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Animal Behaviour


What is behaviour?

avoid predators

find and compete for food

reproduce and rear their young

communicate with other animals.

Behaviour plays an essential role in an

animal’s ability to survive, allowing it to:

Behaviour is how an animal acts in response to internal

stimuli, including hunger or body temperature, and

external stimuli, including environmental changes or

social interactions.


Types of behaviour

Behaviour that changes in response to environmental

changes is called learned behaviour and allows animals to

adapt to their surroundings.

experience

Behaviour that is pre-programmed from birth is called innate,

and thought to be essential to survival. These include fleeing

from danger and jumping at a loud noise (reflex actions).

Learned behaviour develops through:

observation

reasoning.

There are two types of behaviour: learned or innate.


Innate or learned?


What is imprinting?

Imprinting is a special form of behaviour in which an animal

learns to recognize an individual as it’s mother.

Imprinting is demonstrated

by newly hatched geese,

where the first object they

see becomes the imprint of

their mother.

They will follow this object

and see it as their source

of food and protection.

It is considered an innate type of behaviour that can only

occur early in development at the ‘critical period’. If it does not develop within this time, it will never develop.


Learned behaviour – habituation

Animals can learn to ignore a harmless stimulus – this is

called habituation. It means they do not waste energy

responding to unimportant stimuli.

Prairie dogs give alarm calls when predators approach.

This warns other prairie dogs to escape into burrows.

Non-threatening stimuli,

such as the presence of

humans, will not elicit their

alarm call. This is because,

over time, the dogs

habituate to humans and

do not waste the time and

energy of the group.


Learned behaviour – conditioning

Learning associations between stimuli is called conditioning.

Animals may have an innate response to a particular

stimulus. For example, a hungry fox will display predatory

behaviour when it comes across a lamb.

If a bell always rings when the lamb moves around, the fox

will eventually learn that when a bell is heard, prey is close by.

The sound of a bell (new stimulus)

is associated with the presence of

prey, and this will then cause the

fox to display predatory behaviour.

The fox has learned to associate the

sound of a bell and food.


Classical conditioning


Operant conditioning


Making use of conditioning


Which type of behaviour?


Studying animal behaviour


Match the ethologist with their study


How to investigate behaviour

Woodlice have

several behavioural

adaptations that

help them to

survive and

reproduce.

If they detect a threat they roll themselves up into a ball, so

they are surrounded by exoskeleton. For this reason they

are often called pill bugs.

Woodlice are often used to investigate how behaviour can

change in response to different environmental conditions.

They are land-dwelling invertebrates that have a shell-like

exoskeleton around their body.


Woodlice experiment

Behaviour can be investigated by observing how woodlice

respond to different conditions in choice chambers.

A choice chamber is a box that helps to create different

types of environment, where the woodlice can move freely

between the chambers.

water-absorbing

materialwater


Choice chamber experiment


Animal mating strategies


Females are also attracted to

males who show greater genetic

fitness, as this may be inherited

by their offspring.

Courtship

In order to reproduce, individuals need to attract a mate.

Many animals have evolved elaborate courtship displays

to attract the opposite sex and advertise their qualities.

Sandhill cranes dance and call as part of their courtship ritual.

This display requires lots of

energy from the male, showing

he is capable of collecting large

amounts of resources.


Parental care

Mammals and birds have evolved specialized behaviour

called parental care for rearing their young.

Parental care is a successful evolutionary strategy to

increase the chance of the survival of their offspring and

passing on their own genes. However, parents can risk

starvation and being attacked by predators.

Examples of parental

behaviours include:

incubation of their eggs

feeding their young

protecting them from

predators.


Parental behaviour


Methods of communication


Communication in mammals

Mammals can communicate through gestures and posture:

Cats arch their backs when confronted with a threat.

Wolves will lower their ears and head in the presence

of a more dominant wolf.

Facial expressions are also a form of communication and

species-specific. This means the

same expression can mean

different things to different animals.

Teeth-baring can be a sign of

friendship in humans (as a smile).

However, teeth-baring can be a

sign of aggression in chimps.


What type of communication?


Plants can communicate

Plants release chemicals to communicate with

other plants or insects. For example:

Pea plants release chemicals from their

roots to kill off weeds growing around them.

Black walnut trees release chemicals to kill

off competing plants, such as tomato plants.

Damaged leaves of the lima bean plant

release chemicals to warn other bean plants.

These will release chemicals to deter the

mites and attract predators of mites.

When tobacco leaves are attacked by moth

larvae, they release chemicals that repel

moths before they can lay more eggs.


Plants and animals co-evolved


Glossary


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