behavior to
associated stimulus
 B. Habituation: An animal learns

by experience not to respond to a
stimulus that has neither positive
nor negative effects
 Loss of response to stimulus
“cry-wolf” effect
 learn not to respond to
repeated occurrences of
stimulus


Example: Pigeons in cities learn to
ignore people walking past
 C. Observational Learning
 Observational learning

One animal imitates the
behavior of another

Example: Marmoset opening a
container
 D. Thinking & problem-solving
 Do other animals think?
 Do other animals think &
plan?
 III. Social behaviors
Generally, these are contests for
resources
They develop as evolutionary
adaptations
 agonistic behaviors

 threatening & submissive rituals
 symbolic, usually no harm done
 Since most animals live in
groups, we will look at group

dynamics first when
examining social behaviors….
44.6 Living in Groups
 Animals that live in social

groups may benefit by
cooperating in predator
detection, defense, and
rearing the young
A selfish herd forms when
animals hide behind one
another to avoid predators
 Group Benefits:

Defenses
Group Benefits : Improved
Feeding Opportunities
 Many mammals live in social groups

and cooperate in hunts,
BUT…cooperative hunters are not
always more successful than solitary
ones (can you think of why this might
be?)
Group Benefits:
Groups are more successful
 at fending off scavengers,
 caring for young
 protecting territory
 Group Benefits: Passing On

Learned Behaviors
Group living allows
transmission of cultural traits,
or behaviors learned by
imitation, such as termite
“fishing” among chimpanzees
 Costs of group living:
Dominance Hierarchies
 Benefits of group living are
often distributed unequally
 social ranking within a group
(i.e. pecking order)
 Ex. Wolves cooperate in
hunting, caring for young and
defending territory, but only
the alpha male and alpha
female breed
 More Costs of Group Living
 In most habitats, the costs of
living in large groups
outweigh the benefits
Large groups attract predators
 Increased competition for
space and food
 Increased vulnerability to
disease and parasites
 Risk of being killed or
exploited by others
 Even……..lions can have
these problems…

 Costs …
A crowded cormorant breeding
colony
 Other Social interactions….
 A. Social Interaction : Eusocial




Animals
Eusocial animals live in
colonies with overlapping
generations, and have a
reproductive division of labor
(what does this mean?)
Most colony members do not
reproduce; they assist their
relatives instead
Ex. Honeybees
Queen honeybee

The only fertile female in her
hive; she secretes a
pheromone that makes all
other females sterile
 Worker bees

Females that develop from
fertilized eggs; they collect
food and maintain the hive
 Drones

Stingless males that develop
from unfertilized eggs; they
mate with a virgin queen and
die
 Mole-Rats
 Mole-rats are the only eusocial


mammals
A reproductive mole-rat queen
mates with one to three kings
Their non-breeding worker
offspring feed the clan, dig
burrows, and protect against
predators
 They are called: Colonial
mammals

hairless, blind
These are considered
extreme cases of
Sterility and self-sacrifice ;
this has evolved in only a few
groups
 B. Social Interaction: Altruism
 Altruistic behavior

Behavior that enhances
another individual’s
reproductive success at the
altruist’s expense
reduces individual fitness but
increases fitness of recipient
 Natural selection should
eliminate these behaviors
(how?) yet, many examples
exist in nature.

 Example: Belding ground
squirrel

Altruistic behavior is
perpetuated because altruistic
individuals share genes with
their reproducing relatives –
this is called the “theory of
inclusive fitness”

See Quad 3 – Kin selection at
end of PPT
C. Social Interaction :
Territoriality
 Territoriality
 D. Social Interaction : Mating &
parental behavior
1. Genetic influences

changes in behavior in
different stages of mating
 pair bonding
 competitor aggression
2. Environmental influences

modifies behavior
 quality of diet
 social interactions
 learning opportunities
E. Social Interaction:
Cooperation
 IV. Social interaction
requires communication
A. Pheromones

chemical signal that
stimulates a response from
other individuals
 alarm pheromones
 sex pheromones
 Pheromones
 Pheromones
Human pheromones?
 B. Dance!
Honeybee communication
 Honey bee dance to
communicate location of food
source
waggle dance (see video
(

 C. Auditory communication
 Bird song
species identification &
mating ritual
 mixed learned & innate
 critical learning period

 Insect song
mating ritual & song
 innate, genetically
controlled

 D. Physical and Social
Recognition is required
 Animals learn landmarks in
their environment, and
recognize mates, offspring
and competitors

Example: Once male lobsters
have fought, the loser
recognizes and avoids the
winner
 44.8 Human Behavior
 Hormones and possibly
pheromones influence human
behavior – but humans alone
can make moral choices about
their actions
 A behavior that is adaptive in
the evolutionary sense may
still be judged by society to be
morally wrong (can you think
of one?)
 Quad 3/Set 3 : Kin selection
 Read the article entitled, Kin
selection.
 Define ‘altruistic behavior’
 Using the internet, learn
about one of the animals
listed as a example of this
behavior and write a
statement or two describing
their altruistic behavior.
 Explain the coefficient of
relatedness (r) and how this
relates to altruism.
NOTE: Be sure to study this
concept – it will be tested.