Animal behaviour

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Animal Behaviour Alex www.slipperlimpet.co.uk

description

A lecturer on the basics of animal behaviour

Transcript of Animal behaviour

Page 1: Animal behaviour

Animal BehaviourAlexwww.slipperlimpet.co.uk

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What is it?

Definition Animal Behaviour: anything an animal does involving action and response from stimulus

Definition Behaviour: Any evolved, adaptive action or activity of an organism that interacts with its environment; not simply a by product or side effect of an activity. Can be learnt or inherited

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Ethology

The study of how animals behave in their natural environment

Sociobiology-

Connects evolutionary theory to human culture.

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Why do behaviours evolve?

Is it adaptive?

Does it contribute to reproductive success?

When looking at animal behaviour we have to consider

This is known as Ultimate causes

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NatureBehaviors are:

• Innate

• Hard-wired

• Instinctual • Genetically determined

Nurture

Behaviors are:

• Learned

• Flexible

• Not genetically determined

vs

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Innate behaviours

Kinesis

• change the speed of random movement in response to environmental stimulus“

Reflex

• movement of a body part in response to stimulus".

Taxis

• a directed movement toward or away from a stimulus; positive and negative taxes

Fixed Action Pattern

• stereotyped and often complex series of movements, responses to a specific stimulus

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Characteristics of Innate Behaviors - especially FAPs:

1. The behavior is performed correctly the 1st time without prior experience (no opportunity to learn)

2. Triggered by some external stimulus 3. Once started, run to completion with no

further input4. Breeding crosses produce hybrid behaviors

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• Ethology is the study of how animals behave in their natural habitat.–Karl von Frisch: bee communication–Niko Tinbergen: herring gull

experiment; digger wasps–Konrad Lorenz: imprint in geese

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Karl Von Frisch- communication in bees

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Herring gull experiment by Niko Tinbergen

Releaser Stimuli- stimuli that release FAPE.g., Chick and red dot on gull parents beak triggers feeding response- parent regurgitates food

Laysan albatross feeding chick

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Niko Tinbergen

Hypothesis: digger wasps use visual landmarks to keep track of her nests

Move pine cones

Visual cue is arrangement pattern rather than objects themselves

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Learned behaviours

Imprinting: a strong association learned during a specific developmental period

Habituation: decline in response to a harmless, repeated stimulus

Trial and error: observed learning

Insight reasoning: manipulating concepts in mind before arriving at behavior.

Conditioning: where a behavior is performed either to avoid punishment or receive reward- lab based

Baby Albert http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FKZAYt77ZMSquirrel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMYuIK5YWVE&feature=relmfuElephant click: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFQigZxsnO0&feature=relatedCrow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZSk7oCNaHg&feature=related

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Cognition

The ability of an animals nervous system to perceive, store , process and use information gathered by sensory receptors.

Consciousness-

Are animals aware of themselves?

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• Kinesis and taxis.

▫ These are the simplest mechanisms of movement.

Kinesis is a change in activity rate in response to a stimulus. For example, sowbugs are more active in dry areas

and less active in humid areas.

Taxis is an automatic, oriented movement to or away from a stimulus. For example, phototaxis, chemotaxis, and geotaxis.

Animals use various cognitive mechanisms during movement through space

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• Use of landmarks within a familiar area.▫Some organisms move in response to a

recognized object or environmental cue, the object is the landmark.

• Cognitive maps.▫Some animals form cognitive maps (internal

codes of spatial relationships of objects in the environment).

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•Migration Behavior

▫Migration is theregular movementof animals overrelatively longdistances.

▫Piloting: an animalmoves from onefamiliar landmarkto another until itreaches its destination.

Whale Migration Routes

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•Orientation: animals can detect directions and travel in particular paths until reaching destination.▫Navigation is the most complex, and

involvesdetermining one’s present location relative to other locations in addition to detecting compass directions.

▫Cues for thesebehaviors includethe earth’s magnetic field, the sun, and the stars.

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Social behavior:

any kind of interaction between two or more animals, usually of the same species.

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Teams please

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 Social Behavior in Vertebrates

Predator Avoidance Behavior- mimicry

- schooling

Reproductive Behavior- competition

- territoriality- Displays

Parental Behavior

Communication

Cooperative Behavior- warning alarms

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• Sometimescooperation occurs.

Competitive social behaviors often represent contests for resources

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•Agonistic behavior is a contest involving threats.▫Submissive behavior.▫Ritual: the use of symbolic activity.▫Generally, no harm is done.

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Reconciliation behavior often happens between conflicting individuals.

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•Dominance hierarchies involve a ranking of individuals in a group (a “pecking order”).▫Alpha, beta rankings exist.

The alpha organisms control the behavior of others.

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•Territoriality is behavior where an individual defends a particular area, called the territory.▫Territories are typically used for feeding,

mating, and rearing young and are fixed in location.

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▫Drawbacks are that territoriality uses a great deal of an individual’s energy. In addition, an individual might be defending a

territory and die or miss a reproductive opportunity.

▫Spraying behavior is where an individual marks its territory.

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•Courtship behavior consists of patterns that lead to copulation and consists of a series of displays and movements by the male or female.

Natural selection favors mating behavior that maximizes the quantity or quality of mating partners

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•Parental investment refers to the time and resources expended for raising of offspring.

▫It is generally lower in males ▫Females usually invest more time into

parenting (fecundity, egg size, care of offspring)

▫Females are usually more discriminating in terms of the males with whom they choose to mate. Females look for more fit males (i.e., better genes), the ultimate cause of the choice.

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• Mating systems differ among species.▫Promiscuous: no strong bond pairs between

males and females.

▫Monogamous: one male mating with one female.

▫Polygamous: an individual of one sex mating with several of the other sex.

Polygyny is a specific example of polygamy, where a single male mates with many females.

Polyandry occurs in some species where one female mates with several females.

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• Defining animal signals and communication.▫A signal is a behavior that causes a change in the

behavior of another animal.▫The transmission of, reception of, and response to

signals make up communication.▫Examples include the following:

Displays such as singing, and howling. Information can be transmitted in other ways,

such as chemical, tactile, electrical.

Social interactions depend on diverse modes of communication

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▫Pheromones are chemicals released by an individual that bring about mating and other behaviors. Examples include bees and ants.

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• Most social behaviors are selfish, so how do we account for behaviors that help others?▫Altruism is defined as

behavior that mightdecrease individual fitness, but increase the fitness of others.

The concept of inclusive fitness can account for most altruistic behavior

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Homework- Ethogram• 10 minute observation of an animal-• Define behaviour• Give it a code• Note if social or solitary • Time duration of each behaviour