Behavioral Ecology

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Behavioral Ecology

• Behavior is what an
• animal does
• and how it does it.
• It is an action.
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vfJr2evLANsEfeature
  fvw

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What are the different types of Behaviors

• Instinct
• Imprinting
• Conditioning Classical Operant
• Insight

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1. Instinct

• A behavior that is innate, or inherited.
• Maybe triggered by environmental releasers
• In Mammals, care for offspring by female parents
  is innate.

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Innate behavior

• Fixed action pattern (FAP)
• A sequence of behavioral acts that is essentially
  unchangeable and usually carried to completion
  once initiated.
• The FAP is triggered by an external sensory
  stimulus known as a sign stimulus (stimuli are
  usually obvious).

Nikolaas Tinbergen
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• The FAP usually occurs in a series of actions the
  same way every time.
• Many animals tend to use a relatively small
  subset of the sensory information available to
  them and behave stereotypically.

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Fixed action pattern (FAP)

• 1. There is almost NO variation in how they are
  performed.
• 2. They are species specific.
• 3. Once the sequence of actions begins, it
  continues to completion.

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Innate Behavior

• 1. Taxis is a direct response to a stimulus by
  automatically moving either toward or away from
  the stimulus.
• Phototaxis
• Chemotaxis
• Geotaxis

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Innate Behavior

• 2. Kinesis is a undirected (without direction)
  change in speed of an animals movement in
  response to a stimulus.
• Example increase in humidity ? less movement

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2. Imprinting

• A form of learning that occurs during a critical
  period.
• Usually irreversible
• Example Salmon, Geese

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Konrad Lorenz1903-1989

• Conducted an experiment with geese that showed
  imprinting behaviors.
• He replaced the the mother.

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3. Classical Conditioning

• Associative learning occurs when an animal
  recognized that 2 or more events are connected.

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Ivan Pavlov1849-1936

• Using dogs demonstrated the phenomenon of
  conditioned reflex.
• Made his dog salivate by ringing a bell.
• First, gave dog food when bell rang.
• Second, rang bell no food.

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Operant Conditioning

• Trial and error learning.
• Learn in order to receive a reward.
• Habituation is another form, occurs when an
  animal learns not to respond to a stimulus.

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B.F.Skinner

• Introduced trial and error learning or operant
  conditioning.
• Placed mice in a Skinner box that had levers.
  Some levers lead to a reward. Mice learned to
  push these levers.

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Insight

• The highest form of learning. Usually by higher
  animals.
• The ability to figure out a behavior that
  generates a desired outcome.
• Reasoning

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Ways Animals Communicate

• Chemical
• Visual
• Auditory
• Tactile

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Chemical

• Use pheromones to trigger a behavior.
• Releasers immediate
• Moths use these to attract a mate.
• Ants mark trails
• Primer physiological changes.
• Territorial uses dogs, cats, mice, etc..

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Visual

• Many visual displays are observed during acts of
  agonistic behaviors as well as courtship.

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Karl von Frisch 1967

• Dance of the Honey bees provide information about
  the location of food.
• Round dance
• Waggle dance
• Communication and Recruitment to Food Sources by
  Apis mellifera

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Auditory

• Use to communicate over long distances, through
  water and at night.
• Whales
• Elephants
• Frogs
• Birds cardinal
• http//www.naturesongs.com/cardinal1.wav

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Tactile

• Touching promotes social bonding, infant care
  grooming and mating.

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Social Behaviors

• Agonistic behavior
• Dominance Hierarchies
• Territoriality
• Altruistic Behavior

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Agonistic Behavior

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

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Dominance Hierarchies

• 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

• 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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Altruistic Behavior

• Altruism is defined as behavior that might
  decrease individual fitness, but increase the
  fitness of others.

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