Transcript Animal Behavior

Animal Behavior
Behavior
• What an animal does
• How it does it
Pet Activity
On a separate sheet of paper:
• 1. Write the name of one of your pets. Is it
a bird, dog, or cat? Other?
• 2. What behaviors do you think about
when you think of your pet? Give a list of
behaviors. Indicate if the behavior was
genetic “innate” or learned.
Behavioral Ecology
• Behavioral ecology emphasizes
evolutionary hypothesis: science as a
process
• Based on expectation that animals behave
in ways that will increase their Darwinian
fitness (reproductive success)
Stimuli
• Certain stimuli trigger innate behaviors
called fixed action patterns
• A fixed action pattern (FAP) is a highly
stereotypical, innate behavior that
continues to completion after initiation by
an external stimulus
Learning
• Learning is experience based modification
of behavior
• Some learning is due mostly to inherent
maturation
• Habituation is learning involving loss of
sensitivity to unimportant stimuli
• Associative learning involves linking one
stimulus with another
Rhythmic Behaviors
• Rhythmic behaviors synchronize an
animal’s activities with daily and seasonal
changes in the environment
• Governed by endogenous clocks, which in
turn require exogenous cues to keep the
behavior properly timed with the external
environment
Foraging Behavior
• Ecologists are using cost/benefit analysis
to study foraging behavior
• Species may be generalists or specialists as
foragers
• Animals modify behavior to favor a high
ratio of energy intake to expenditure
Social Behavior
• Sociobiology places
social behavior in
evolutionary context
Competitive Social Behaviors
• Agonistic behavior: competitor gains
advantage by getting a limited resource
like food or a mate
• Natural selection: survival of the fittest
• “Pecking order”: dominance hierarchies
with differently ranked individuals
permitted options according to their status
Mating Behavior
• Promiscuity – having many random mates
• Monogamy – having only one mate
• Polygamy – having a few, selected mates
Social Interactions
• Social interactions depend on
diverse modes of communication
• Some animals communicate with
smells
• Honeybees communicate through
“dancing”
Altruistic Behavior
• Inclusive fitness accounts for most
altruistic behavior
• Best explained by a “kin” theory, animals
try to maintain the survival of others who
share their genes
Reciprocal altruism
• Some animals behave altruistically toward others
who are not relatives. A wolf may offer food to
another wolf even though they share no kinship.
• Such behavior can be adaptive if the aided
individual returns the favor in the future.
• This sort of exchange of aid is called reciprocal
altruism.
• Commonly used to explain altruism in humans.
Sociobiology
• Human sociobiology connects biology to
the humanities and social sciences
Self-quiz
• Bees can see colors we cannot see and
detect minute amounts of chemicals we
cannot smell. But unlike many insects,
bees cannot hear very well. Which of the
following statements best fits into the
perspective of behavioral ecology?
Possible answers
• A. Bees are too small to have functional
ears.
• B. Hearing must not contribute much to a
bee’s fitness.
• C. If a bee could hear, its tiny brain would
be swamped with information.
Possible answers
• D. This is an example of a fixed action
pattern
• E. If bees could hear, the noise of the hive
would distract the bees from their work
Challenge question
• Starting with the very first time a bee
leaves the hive, it always flies in a circle
around the hive before heading out on a
foraging trip.
• If it is prevented from seeing the hive when
it leaves or if the hive is moved while the
bee is gone, the bee is not able to locate the
hive when it returns.
Challenge Question
• For this reason, beekeepers know that a
hive should only be moved …….when?
Why?
• What part of the bees “orientation flight”
behavior appears to be innate?
• What component shows learning?