Animal Behavior

Notes: What is an Animal? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNPY9evldis

Characteristics of Animals Animals, which are members of the kingdom Animalia, are multicellular, heterotrophic, eukaryotic organisms whose cells lack cell walls.

Type of Animals Invertebrates include all animals that lack a backbone, or vertebral column. All chordates exhibit four characteristics during at least one stage of life: a dorsal, hollow nerve cord; a notochord; a tail that extends beyond the anus; and pharyngeal pouches.

Example of Invertebrates Invertebrates include sea stars, worms, jellyfishes, and insects, like butterflies.

Chordates

Animal Behavior

Notes: What do Animals do to Survive? Animals must maintain homeostasis by gathering and responding to information, obtaining and distributing oxygen and nutrients, and collecting and eliminating carbon dioxide and other wastes. They also reproduce.

Maintaining Homeostasis All organisms must keep their internal environment relatively stable, a process known as maintaining homeostasis Homeostasis is maintained by feedback inhibition, or negative feedback, a system in which the product or result of a process limits the process itself.

Gathering and Responding to Information The nervous system gathers information using cells called receptors that respond to sound, light, chemicals, and other stimuli. Other nerve cells collect and process that information and determine how to respond.

Gathering and Responding to Information Animals often respond to the information processed in their nervous system by moving. Muscle tissue generates force by becoming shorter when stimulated by the nervous system.

Obtaining and Distributing Oxygen and Nutrients All animals must breathe to obtain oxygen. Small animals that live in water or in wet places can “breathe” by allowing oxygen to diffuse across their skin.

Obtaining and Distributing Oxygen and Nutrients All animals must eat to obtain nutrients. Most animals have a digestive system that acquires food and breaks it down into forms cells can use.

Collecting and Eliminating CO2 and Other Wastes Animals’ metabolic processes generate carbon dioxide and other waste products, some of which contain nitrogen in the form of ammonia. Many animals eliminate carbon dioxide by using their respiratory systems.

Reproducing Most animals reproduce sexually by producing haploid gametes. Sexual reproduction helps create and maintain genetic diversity, which increases a species’ ability to evolve and adapt as its environment changes.

Animal Behavior

Notes: Elements of Behavior https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_3s4V9FLVA 37:57

Behavior and Evolution Behavior is the way an organism reacts to stimuli in its environment. Behaviors are essential to survival. To survive and reproduce, animals must be able to find and catch food, select habitats, avoid predators, and find mates.

Behavior and Evolution Some behaviors are influenced by genes and can be inherited. Behavior that is influenced by genes increases an individual’s fitness, that behavior will tend to spread through a population.

Innate Behavior Innate behaviors are also known as Imprinting. Innate behaviors appear in fully functional form the first time they are performed, even though the animal has had no previous experience with the stimuli. Geese follow their mother after birth. The process is important to the survival of the geese.

Learned Behavior The four major types of learning are habituation, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and insight learning.

Habituation Habituation, the simplest type of learning, is a process by which an animal decreases or stops its response to a repetitive stimulus.

Classical Conditioning Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which a certain stimulus comes to produce a particular response, usually through association with a positive or negative experience.

Operant Conditioning Operant conditioning occurs when an animal learns to behave in a certain way, through repeated practice, sometimes described as a form of trial-and-error learning.

Insight Learning Insight learning occurs when an animal applies something it has already learned to a new situation.

Animal Behavior

Notes: Animals and Their Environment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFDGPgXtK-U

Behavior Cycles Behavioral cycles that occur daily, are called circadian rhythms. Seasonal behavior is migration, the seasonal movement from one environment to another. Migration allows animals to take advantage of favorable environmental conditions.

Territorial & Aggression Social Behavior Choosing mates, defending or claiming territories or resources, and forming social groups can increase evolutionary fitness. Territorial & Aggression Courtship Societies

Social Behavior Courtship is behavior during which members of one sex advertise their willingness to mate, and members of the opposite sex choose which mate they will accept. Territory, that they defend against competitors. Territories usually contain resources, such as food, water, nesting sites, shelter, and potential mates, which are necessary for survival and reproduction. Societies can offer safety from predators and can also improve animals’ ability to hunt, to protect their territory, to guard their young, or to fight with rivals.

Communication Animals may use a variety of signals to communicate with one another. Visual signals- males and females have different color patterns, and males use color displays to advertise their readiness to mate Chemical Signals- some animals release pheromones, chemical messengers that affect the behavior of other individuals of the same species, to mark a territory or to signal their readiness to mate.