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ANIMAL BEHAVIOR

Ethology – the study
of the behavior of
animals in their
natural setting.
NOBEL PRIZE IN ETHOLOGY
Awarded in 1973 to three men “for their
discoveries concerning organization and
elicitation of individual and social behavior
patterns.”
Konrad Lorenz, Karl von Frisch and
Nikolaas Tinbergen
 Most of their work is from the early-mid 1900’s.
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KONRAD LORENZ
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Discovered imprinting
(learning/instinct) in
newly hatched ducklings
and goslings*.
NIKOLAAS TINBERGEN

Known for his work on
instinct/learning and
complex animal
behaviors
KARL VON FRISCH

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Karl von Frisch is known for
two major discoveries about
honey bees.
Demonstrated that honey
bees have color vision.
Showed that honey bees
use a dance language to
communicate food locations
to other bees*.
WHY DO ANIMALS DO THE THINGS THEY DO?
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What is a behavior? A response to a stimulus
that results from the interaction of an animal’s
body systems.
Stimulus (=signal) carries information
Stimulus  results in a response (=behavior)
INNATE OR INSTINCTUAL BEHAVIOR (A REFLEX)

Fully functional the first time the stimulus is
received

Ex: Human infants
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Stimulus – touch on cheek
Response – turns head in direction of touch and begins
sucking response
Stimulus – sudden loss of support (infants under 4
months old)
Moro reflex – arms flung upwards*
STIMULUS - RESPONSE
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Reflex – brain does not play a role!
Stimulus travels to spinal cord and muscles
respond
*
STIMULUS RESPONSE: SUMMARY - REFLEX
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Stimulus: Example – Loud noise
Receptor: nerves able to detect the
stimulus – Example – Ability to sense sound
Coordinating process: message travels from
nerves to muscles
Effector: Muscle responds to stimulus
Response: Example - Animal is startled
OBSERVING NERVOUS RESPONSES

Activity
LEARNED BEHAVIOR


Acquired behavior developed over time and
through experience.
All learning occurs because of biochemical
and structural changes in the brain.
LEARNED BEHAVIOR

An animal is able to learn because it has the
 Necessary
genes to make the brain changes
 Example: You can’t “teach” algebra to an elephant

An animal is able to learn because it has the
 Necessary
genes to allow it to respond to stimuli
 Example: You can’t “teach” a blind-cave fish to
respond to light!
TYPES OF LEARNED BEHAVIOR
Classical Conditioning
 Habituation
 Operant Conditioning
 Insight Learning

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Mental connection between 2 stimuli and a
response.
Reading on Pavlov – and classical conditioning
TYPES OF LEARNING: CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING - PAVLOV

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Unconditioned stimulus – food
Unconditioned response – dog salivates at food
(without being taught!)
Conditioned stimulus (MUST BE paired with
unconditioned stimulus) – bell ringing
Conditioned response – dog salivates at bell ringing.
Complete worksheet on Pavlov’s dogs
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING – AUTO
SHAPING OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR
Rats: - autoshaping procedure
 Light is projected into cage (neutral stimulus)
 Brief shock follows (unconditioned stimulus)
 Rat shows fear (unconditioned response)
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING – AUTO
SHAPING OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR
What happens the next time light is shown
in the cage?
_________________________________
After a few trials  Rat shows fear
when a light is projected into cage.
_________________________________
• Extinction - If a conditioned stimulus (ex.
light) is presented in the absence of the
unconditioned stimulus (ex. electric
shock) then the conditioned response
(ex. fear) will stop occurring with light.

TYPES OF LEARNING
B) Habituation – a process by which an animal
decreases or stops its response to a repetitive
stimulus that does not reward nor harm an
animal.
OPERANT CONDITIONING

Learning that is based on trial and error in
which an action that is rewarded becomes
more frequently performed or an action that is
punished becomes less frequent.
OPERANT CONDITIONING

Dolphins jump out of water and are rewarded
with food  animal associates the jump with
food  trainer uses this learning to cause
dolphin to jump.

Reading on Dolphin Training
OPERANT CONDITIONING
This continues to “work” as long as dolphin
continues to be rewarded
 In nature—animal eats a toad which tastes
badly animal associates toad with bad
tasteanimal no longer eats toads)

INSIGHT LEARNING
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Application of prior
knowledge to a new
situation – monkeys!
LEARNING AND INSTINCT
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Most animal behaviors are a combination of
instinct and learning and are a function of
genes and the environment.
LEARNING AND INSTINCT
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Imprinting – a form of learning in which
individuals exposed to certain stimuli, early in
life, form an association with the object. The
brain of the animal has to be prepared
genetically to respond to the stimuli, but the
association depends on the external
environment. (puppy)
EXPERIMENT 1 - WHAT IS THE ROLE OF IMPRINTING ON
THE SELECTION OF A MATE?
EXAMPLE: TWO CLOSELY RELATED SPECIES OF BIRDS: BLUE
TITS AND GREAT TITS.
EXPERIMENT 1 –
Procedures: Great tit eggs placed in nest with blue tit parents and vice versa.

Great Tit nest
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Blue Tit nest
EXPERIMENT 1– DATA
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As adults:
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Great tits reared by blue tits
3
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of 11 found mates.
All of their mates were blue tits reared by great tits.
 Blue
 14
tits reared by great tits
mated with blue tits
 3 females mated with great tits
EXPERIMENT 1 - ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS
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In both species there were members of the experimental
group who mated with the “wrong” species.
Yet, early imprinting affected the great tits more than
the blue tits. None of the great tits had young.
All of the blue tits found mates and had young. All of the
offspring were genetically blue tits
Even the 3 females who mated with the great tits and
shared parenting with the great tits had mated with blue
tits on the side.
Question: Worksheet
EXPERIMENT 2 - HOW DO ANIMALS KNOW
THEIR RELATIVES?
Belding Ground Squirrel
Background
Longest
hibernation period (7-8
months) of all mammals. Live in the
mountains of CA. Eat enough food
during the spring and summer
months to last it through its long
hibernation.
Male squirrels come out of
hibernation about 2 weeks before
females. They are ready to mate at
that time.
Males are very aggressive to each
other and all get injured during the
mating period with some killed.
EXPERIMENT 2 – BACKGROUND
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Females live in colonies with
individual burrows where
they raise their young.
When females emerge from
hibernation they are willing
to mate for a total of 3-6
hours.
Females mate with multiple
males and their offspring in
one litter will have more
than one father.
However, only the first two
males contribute sperm to
the offspring (other matings
produce no young)
EXPERIMENT 2 - BACKGROUND
Females feed on vegetation in territories outside of
their burrows.
 Females are very aggressive to each other. They
fight to keep other females out of their territory
and burrow—an intruder may kill their young.
 Daughters usually make burrows near their
mothers.
 Females are LESS likely to fight with close
relatives than with unrelated females.

EXPERIMENT 2 - PROCEDURES
Baby squirrels reared in an experimental setting
under one of FOUR conditions:
1. Siblings reared separately from each other
2. Non-siblings reared together
3. Siblings reared together
4. Non-siblings reared separately from each
other.
EXPERIMENT 2 – DATA
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Non-siblings and siblings who were reared together were
mostly non-aggressive to each other when they met.
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Individuals in groups reared separately showed
aggressive behavior when they met
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Non-siblings had more aggressive encounters than the
siblings.
Fewer aggressive encounters were seen between siblings
than non-siblings.
Squirrels differentiated between full siblings and halfsiblings which are raised together.

Two full siblings (same mother and father) fight less than
half-siblings (same mother and different father), and a full
sibling is more likely to assist a sibling while being chased.
EXPERIMENT 2 – ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS
For Discussion:
 Which behaviors involved learning in this
experiment?
 Which behaviors involved genetics?
 How DO squirrels recognize close relatives
reared separately?
Question: Worksheet
EXPERIMENT 3 – HOW DOES A BIRD KNOW TO
SING ITS SONG?
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White crowned sparrow
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In nature, the young
begin to sing the song of
its parents at 150 days.
The white crowned
sparrow always sings the
same song as other
members of its species.
EXPERIMENT 3 – PROCEDURES AND RESULTS
Eggs taken to lab and baby birds were raised under
four conditions.
 1. Baby birds raised in isolation. Baby birds
exposed to NO songs at all.

At 150 days, all of the birds begin to sing, but the song was
merely “twittering” not the full song of the species.
EXPERIMENT 3 – PROCEDURES AND RESULTS
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2. Baby birds raised in isolation. When birds were
between 10-50 days (critical period), they were
exposed to tapes of white crowned sparrow song.
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All were able to sing perfectly at 150 days.
EXPERIMENT 3 – PROCEDURES AND RESULTS
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3. Baby birds raised in isolation. During critical
period the birds were exposed to tapes of a
different species’ song.

At 150 days they were unable to sing the song.
Song Sparrow
EXPERIMENT 3 – PROCEDURES AND RESULTS
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4. Eggs taken to lab and baby birds raised in
isolation. During critical period the birds were
exposed to tapes of a white crowned sparrow song
and the song of a song sparrow.

They all sang the song of the white crowned sparrow
only.
EXPERIMENT 3 – ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS
Discuss
Instinct
with your group the role of
Learning
Critical period
and the ability of white crowned sparrows to sing their
species song.
Animals, Tool Use, Learning and Instinct
Readings in Groups