Animal behaviour
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Transcript of Animal behaviour
Animal BehaviourAlexwww.slipperlimpet.co.uk
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
Ethology
The study of how animals behave in their natural environment
Sociobiology-
Connects evolutionary theory to human culture.
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
NatureBehaviors are:
• Innate
• Hard-wired
• Instinctual • Genetically determined
Nurture
Behaviors are:
• Learned
• Flexible
• Not genetically determined
vs
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
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
• 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
Karl Von Frisch- communication in bees
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
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
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
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?
• 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
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
• 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).
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
•Migration Behavior
▫Migration is theregular movementof animals overrelatively longdistances.
▫Piloting: an animalmoves from onefamiliar landmarkto another until itreaches its destination.
Whale Migration Routes
•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.
Social behavior:
any kind of interaction between two or more animals, usually of the same species.
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
Teams please
Social Behavior in Vertebrates
Predator Avoidance Behavior- mimicry
- schooling
Reproductive Behavior- competition
- territoriality- Displays
Parental Behavior
Communication
Cooperative Behavior- warning alarms
• Sometimescooperation occurs.
Competitive social behaviors often represent contests for resources
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
•Agonistic behavior is a contest involving threats.▫Submissive behavior.▫Ritual: the use of symbolic activity.▫Generally, no harm is done.
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
Reconciliation behavior often happens between conflicting individuals.
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
•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.
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
•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.
▫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.
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
•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
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
•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.
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
• 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.
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
• 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
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
▫Pheromones are chemicals released by an individual that bring about mating and other behaviors. Examples include bees and ants.
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
• 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
Copyright © 2002 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Benjamin Cummings
Homework- Ethogram• 10 minute observation of an animal-• Define behaviour• Give it a code• Note if social or solitary • Time duration of each behaviour