Download Animal Behavior : Ethology

Unit #2-Responses to the Environment
Ch. 51: Behavioral Ecology
Lab #17-Invert. Behavior
Video
Ch. 49: Senses & Motor Mechanisms
Lab #18
Video:
Ch. 48: Nervous System
Lab #19: Observational Diss. of Sheep’s Brain
Video: The Neural Connection
Test #2: Approx. Date – Thurs. March 27th
Animal Behavior : Ethology
Chapter 51
Pgs. 1106-1133
Introductory Questions #1
1) How are proximate causes different from
ultimate causes of behavior
2) Name four different types of learning and
provide one example of each.
3) Which type of learning is more complex than
the others. Why?
4) How is habituation different from any other
type of learning?
5) How do circadian rhythms effect behavior?
6) Name three ways in which animals
communicate.
Video: Inside the Animal Mind (Pt. I)
Text pgs: 1114-1125
I. Name three types of learning mentioned in the video
II. Give an example for each of the three learning types that was
presented.
III. What was the most fascinating type of learning you saw?
IV. Give one situation from the video that you were not aware of
before watching the video.
Specific Questions:
-What part of the brain is responsible for generating a mental map?
-Where does the Clark Nutcracker finch reside? How many nuts
do they typically bury each year? How many of these nuts do they
recover in the winter?
-What type of learning was observed with the chimps and the
banana?
• Give TEN Key statements (numbered)
• Give FIVE questions you have after watching the video.
Key Areas of Behavior (Ch . 51)
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Instinct (innate) Behavior
Causes of Behavior: Proximate & Ultimate
Learning: (5) types
Animal Cognition
Sociobiology & Communication
Defining Behavior-Ethology
• Involves how organisms react (respond) and cope to the
stimuli from the environment. Everything an animal does.
Two types of Explanations:
Proximate Causes:
-focuses on the “how” a behavior is formed
-triggered by environmental stimuli
-involves genetic, physiological, & anatomical mechanisms.
Ultimate causes:
-focuses on “why” a behavior occurs.
-evolutionary significance & evolutionary explanations
-Long term purpose for the behavior
Modifications of behavior occur through learning
• There are five different types of Learning
Example of Proximate & Ultimate Questions
about Behavior
• See pg. 1107 – read the example of the red-crowned crane.
• What is the Proximate Question?
How does day length influence the breeding of the redcrowned cranes?
• What is a reasonable hypothesis?
Breeding is most productive during the spring and early
summer.
• What would be an Ultimate Question you could address
about this behavior?
Why did natural selection favor this behavior and not a
different one?
• What would be a reasonable hypothesis? Fitness is
improved for a particular reason
Evolutionary link to Behavior
• Animals are expected to behave in ways to maximize
their fitness (optimum behavior)
• What is the genetic influence?
• Ex. Lovebirds a repertoire of song types
• Why has natural selection favored multisong behavior?
• Poss hypothesis: A repertoire of songs makes older, more
experienced males more attractive to females.
• Testable predictions: males learn more songs as they get
older so:
– The repertoire of songs is an indicator of age
– Females prefer to mate with males having large repertoire of
songs
**actual outcome: some songbirds show their correlation while
others don’t.
Introductory Questions #1
1) How are proximate causes different from
ultimate causes of behavior
2) Name four different types of learning and
provide one example of each.
3) Which type of learning is more complex than
the others. Why?
4) How is habituation different from any other
type of learning?
5) How do circadian rhythms effect behavior?
6) Name three ways in which animals
communicate.
Introductory Questions #1
1) How are proximate causes different from
ultimate causes of behavior
2) Name four different types of learning and
provide one example of each.
3) Which type of learning is more complex than
the others. Why?
4) How is habituation different from any other
type of learning?
5) How do circadian rhythms effect behavior?
6) Name three ways in which animals
communicate.
Instinct (innate) Behavior (pg. 1110)
• Controlled by strong genetic influences
–
–
–
–
–
Inborn
Animals don’t have to witness the behavior
Unlearned
Triggered by the environment (sign stimulus or a releaser)
Inherited neurological circuitry that directs behavior
• Examples:
–
–
–
–
Kinesis & Taxis-change in activity in response to stimuli
Migration
Signals & Communication (pheromones)
Fixed Action patterns (FAP) observed in the Graylag goose
& egg rolling & the three-spined stickle back fish
Egg Rolling w/Graylag Goose
Ex. of Fixed Action Pattern: action is carried out to completion
Kinesis vs. Taxis
• Kinesis: simple change in activity or turning rate in
response to a stimulus.
– Ex. Sow bug response to humidity & activity level
• Taxis: is more automatic and focused on the
orientation of the movement either
toward “+” or away “-” a stimulus.
– Ex. Rheotaxis (current in a stream w/trout & salmon)
Gravitropism
Phototropism
Habituation (pg. 1100)
•
•
•
•
•
Simple form of learning
Animals learn not to respond to a stimulus
Loss of responsiveness
The response gets ignored despite the stimulus
Possible decreases wasting time
*Ex. Hydra stops contracting if disturbed too
often by water currents
Imprinting (pg. 1098)
•
•
•
•
•
Early recognition of the same group
Acquired during a limited critical “sensitive” period
Occurs right after birth
Forms from the parent-offspring bond
Small window of time where the offspring react to
some animal or object.
• Commonly seen with birds
• Ex. Konrad Lorenz & duck hatchlings
• Human infants:
– Grasping
– cheek & feeding
-smiling w/parent
-Babinski reflex
Classical Conditioning(pg. 1116)
• Associative learning between normal body
condition and a new stimulus
• Pavlov: (dog salivation with a ringing bell)
• Can opener w/dogs and cats
Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning (pg. 1099)
• Instrumental conditioning
• Trial & Error
**The animal must do something to gain a
reward (food)
• Use positive & negative reinforcement
• Skinner Expts w/Rats (lever & Food)
Insight Learning (pg. 1099-1100)
•
•
•
•
Most complex type of learning
(video)
Animal solves a problem
Requires past experiences
Need to make associations with objects and
what can be “done” with them
**Chimps & the hanging banana
Insight & Associative Learning
Animal Cognition
•
•
•
•
Perceive, store, process and use information
Ties behavior to the nervous system
Spatial learning & mental maps play a role
Consciousness: Observed in animals?
– Very difficult to study
Introductory Questions #1
1) How are proximate causes different from
ultimate causes of behavior
2) Name four different types of learning and
provide one example of each.
3) Which type of learning is more complex than
the others. Why?
4) How is habituation different from any other
type of learning?
5) How do circadian rhythms effect behavior?
6) Name three ways in which animals
communicate.
Introductory Questions #2 (Ch. 49)
1)
2)
Name five different types of specialized neurons used to receive
external stimuli. What is sensed by a nocioreceptor? What is
substance P? What substance can be used to block the release of
subsatnce P? (See pg. 1048-1049)
What are the five basic senses in humans? Match one of these
five with each structure listed below:
-olfactory
-statoliths
-pacinain corpuscle
-oval window
-rods & cones
-taste buds
-lateral line system
-rhodopsin
-saccule & utricle (otoliths)
-incus & stapes
-sclera, cornea, retina
-vitreous humor
-tectorial, basilar, tympanic membranes
Five Types Learning
• Changes in behavior that caused by an experience
“a-ha experience”
• General types of learning:
– Habituation
– Imprinting (learning & innate)
– Associative
(pg. 1115)
(pg. 1108)
(pg. 1116)
• Operant conditioning (trial & error learning) pg. 1117
• Classical conditioning
(pg. 1116)
– Insight Learning
(pg. 1116)
– Spatial learning & cognitive (mental) maps (pg. 1115)
Tinbergen’s Sand Wasp Experiment
Nest finding behavior of wasps responding to the arrangement of
the cones rather than the cones themselves: Spatial Learning
Pg. 1115
Foraging (pg. 1119)
• Behavior associated with recognizing, searching,
capturing, and consuming food.
• Food habits are part of the animals niche
• Can be shaped by competition
• It is a compromise between benefits and costs
(energetically)
• Natural selection dictates: minimizing costs & Max.
benefits
• What are some of the Costs and Benefits of Foraging?
• Optimal foraging weighs the benefits and costs . Do
animals weight the trade off? See info about the
Bluegill fish and Daphnia. (pg. 1122-1123) When the
prey density is high what does the blue gill
concentrate on? Did they become more or less
selective?
Effects of the Environment on
Foraging Behavior
What did Susan Riechert discover about the
Agelenopsis aperta spiders in regards to
their attack times while inhabiting a riparian
forest vs. arid habitats? (pgs 1119-1120)
Other Key Experiments/Observations to
Know
• Foraging & Prey Selection
–
–
–
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Funnel web Spider (arid vs. riparian attack times)
Bluegill sun fish (prey selection w/size & distance)
Crows dropping shells (shell drop height: 5.23m)
Mule deer (avoids predators-forest edges)
Text pg.
1119
1123
1122
1123
• Spatial Learning (mental maps):
– Tinbergen’s Wasps (landmarks)
– Zebrafish (genetic link to foraging behavior)
– Clark’s Nutcracker finches
– Elephants in the desert
– London Cab Driver
1115
1117
video
video
video
Social Behaviors
• Agonistic: aggressive behavior usually resulting
from competition of resources & mates (pg. 1127)
• Dominance heirarchy: “pecking order”
– largest male leader in the group
• Territorality: protection of its own area
– Defending the area from invaders
• Altruistic: unselfish behavior that benefits another in the
same group at the expense of that individual. (pg. 1130)
– Inclusive fitness: caring for others offspring (pg. 1129)
• Courtship & Sexual Selection (pg. 1129-1131)
• Communication: visual, auditory, electrical, chemical
Communication
• Necessary for social behavior
• Animals can use the following methods:
–
–
–
–
–
Auditory
Visual
Tactile
Chemical (pheromones)
Electrical
Communication Observed with Bees
• Observed by Karl Frisch (1940’s)
• Scouts Signal to others that food is nearby and
relative location
• Round Dance: Simply signals to others that food
is nearby (no direction or distance)-used for short
distances from the hive and excites the bees to fly
in all directions (approx. 50 m)
• Waggle Dance: Used for longer distances and
performs a figure eight path. This path
communicates both the distance and direction
using the sun, the hive, and the food source as
reference points.
Round Dance & Waggle Dance
Pheromones
•
•
•
•
Very specific (species)
Triggers hormonal activity
Communicates: danger, attraction to others
In vertebrates pheromones can effect sexual
cycles and reproductive behavior, choice in
mate.
• Known to synchronize menstrual cycles
• Used in perfumes and fragrances
Final Note:
• All behavior is based on responding to the
environment (external stimuli) and is
dependent on receiving/responding using
specialized cells called sensory neurons
• Next topic: Exploring the senses CH. 49
Key Terms & People
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Innate vs. Learned Behavior
Proximate vs. Ultimate causes
FAP (fixed action patterns) - graylag goose egg rolling
Tinbergen’s wasp Experiment
Habituation
Imprinting
Positive & Negative reinforcement
Classical conditioning (Pavlov experiment)
Operant conditioning
Insight learning (problem solving w/chimps)
Circadian Rhythms
Migration
Communication & Pheromones
Sexual Selection & Dominance heirarchy
Round dance & Waggle dance (honey bees)
Introductory Questions #2 (Ch. 49)
1)
2)
Name five different types of specialized neurons used to receive
external stimuli. What is sensed by a nocioreceptor? What is
substance P? What substance can be used to block the release of
subsatnce P? (See pg. 1048-1049)
What are the five basic senses in humans? Match one of these
five with each structure listed below:
-olfactory
-statoliths
-pacinain corpuscle
-oval window
-rods & cones
-taste buds
-lateral line system
-rhodopsin
-saccule & utricle (otoliths)
-incus & stapes
-sclera, cornea, retina
-vitreous humor
-tectorial, basilar, tympanic membranes