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Chapter 43
Behavior Ecology
• Behavior is any action that can be observed and
described
• Behaviors have a genetic basis and environmental
influences
• Experiments using lovebirds show that hybrids show
intermediate nest building methods
• Feeding habits of two different garter snakes and their
hybrids show a genetic basis
Fig. 43.2
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25
inland
coastal
Inland garter snake does not eat slugs.
Percentage of Snakes
20
15
10
5
0
0.5
Coastal garter snake eats slugs.
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
3.0
3.5
Tongue Flicks per Minute
(Coastal): © John Sullivan/Monica Rua/Ribbitt Photography; (Inland): © R. Andrew Odum/Peter Arnold, Inc.
4.0
4.5
5.0
5.5
6.0
• Maternal behavior in mice depends on gene called
fosB
• When mothers first inspect their young, information
sent to hypothalamus
• fosB alleles are activated and a particular protein is
produced
• End result is a change in neural circuitry in
hypothalamus and causes good maternal behavior
• Mice that lack good maternal behavior also lack fosB
alleles so hypothalamus does not activate any
enzymes and other genes for good mother behavior
• Originally thought that some behaviors were fixed
action patterns that were elicited by signal stimulus
• With new experiments, many FAPs improve by
learning
• Learning is defined as a durable change in behavior
brought about by experience
• Imprinting is a form of learning first observed in birds
when chicks, ducklings, and goslings follow the first
moving object they see after hatching
• This is usually their mother
• Has survival value and leads to be able to recognize
one’s species and appropriate mates
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© Nina Leen/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images
• Associative learning is a change in behavior that
involves an association between two events
• Both classical conditioning and operant conditioning
are examples
• In classical conditioning, two different types of
stimuli (at same time) cause animal to form
association between them
• Work of Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov
• In operant conditioning, a stimulus-response
connection is strengthened
• Rewards for proper response
• B. F. Skinner known for lab work on operant
• Believed giving positive reinforcement more
successful than punishing undesirable behaviors
• Migration is long-distance travel from one location to
another
• Requires orientation, the ability to travel in a
particular direction
• Many birds use sun and stars to orient themselves
• They have biological clock within and a sense of time
to compensate for sun movement
• Experienced birds can navigate
• They change direction in response to other
environmental clues like Earth’s magnatic field
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Fig. 43.6
Breeding
range
Wintering
range
Holland
Switzerland
Spain
typical migratory
route of starlings
experimental relocation
of all starlings
flight path of
experienced starlings
flight path of
inexperienced starlings
• Animals may learn through imitation and insight
• An example is Japanese macaques
• Insight learning occurs when an animal suddenly
solves a problem without any prior experience with
the situation
• Chimps stacking boxes; ravens pulling meat attached
to a string up
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Ravens learn to retrieve food
• Some animals form a society in which members
organize in a cooperative manner beyond sexual and
parental behavior
• Communication is an action by a sender that may
influence the behavior of a receiver
• Pheromones are chemical signals in low concentration
that are passed between members of the same species
• Moths, ants and termites, cheetahs and other cats
• Humans have vomeronasal organ in the nose that can
detect odors and pheromones
• Auditory communication is fast, effective night or
day, and can be modified
• Visual communication used by species active during
day
• Tactile communication occurs when one animal
touches another
• Grooming in primates, cements social bonds within a
group
• Honeybees use a combination of methods especially
tactile in directing others to food source
Fig. 43.11
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40o
40o
a.
b.
© OSF/Animals Animals/Earth Scenes
• Behavioral ecology assumes behavior is subject to
natural selection
• For food gathering, animals often have a particular
home range where they spend most of the day
• One part of range defended from other members of
species is their territory and behavior is territoriality
• Food gathering is technically called foraging for food
• Optimal foraging model states that it is adaptive for
foraging behavior to be as energetically as possible
• Animals that take in more energy likely have more
offspring
• Most primates are polygamous and males monopolize
• Because of gestation and lactation, females invest
more in offspring than males
• Males are expected to compete with other males for
limited number of receptive females
• A few primates are polyanthrus where one female
mates with more than one male
• Some primates are monogamous which means that
they pair bond, and both male and female help with
the rearing of the young
• Sexual selection is a form of natural selection that
favors features that increase an animal’s chances of
mating. Sexual selection often results in female
choice and male competition
Fig. 43.15
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© D. Robert & Lorri Franz/Corbis
• Group living can help an animal avoid predators, rear
offspring, and find food
• Disadvantages include disputes over feeding and
sleeping sites
• Altruism is a behavior that has the potential to
decrease the life-time reproductive success of the
altruist, while benefiting reproductive success to
another member of the society
• Genes passed to next generation in two different ways
• 1) Direct when parent can pass a gene directly to
offspring
• 2) Indirect when a relative that reproduces can pass
the gene to the next generation
• Individual selection, called kin selection, is adaptation
to environment due to the reproductive success of the
individual’s relatives
• Inclusive fitness of an individual includes personal
reproductive success and reproductive success of
relatives
• In reciprocal altruism, animals aid one another for
future benefits