Download Ch 37: Animal Behavior

BIOLOGY
CONCEPTS & CONNECTIONS
Fourth Edition
Neil A. Campbell • Jane B. Reece • Lawrence G. Mitchell • Martha R. Taylor
CHAPTER 37
Behavioral Adaptations to the
Environment
From PowerPoint® Lectures for Biology: Concepts & Connections
Copyright © 2003 Pearson Education, Inc. publishing as Benjamin Cummings
Tracking Jaguars
• The study of an animal's
behavior is key to
understanding its
evolution and ecological
roles
• In the 1980s, zoologist
Alan Rabinowitz studied
jaguar behavior and
ecology in Belize
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• Rabinowitz monitored the activities of six adult
jaguars over extended periods
– He fitted the animals with radio transmitter
collars to trace their movements in the dense
jungle
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• Rabinowitz made many important discoveries
regarding jaguar breeding, hunting, and
signaling
– Jaguars are solitary hunters
– They shun contact with other jaguars except
during the breeding season
– Male jaguars help care for their young
• Many of these behaviors provide clues about
jaguar evolution
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CLASSIC CONCEPTS IN BEHAVIOR
37.1 Behavioral biologists study the actions of
animals in their natural environments
• Behavioral biology is the study of what
animals do when interacting with their
environment
• Behavior can be interpreted in terms of
proximate causes, or immediate interaction
with the environment
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• Nobel laureates Karl von Frisch, Konrad
Lorenz, and Niko Tinbergen were among the
first experimentalists in behavioral biology
• Tinbergen and Lorenz performed
experimental studies of innate behavior and
simple forms of learning
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• A classic Tinbergen experiment deals with the
nesting behavior of the digger wasp
– The female wasp often excavates and cares for
four or five separate nests
• Tinbergen used this experiment to test his
prediction that digger wasps use landmarks to
keep track of the location of their nests
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• In the experiment, Tinbergen placed a circle of
pinecones around a nest opening
Nest
1
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Figure 37.1, Part 1
• After the female flew away, Tinbergen moved
the pinecones a few feet to one side of the nest
opening
– When the female wasp returned, she flew to the
middle of the circle of pinecones rather than to
the actual nest opening
Nest
2
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No Nest
Figure 37.1, Part 2
• Tinbergen next arranged the pinecones in a
triangle around the nest and made a circle of
small stones off to one side of the nest opening
– This time the wasp flew to the stones
Nest
3
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No Nest
Figure 37.1, Part 3
• The wasp cued in on the arrangement of the
landmarks rather than the landmarks
themselves
• This experiment demonstrated that the wasp
did use landmarks and that she could learn
new ones to keep track of her nest
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• Behavioral ecologists are especially interested
in the ultimate causes of behavior, which are
evolutionary
• Natural selection preserves behaviors that
enhance fitness
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37.2 Behavior results from both genes and
environmental factors
• Animal behavior often involves a combination
of genetic programming (innate behavior) and
environmental experiences (learning)
• In biology, the nature-versus-nurture debate is
not about either/or
– It is about how both the genes and the
environment influence the development of
phenotypic traits
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• The gathering
of nest
materials by
lovebirds has
genetic and
environmental
components
Single long strip carried in beak
(Fischer’s lovebird)
Several short strips tucked under feathers
(peach-faced lovebird)
Tucking
failure
Strip in
beak
Hybrid behavior
Figure 37.2
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37.3 Innate behavior often appears as fixed action
patterns
• Sign stimuli trigger innate, essentially
unchangeable fixed action patterns (FAPs)
– A sign stimulus is often a simple clue in an
animal’s environment
• The genetic programming underlying FAPs
ensures that such activities are performed
correctly without practice
– Such as many parent-offspring interactions
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• The graylag goose always
retrieves an egg that has
been bumped out of her
nest in the same manner
– This is a fixed action
pattern
– She carries this sequence
to completion, even if
the egg slips away during
the process
Figure 37.3A
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• Several key events in the life cycle of the
European cuckoo are determined by fixed
action patterns
– Egg-laying behavior
1
2
3
Figure 37.3B
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– The behavior of
the cuckoo
hatchling ejecting
the host eggs
from the nest
– The feeding
behavior of a
foster mother to
the cuckoo chick
Figure 37.3B
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37.4 Learning ranges from simple behavioral
changes to complex problem solving
• Learning is a change in behavior resulting
from experience
• Habituation is one of the simplest forms of
learning
– An animal learns not to respond to a repeated
stimulus that conveys little or no information
– For example, birds eventually become
habituated to scarecrows and no longer avoid
nearby fruit trees
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Table 37.4
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37.5 Imprinting is learning that involves both
innate behavior and experience
• Imprinting is irreversible learning limited to a
sensitive period in an animal's life
• Imprinting enhances fitness by enabling rapid
learning
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• In Konrad Lorenz's
most famous study,
he used the graylag
goose to demonstrate
imprinting
– Lorenz took over
the maternal role
for a group of
goslings
Figure 37.5A
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• Not all examples of imprinting involve parentoffspring bonding
– Although newly hatched salmon do not receive
any parental care, they seem to imprint on the
complex mixture of odors unique to the
freshwater stream where they hatch
– This allows the salmon to find their way back
to the stream to spawn after spending a year or
more at sea
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• Imprinting plays an important role in song
development for many kinds of birds
Figure 37.5B
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37.6 Many animals learn by association and
imitation
• Associative learning is learning that a
particular stimulus or response is linked to a
reward or punishment
– These ducks have
learned to associate
humans with food
handouts
– They congregate
rapidly whenever
a person approaches
the shoreline
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Figure 37.6A
• 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
Figure 37.6B
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• Imitation is learning by observing and
mimicking the behavior of others
– This form of learning is not limited to a sensitive
period
– Many predators, including cats and coyotes,
seem to learn some of their basic hunting tactics
by observing and imitating their mother
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37.7 Animal cognition includes problem-solving
behavior
• Some animals exhibit problemsolving behavior
– Examples: chimpanzees and
ravens
Figure 37.7A, B
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• Cognition is the ability of an animal's nervous
system to perceive, store, process, and use
information
• The study of animal cognition is called cognitive
ethology
– Consciousness, or awareness, is one area of
study in cognitive ethology
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• Answers to questions about animal thinking
may profoundly affect how we interact with
other animals and how we view ourselves
• Scientists face unique challenges in
determining the differences between human
consciousness and that of other animals
• Are humans unique, or are we simply at one
end of a consciousness continuum?
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ECOLOGICAL ROLES OF BEHAVIOR
37.8 An animal's behavior reflects its evolution
• Behavior is an evolutionary adaptation that
enhances survival and reproductive success
• Behavior evolves as natural selection finetunes an animal to its environment
– The hunting and reproduction behaviors of
jaguars
– Nest location by digger wasps
– Imprinting of goslings
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37.9 Biological rhythms synchronize behavior with
the environment
• Animals exhibit a great variety of rhythmic
behavior patterns
• Circadian rhythms are patterns that are
repeated daily
– Sleep/wake cycles in animals and plants
• Circadian rhythms appear to be timed by an
internal biological clock
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• In the absence of environmental cues, these
rhythms continue
– But they become out of phase with the
environment
Figure 37.9A
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• Long-term isolation has been used to study
human circadian rhythms
• Body rhythms affect our general well-being,
work efficiency, and decision-making ability
Figure 37.9B
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37.10 Animal movement may be oriented to stimuli
or landmarks
• Movement in a directed way enables animals
to
– avoid predators
– migrate to a more favorable environment
– obtain food
– find mates and nest sites
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• A simple type of animal movement is kinesis
– Random movement in response to a stimulus
• Another simple type of animal movement is
taxis
– A more or less automatic movement directed
toward or away from some stimulus
– Examples include rheotaxis, chemotaxis, and
phototaxis
• Some animals use landmarks to find their way
within an area
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37.11 Movement from place to place often depends
on internal maps
• Many animals formulate cognitive maps
– Internal representations of spatial relationships
among objects in their surroundings
• Some animals undertake long-range
migrations
– Examples: whales, birds, monarch butterflies
• Animals navigate using the sun, stars,
landmarks, or Earth's magnetism
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• Migrating gray whales use coastal landmarks to
stay on course
Arctic Ocean
FEEDING
GROUNDS
Siberia
Alaska
NORTH
AMERICA
Pacific
Ocean
Atlantic
Ocean
Baja California
BREEDING GROUNDS
Figure 37.11A
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• The indigo
bunting learns
a star map and
navigates by
fixing on the
North Star
Paper
Ink pad
Funnelshaped
cage
Figure 37.11B
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37.12 Behavioral ecologists use cost/benefit
analysis in studying feeding behavior
• Animals are generally
selective and efficient
in their food choices
– Some animals, such
as gulls, are feeding
“generalists”
– Other animals, such
as koalas, are feeding
“specialists”
Figure 37.12A, B
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• The mechanism that enables an animal to find
particular foods efficiently is called a search
image
• Natural selection seems to have shaped feeding
behavior to maximize energy gain and minimize
the expenditure of time and energy
– This is the theory of optimal foraging
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• Whenever an animal has food choices, there are
a number of tradeoffs
– A bass can get more usable energy from
minnows, but crayfish are easier to catch
– However, it may take more time to eat a
crayfish because of its tough exoskeleton
Figure 37.12C
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• Jaguars in Belize have many prey options
– Armadillos, only
about 5kg of food for
the jaguar, are
abundant and easy to
catch
– 200 kg tapirs are less
abundant and run
quickly
– In optimal foraging,
the armadillo is the
preferred prey
Figure 37.12D
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• The kangaroo rat selects high-energy foods
(seeds) in a manner that reduces time spent
above the ground, where it is exposed to
predators
Figure 37.12E
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SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND SOCIOBIOLOGY
37.13 Sociobiology places social behavior in an
evolutionary context
• Social behavior is defined as the interaction
among members of a population
• The discipline of sociobiology studies social
behavior in the context of evolution
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37.14 Rituals involving agonistic behavior often
resolve confrontations between competitors
• Agonistic behavior is social behavior
consisting of threats and combat that settles
disputes between individuals in a population
• Agonistic behavior can directly affect an
individual's evolutionary fitness
– The victor often gains
first or exclusive access
to mates
Figure 37.14
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37.15 Dominance hierarchies are maintained by
agonistic behavior
• Many animals live in social groups maintained
by agonistic behaviors
• Dominance hierarchy is the ranking of
individuals based on social interactions
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• Chickens establish a “peck order”
• Resources are often partitioned based upon
the dominance hierarchy
Figure 37.15
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37.16 Talking About Science: Behavioral biologist
Jane Goodall discusses dominance hierarchies
and reconciliation behavior in chimpanzees
• Dr. Jane Goodall is
one of the world's
best-known
biologists
• She has studied the
behavior of
chimpanzees in their
natural habitat, in
East Africa, since the
early 1960s
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Figure 37.16A
• Dr. Goodall's research indicates that dominance
hierarchies and reconciliation behaviors are
integral parts of the lives of many primates
– For example, a chimpanzee that has threatened
another member of its group may use a hand
gesture to invite reconciliation
Figure 37.16B
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37.17 Territorial behavior parcels space and
resources
• Humans tend to space themselves out when
they are close to others
– They establish
what we might
call personal
territories
Figure 37.17A
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• Many animals exhibit territorial behavior
– It is a form of social behavior that partitions
resources
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• A territory is an area that individuals defend
and from which other members of the same
species are usually excluded
– The size of the territory varies with species, the
function, and the available resources
– Territories are typically used for feeding, mating,
and/or rearing young
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• Territoriality is often maintained by agonistic
behavior
– These New Zealand gannets maintain their
individual nesting territories by calling and
pecking at each other
Figure 37.17B
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• Territoriality can enhance fitness if the benefits
of possessing a territory outweigh the energy
costs of defending one
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• Territorial rights are proclaimed continually in
a variety of ways
– Bird songs
– Noises, such as the bellowing of sea lions and
the chattering of squirrels
– Defecation in open
areas
– Scent markers,
such as urine
Figure 37.17C
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37.18 Mating behavior often involves elaborate
courtship rituals
• Courtship behaviors advertise the species, sex,
and physical condition of potential mates
• Many species court in pairs, isolated from the
rest of the population
– Example: the common loon
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• The courtship and mating of the common loon
involves the male and female loons swimming
side by side while performing a series of
displays
– The courting birds
frequently turn their
heads away from
each other
– The birds then dip
their beaks in the
water
1
2
Figure 37.18A, Part 1 & 2
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– The loons then
submerge their
heads and necks
– Prior to copulation,
the male invites the
female onto land by
turning his head
backward with his
beak held downward
3
4
Figure 37.18A, Part 3 & 4
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• The loons then
copulate
5
Figure 37.18A, Part 5
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• Some species perform courtship rituals in
groups
– Mates are chosen from a group of candidates
• The male sage grouse performs by strutting
about and erecting his tail feathers in a bright,
fanlike display
– Researchers hypothesize
that there is a connection
between a male’s display
and the quality of his
genes
Figure 37.18B
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37.19 Complex social organization hinges on
complex signaling
• In behavioral ecology, a signal is a form of
communication that causes a change in
behavior in another animal
• Social behavior depends on signaling
– Sounds
– Scents
– Displays
– Touches
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• This ring-tailed lemur is communicating
aggression with its prominent tail
– Prior to this display,
it smeared its tail
with odorous
secretions from
glands in its forelegs
– By waving its
scented tail over its
head, the lemur
transmits both visual
and chemical signals
Figure 37.19A
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• Honeybees perform dances that seem to
communicate the direction and distance of
nectar to other members of the colony
Figure 37.19B
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– The round dance indicates that food is nearby,
in an unspecified direction
Figure 37.19C
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– The waggle dance probably indicates both
distance and direction of food
(1)
30º
(3)
(2)
(1)
Beehive
(2)
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(3)
Figure 37.19D
37.20 Altruistic acts can be explained by evolution
• Some animals exhibit altruism
– Behavior that reduces an individual's fitness
while increasing the fitness of another
individual
• Examples of altruistic behavior can be found
in honeybee social systems
– Worker bees spend their lives laboring on
behalf of the fertile queen bee
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• Naked mole rats also exhibit altruism
– The reproducing female
(queen) mates with one
to three males (kings)
– The rest of the colony
consists of
nonreproductive
females and males, who
care for and protect the
queen, kings, and new
offspring
Figure 37.20A, B
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• Some altruistic acts can be explained in terms
of kin selection
– An animal can increase the survival of genes like
its own by helping relatives
• In reciprocal altruism, a favor may be repaid
later by the beneficiary or another member of
the social system
– This explains altruistic acts by nonrelatives
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37.21 Talking About Science: Edward O. Wilson
promoted the field of sociobiology and is a
leading conservation activist
• Evolutionary biologist Edward O. Wilson
promoted a relatively new area of research
called sociobiology
Figure 37.21
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• Sociobiology is based on the concept that
social behavior evolves, like anatomical traits,
as an expression of genes
• Sociobiologists thus believe that natural
selection underlies many human behaviors
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• Wilson believes that there is a biological basis
for some of the human behaviors that have
created our current biodiversity crisis
– Caring only about a small piece of land, a
limited band of kinfolk, and a time span of a
few generations
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37.22 Connection: Both genes and culture
contribute to human social behavior
• Human behavior has a genetic basis but is
quite variable and influenced by learning and
culture
• One of our most important
cultural attributes is education
– Education fosters behavior
that ultimately evolved
because it has adaptive
value in the human species
Figure 37.22
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