Animal Behavior Biol 302 Instructor: Dr. Holly Downing

Office: LSL 111 Office Hours: MWF and T 3-4 My website: bhsu.edu/hollydowning Textbook: John Alcock 10 th edition Animal Behavior each chapter has a summary section & readings references are listed by number and can be found at the back of each chapter. Class attendance: The notes will be posted in D2L and at my course website that is listed on the syllabus. These are not a substitution for coming to class. Activities cannot be made up.

Grade Evaluation: (A = , B = 80-89, C = 70 – 79, D = , F = below 60) 2 Midterms 30% of total grade Final (Cumulative)20% (midterms & final cover lecture, activities, & reading) Written Presentation of Research25% 5 Activity Reports25% Activities are done in groups, but the write up is done individually. Written Research Report – done individually and written up individually. Choice of 2 types. Written research should have no quotes. Paraphrase information that you take from other sources. Do not plagiarize any material. It is your responsibility to know what plagiarism is. Ask if you are uncertain. Plagiarized material cannot be redone and will earn you a 0 on that assignment. Do not fill the 10 pages of your research report with figures from other sources. The page length refers to written text, not figures or the cover page or reference page, etc.

Paper topics: Type A – own research. Choose an animal that you can keep at your home or you can study easily in the field. We will use some types of animals during class activities and you could use these as well. For any animals kept on campus, you will need to file a brief protocol with the Animal Care and Use Committee and get approval. Plan to study behavior that you know you will observe. Type B – library research. Do not hand in a paper that you have or will submit for another course. The purpose of this assignment is to teach you about writing ideas in a coherent way. The more practice you get, the better you will be. Your topic should be more than a description of an animal or group of animals. Choose a topic, like the evolution of social behavior, the role behavior plays in conservation efforts, honest signaling and animal health, a comparison of foraging strategies in wild dogs and hyenas, etc., that has some meat to it. An A paper will synthesize information from multiple sources effectively.

Animal Behavior: is the study of all of the observable activities of an organism.  physiological, psychological, developmental, evolutionary, social and ecological perspectives,  through study of individual species or through comparative studies of species groups.

Historical Background Pre-1600’s. Some very good studies of behavior were done by Aristotle during the 4 th century B.C. ( ) in his Historia Animalia, but animal behavior never stood on its own as a specific area of study until the last 150 years. Typological thinking – distinct, fixed species – Scalae Naturae * Rock painting discovered near Valencia, Spain – dated at about 9000 B.P.

1600’s to early 1800’s. Natural histories were popular. Francis Drake (pirate) 1577 – 3 yr trip around the world. (1 st group= Magellan’s in 1519) Trips exploring and mapping the world became increasingly popular Francis Bacon ( ) sought to base science on empirical (experimental) observation Carrolus Linneaus ( ) went on expeditions as a botanist (medicinal plants were his specialty) Early behavior focus: domesticated species or pests.

Many early researchers included Anthropomorphic Descriptions

A dichotomy in the way animals were viewed began to develop: Animals are driven by instinct, blind, innate urges instilled by God for their welfare. Some went so far as to view animals as machines, with no choice as to their behavior or higher cognitive function. Physical properties determined behavior. Will later be known as Reductionism Animals are not driven by instincts, but acquire knowledge and respond to their environment. All actions arise from responses to sensations. Will later be known as Behaviorism.

Mid 1800’s Darwin published his theory of natural selection in 1851 –Origin of Species –Demonstrated that animals share an evolutionary history –Animal classification became linked to phylogeny – reflecting evolutionary relationships –Can now ask questions about why animals exhibit certain behaviors

Mid 1800’s (con’t) Comparisons among groups of animals became useful in understanding behavior. But genetic inheritance was not widely understood – Mendel sent his manuscript on genes and plant genetics, but Darwin never read it.

Late 1800’s Reductionism = became more popular –Documenting instinctive behavior as a simple physiological process –Jacques Loeb - tropism = “forced movement” Behavior could be understood as resulting from immediate physical and chemical effects of stimuli on cellular material –Animal tropisms - thought to be the building blocks to more complex behavior responses –Kineses vs Taxes Both the result of simple stimuli eliciting reflex-like responses.

Early 1900’s Genetics and Evolution were combined in a New Synthesis Continuity of species was recognized Modern Behavior Fields: 1. Ethology (Outgrowth of reductionism and study of instincts) Emphasized need to study behavior in nature to understand the context 2. Comparative Psychology emphasized learning and environmental effects on behavior - critical to development of behavior 3. Physiological Behavior - Explains behavior in terms of underlying physiological causes (Photographer B. Tschanz) B. F. Skinner Niko Tinbergen

Last 60 years 4. Behavioral Ecology - emphasizes the interactions of an animal with its environment 5. Sociobiology – studies of social behavior from an evolutionary perspective Both are offshoots of ethology E. O. Wilson

Methods for studying animal behavior: Watching behavior is not the same thing as observing behavior The process  Observe the behavior that is involved in detail. Ethogram = a complete inventory of an animal’s behavior.  Ask questions – directs research into different directions 1. How - proximate causation or immediate causes for behavior - spans 1 lifetime 2. Why - ultimate causation or the evolutionary reasons for the behavior - spans more than one lifetime proximate: physiology & devel > behavior ultimate: behavior - - -> effect of survivorship & reproduction

Behavioral biologist, Niko Tinbergen, said that there were 4 main questions for behavioral researchers. Which are proximate and which are ultimate types of question? 1. How does the behavior promote an animal’s ability to survive and reproduce? 2. How does an animal use its sensory and motor abilities to activate and modify its behavior patterns? 3. How does an animal’s behavior change during its growth, especially in response to the experiences that it has while maturing? 4. How does an animal’s behavior compare with that of other closely related species, and what does this tell us about the origins of its behavior and the changes that have occurred during the history of the species?

Design Methods to Test Hypothesis 1. Direct experimental manipulation 2. Comparative method a. Compare different, unrelated species that have similar behavior b. Compare related species with different behavior 3. Prediction testing

Concerns as an experimental design is developed: a. control for manipulations and artificial conditions b. independent samples c. be aware that an animal may have very different sensory modes than you - Umwelt d. observe without interference Collect data - data quantification a. challenging to quantify behavior Interpret and Communicate Results a. simple explanations, list all assumptions, correlation is not causation

Animal video View 5 min of video and develop an ethogram Think of one proximate and one ultimate causation type of question What would be a testable hypothesis? –Need clear prediction – simple and direct –Needs to be falsifiable

Singing male white-crowned sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) Song birds: Ex. of research exploring both proximate and ultimate questions

White-crowned Sparrows Male birds typically sing to defend their territory and attract a mate. –In some species this song is learned and different regions have different dialects. White-crowned sparrows learn their song along with the dialect of the region. –Only males –Females from a region prefer males that sing the region’s dialect

4 experimental Groups: heard no songs heard song or swamp sparrow heard both own & song sparrow songs heard own song, deafened at 5 months Marler and Tamura Study of song learning in White-crowned sparrow males

Zebra finch – Sonograms of songs by father, healthy son and deafened son

Changes in song system of male and female zebra finches Females and male sex chromosomes differ Leads to differences in gonads and hormone production Which in turn – changes in the Higher Vocal Center of the brain

Phylogeny of song learning in birds

A. Learned songs may enable birds to better match habitat quickly

 Sedge wren – N. American population = nomadic, changing breeding sites during the summer; songs are improvised and no dialects exist. Sedge wren – in Costa Rica = stay on territories. – have dialects and match the repertoire of their neighbors. B. Perhaps learning the dialect of your neighbors, helps communicate more effectively with them. Thus birds should fine-tune their songs as they get their territory, especially if relationship with neighbors is long-term. C. Some birds have repertoire matching with their different neighbors’ songs, which may signal their willingness to defend their territory. A mismatched song may be a less aggressive response.

Song quality and health honesty in signaling Why females should prefer males that learn complex and hard to sing calls

Resulting Behavior