Animal Behavior

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Animal Behavior

• 34.1 Elements of Behavior
• 34.2 Patterns of Behavior

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34.1 Elements of Behavior

• Stimulus and Response
• Behavior and Evolution
• Innate Behavior
• Learned Behavior
• Instinct and Learning Combined

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Stimulus and Response

• Behavior reaction to stimulus in the
  environment
• Usually behaviors are performed when an animal
  reacts to a stimulus.
• Stimulus any kind of signal that carries
  information and can be detected.
• Response a single, specific reaction to a
  stimulus.

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Behavior and Evolution

• Many behaviors are influenced by genes.
• Behaviors may also evolve under the influence of
  natural selection.
• Organisms with an adaptive behavior will survive
  and reproduce better than organisms that lack the
  behavior.

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Innate Behavior

• Also called an instinct or inborn behavior.
• Fully functional form without previous use of it.
• depend on internal mechanisms that develop as a
  result of complex interactions between an
  animals genes and its environment.

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Learned Behavior

• Learning animals can alter their behavior as a
  result of experience also called acquired
  behavior.
• Most animals can learn
• There are four major types of learning
• Habituation
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• Insight learning

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Habituation

• The simplest type of learning.
• Habituation a process by which an animal
  decreases or stops its response to a repetitive
  stimulus that neither rewards nor harms the
  animal.
• Ex Shore Ragworm

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Classical Conditioning

• Any time an animal makes a mental connection
  between a stimulus and some kind of reward or
  punishment.
• Ivan Pavlovs Experiment
• He studied salivation in dogs he discovered that
  if he always rang a bell at the same time he fed
  the dog, the dog would eventually begin to
  salivate whenever it heard a bell, even if food
  was not present.

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Operant Conditioning

• Occurs when an animal learns to behave in a
  certain way through repeated practice, in order
  to receive a reward or avoid punishment.
• Made famous by B.F. Skinner
• Created a box that when the lever was hit, food
  was delivered. After an animal is rewarded
  several times it knows that it can hit the lever
  to receive food. The animal has learned by
  operant conditioning.

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Insight Learning

• The most complicated form of learning.
• Occurs when an animal applies something it has
  already learned to a new situation.
• Common among humans and other primates.
• In an experiment a hungry chimpanzee had to
  figure out how to reach a bunch of bananas
  hanging overhead it stacked some boxes on top
  of one another and climbed.

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Instinct and Learning Combined

• Most behaviors result from a combination of
  innate ability and learning.
• Imprinting Some very young animals, such as
  ducks and geese, learn to recognize and follow
  the first moving object that they see during a
  critical time early in their lives.
• This keeps young close to their mothers who will
  protect them and feed them.
• Once imprinting occurs the behavior cannont be
  changed.

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Instinct and Learning, cont.

• Imprinting involves both innate and learned
  behavior.

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34.2 Patterns of Behavior

• Behavioral Cycles
• Courtship
• Social Behavior
• Competition and Aggression
• Communication

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Behavioral Cycles

• Migration the periodic movement from one place
  to another and then back again.
• Ex birds, butterflies, and some whales
• Allows animals to take advantage of favorable
  living conditions.
• Ex Birds flying south for winter
• Circadian rhythms behavioral cycles that occur
  in daily patterns.

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Courtship

• To pass along its genes to the next generation,
  any animal that reproduces sexually needs to
  locate and mate with another member of its
  species at least once.
• Courtship behavior is part of an overall
  reproductive strategy that helps many animals
  identify healthy mates.
• In courtship, an individual sends out stimuli,
  such as sounds, visual displays, or chemicals, in
  order to attract a member of the opposite sex.
• In some species, courtship involves an elaborate
  series of behaviors called rituals.

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Social Behavior

• Whenever animals interact with members of their
  own species, as in courtship, they are exhibiting
  social behavior.
• Many animals form societies.
• An animal society is a group of related animals
  of the same species that interact closely and
  often cooperate with one another.
• Can often provide survival advantages.
• Often members of a society are closely related to
  one another. Related individuals share a large
  proportion of each others genes. Therefore,
  helping a relative survive increases the chance
  that the genes an individual shares with that
  relative will be passed along to offspring.

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Competition and Aggression

• Territory a specific area that is occupied and
  protected by an animal or group of animals.
• Claiming territory keeps other at a distance.
• Competition occurs when two or more animals try
  to claim limited resources.

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Competition and Aggression, cont.

• Aggression occurs during competition a
  threatening behavior that one animal uses to gain
  control over another.

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Communication

• The passing of information from one organism to
  another.
• Necessary when involving more than one
  individual.
• Visual
• Chemical
• Sound
• Language

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Visual Signals

• Used by animals with good eyesight.
• Ex Cuttlefish

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Chemical Signals

• Used by animals with well-developed senses of
  smell including insects, fishes, and many
  mammals. Many release pheromones.
• Pheromones chemical messengers that affect the
  behavior of other individuals of the same
  species.
• Used to mark territory or signal readiness to
  mate.

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Sound Signals

• Used by animals with strong vocal abilities
  including crickets, toads, and birds.
• Some have evolved elaborate communication systems.

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Language

• The most complicated form of communication.
• Language a system of communication that
  combines sounds, symbols, or gestures according
  to sets of rules about word order and meaning,
  such as grammar and syntax.
• Only humans are known to use language.