Animal Behavior Notes!

Behavior What an animal does & How an animal does it! Think of all of the behaviors of your pet...or a friends’ pet. List them and classify them as either being genetically “innate” or learned.

ETHOLOGY the study of animal behavior with emphasis on the behavioral patterns that occur in natural environments. Pioneers in the Study of Animal Behavior Karl von Frisch Niko Tinbergen Konrad Lorenz

Behavioral Ecology Behavioral Ecology emphasizes evolutionary hypothesis. Based on the fact that animals will act in a way that will increase their Darwinian fitness. What does “fitness” refer to in Darwinian terms?

What is evolutionary fitness? Evolutionary fitness measures how many viable, fertile offspring an individual (or an allele) leaves in the next and subsequent generations, relative to others in the population. Adaptive behavior An adaptive behavior increases an individual’s evolutionary fitness relative to other individuals in the population.

When we observe behavior we may ask both proximate & ultimate questions OR offer proximate or ultimate explanations.

Proximate questions about behavior Proximate questions address the mechanisms that produce a behavior: the environmental stimuli that trigger a behavior and the genetic and physiological mechanisms that make it possible. For example, How does an animal carry out a particular behavior?

Ultimate questions about behavior Ultimate questions address the evolutionary significance of a behavior: how a behavior increases the evolutionary fitness of the animal demonstrating it, helping it to survive and reproduce in its environment. For example, Why does the animal show this behavior?

Niko Tinbergen Suggested 4 questions that must be answered to fully understand any behavior. These questions are either ultimate questions or proximate questions.

Proximate vs Ultimate What is the mechanistic basis of the behavior, including chemical, anatomical, & physiological mechanisms? What is the evolutionary history of the behavior? How does development of the animal, from zygote to mature individual, influence the behavior? How does the behavior contribute to survival & reproduction (fitness)? PROXIMATE ULTIMATE PROXIMATE ULTIMATE

Q#1: Red-crowned cranes breed in spring and early summer Q#1: Red-crowned cranes breed in spring and early summer. Choose a proximate explanation: Breeding is most likely to be successful in spring and early summer. Increasing day length triggers the release of breeding hormones. Ample food is available for chicks at this time. Increasing day length triggers the release of breeding hormones.

Q#2: Red-crowned cranes breed in spring and early summer Q#2: Red-crowned cranes breed in spring and early summer. Choose an ultimate explanation: Breeding is most likely to be successful in spring and early summer. Breeding is most likely to be successful in spring and early summer. Hormonal changes in the spring trigger breeding behaviors. Breeding is triggered by the effect of increased day length on the birds’ photoreceptors.

Two Classifications of Behavior – ADAPTIVE ADVANTAGE innate behaviors automatic, fixed, “built-in”, no “learning curve” despite different environments, all individuals exhibit the behavior ex. early survival, reproduction, kinesis, taxis learned behaviors modified by experience variable, changeable flexible with a complex & changing environment

Innate behaviors Fixed action patterns (FAP) sequence of behaviors essentially unchangeable & usually conducted to completion once started sign stimulus the releaser that triggers a FAP

Innate: Fixed Action Patterns (aka: sight stimulus) egg rolling in geese Digger wasp Do humans exhibit Fixed Action Patterns? This question was addressed by Irenaeus Eibl-Eibesfeldt and Hans Hass who worked at the Max-Planck-Institute for Behavioural Physiology in Germany. They created a Film Archive of Human Ethology of unstaged and minimally disturbed social behaviour. They filmed people across a wide range of cultures with a right-angle reflex lens camera i.e. the subjects did not realize that they were being filmed because the camera lens did not appear to be pointing at them! Eibl-Eibesfeldt has identified and recorded on film, several human Fixed Action Patterns or human 'universals' e.g. smiling and the "eyebrow-flash" Eibl-Eibesfeldt took these pictures of a Himba woman from Namibia (SW-Africa). She shows a rapid brow raising (between the second and third still images) which coincides with raising her eyelids. Because all the cultures he examined showed this behaviour, Eibl-Eibesfeldt concluded that it was a human 'universal' or Fixed Action Pattern. Some Sphex wasps drop a paralyzed insect near the opening of the nest. Before taking provisions into the nest, the sphex first inspects the nest, leaving the prey outside. During the sphex's inspection of the nest an experimenter can move the prey a few inches away from the opening of the nest. When the sphex emerges from the nest ready to drag in the prey, it finds the prey missing. The sphex quickly locates the moved prey, but now its behavioral "program" has been reset. After dragging the prey back to the opening of the nest, once again the sphex is compelled to inspect the nest, so the prey is again dropped and left outside during another stereotypical inspection of the nest. This iteration can be repeated again and again, with the sphex never seeming to notice what is going on, never able to escape from its genetically-programmed sequence of behaviors. Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett have used this mechanistic behavior as an example of how seemingly thoughtful behavior can actually be quite mindless, the opposite of human behavioral flexibility that we experience as free will What about other objects? Sphex wasps drop paralyzed insect near the opening of the nest. Before bringing the prey into the next the wasp goes in to inspect. If the prey gets moved the wasp will get it again & do the same thing over.

Innate: Directed & Undirected Movements Kinesis: change in speed of an animal’s movement in response to a stimulus. -speeds up in unfavorable environment -slows down in favorable Taxis: movement towards or away from the stimulus The sow bugs become more active in dry areas and less active in humid areas. Though sow bugs do not move toward or away from specific conditions, their increased movement under dry conditions increases the chance that they will leave a dry area and encounter a moist area. And since they slow down in a moist area, they tend to stay there once they encounter it. In contrast to a kinesis, a taxis is a more or less automatic, oriented movement toward (a positive taxis) or away from (a negative taxis) some stimulus. For example, many stream fish, such as trout, exhibit positive rheotaxis (from the Greek rheos, current); they automatically swim or orient themselves in an upstream direction (toward the current). This taxis keeps the fish from being swept away and keeps them facing the direction from which food will come.

Innate: Migration Long-distance, seasonal movement of animals. -usually a response to seasonal availability of food or environmental changes

Konrad Lorentz He examined animals in their natural environments and concluded that instinct plays a key role in animal behavior From his observations Lorenz established the concept of imprinting, the process by which an animal follows an object, normally its biological mother. He found that for a short time after hatching, chicks are genetically inclined to identify their mother’s sound and appearance and thereby form a permanent bond with her.

Imprinting -occurs with visual and chemical stimuli Who???

Imprinting CRITICAL PERIOD-short window of time for imprinting to take hold

Learned Behavior Associative learning learning to associate a stimulus with a consequence

Operant Conditioning – Trial and Error Learning Big Bang Theory video clip B.F. Skinner

Classical Conditioning Attack of the Quack Ivan Pavlov

Spatial Learning Associative learning: Animals associate attributes of a location (landmarks) with the reward it gains by being able to identify and return to that location. Nikolass Tinbergen- observed wasps used pine cones as markers to locate their nest. When Tinbergen removed the pine cones the wasps were unable to locate their nest.

Learning: Habituation Puppy Habituation

Observational Learning Animals copy the behavior of another animal without having experienced any prior positive reinforcement with the behavior.

Learning: Insight- Problem-solving Do other animals reason? crow

Survival Responses Fight or flight response Avoidance response Triggered by stress Adrenaline & cortisol is produced which dilates the blood vessels, increases heart rate, increases the release of sugar from the liver, slow digestion to conserve energy… Avoidance response Avoid stressful situations EX: areas where predators can hide or areas with little camouflage, unknown organisms, or things in their environment that appear inappropriate.

Survival Responses Alarm Response Triggered when presence of a predator or other animal that’s a threat is detected. Warning is given for other in their group.

Foraging Behaviors Packs against packs Herds, flocks, & schools Packs Most in a group are hidden Individuals in the group can trade off jobs (foraging and watching for predators) Can mob their predator and protect their young Packs Corner and attack prey with much success Packs against packs

Social Behavior Interactions between individuals Develop as evolutionary adaptations Communication/language Agonistic Behaviors Dominance Hierarchy Cooperation Altruistic Behavior

Communication/Language View Waggle Dance AVI file: waggledance180x135.avi

State a null hypothesis and an alternative hypothesis Karl von Frisch Two major discoveries about honey bees. First, he demonstrated that honey bees have color vision. He trained bees to feed on a dish of sugar water set on a colored card. He then set the colored card in the middle of an array of gray-toned cards State a null hypothesis and an alternative hypothesis Second, he showed that honey bees use a dance language to communicate food locations to other bees. Watch Bee Dance video

Communication by song Species identification & mating ritual Mixed learned & innate Critical learning period Mating ritual & song Innate, genetically controlled

Agonistic behaviors Competition for food, mates, or territory Threatening & submissive rituals -symbolic, usually no harm done View Lifewire territoriality video: ch. 53 Review setting up a behavior experiment: Lizard Behavior Competition for food, mates, or territory

Dominance hierarchy Indicate power and status relationships among individuals in a group. -minimizes fighting for food and mates

Altruistic Behavior kin selection increasing survival of close relatives passes these genes on to the next generation How can this be of adaptive value? Warning Calls

In naked mole rat populations Nonreproductive individuals may sacrifice their lives protecting the reproductive individuals from predators Figure 51.33

Communication by scent When a minnow or catfish is injured: An alarm substance in the fish’s skin disperses in the water, inducing a fright response among fish in the area Spider using moth sex pheromones, to lure its prey The luring function of sex pheromones is a perfect way for predators to get heir prey without having to work too hard. The spider Mastophora hutchinsoni spreads sex pheromones of moths, using them as allomones. This way he can lure about enough moths to sustain. When the moths fly in, convinced they are about to mate, the spider shoots a sticky ball on wire towards them. As they stick to the ball, he drags them in and eats them. Female mosquito use CO2 concentrations to locate victims

Christian The Lion