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Animal Behavior meerkats
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What is behavior? Behavior everything an animal does & how it does it
response to stimuli in its environment innate inherited, “instinctive” automatic & consistent learned ability to learn is inherited, but the behavior develops during animal’s lifetime variable & flexible change with experience & environment
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Why study behavior? Evolutionary perspective… part of phenotype
acted upon by natural selection lead to greater fitness? lead to greater survival? lead to greater reproductive success?
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Evolutionary perspective
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
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What questions can we ask?
Proximate causes immediate stimulus & mechanism “how” & “what” questions Ultimate causes evolutionary significance how does behavior contribute to survival & reproduction adaptive value “why” questions male songbird what triggers singing? how does he sing? why does he sing? Proximate cause questions Male songbirds sing during the breeding season as a response to a high level of testosterone which binds to hormone receptors in the brain & triggers the production of song. Ultimate cause questions The male sings to defend territory from other males & to attract a female with which to reproduce. This is the evolutionary explanation for the male’s vocalization. The red–crowned cranes, like many animals, breed in spring and early summer. A proximate question about the timing of breeding by this species might be, “How does day length influence breeding by red–crowned cranes”? A reasonable hypothesis for the proximate cause of this behavior is that breeding is triggered by the effect of increased day length on an animal’s production of and responses to particular hormones. Indeed, experiments with various animals demonstrate that lengthening daily exposure to light produces neural and hormonal changes that induce behavior associated with reproduction, such as singing and nest building in birds. In contrast to proximate questions, ultimate questions address the evolutionary significance of a behavior. Ultimate questions take such forms as, Why did natural selection favor this behavior and not a different one? Hypotheses addressing “why” questions propose that the behavior increases fitness in some particular way. A reasonable hypothesis for why the red–crowned crane reproduces in spring and early summer is that breeding is most productive at that time of year. For instance, at that time, parent birds can find ample food for rapidly growing offspring, providing an advantage in reproductive success compared to birds that breed in other seasons. Courtship behavior in cranes what…how… & why questions how does daylength influence breeding? why do cranes breed in spring?
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Ethology pioneers in the study of animal behavior Niko Tinbergen
Konrad Lorenz
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male sticklebacks exhibit aggressive territoriality
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
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that releases aggression in a male stickleback.
Proximate and ultimate causes for the FAP attack behavior in male stickleback fish Figure 51.4 ULTIMATE CAUSE: By chasing away other male sticklebacks, a male decreases the chance that eggs laid in his nesting territory will be fertilized by another male. BEHAVIOR: A male stickleback fish attacks other male sticklebacks that invade its nesting territory. PROXIMATE CAUSE: The red belly of the intruding male acts as a sign stimulus that releases aggression in a male stickleback.
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Innate & Learning: Imprinting
Learning to form social attachments at a specific critical period both learning & innate components But how do the young know on whom—or what—to imprint? How do young geese know that they should follow the mother goose? The tendency to respond is innate in the birds; the outside world provides the imprinting stimulus, something to which the response will be directed. Experiments with many species of waterfowl indicate that they have no innate recognition of “mother.” They respond to and identify with the first object they encounter that has certain key characteristics. In classic experiments done in the 1930s, Konrad Lorenz showed that the most important imprinting stimulus in graylag geese is movement of an object away from the young. When incubator–hatched goslings spent their first few hours with Lorenz rather than with a goose, they imprinted on him, and from then on, they steadfastly followed him and showed no recognition of their biological mother or other adults of their own species. Again, there are both proximate and ultimate explanations Konrad Lorenz
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BEHAVIOR: Young geese follow and imprint on their mother.
There are proximate and ultimate causes for this type of behavior Figure 51.5 BEHAVIOR: Young geese follow and imprint on their mother. PROXIMATE CAUSE: During an early, critical developmental stage, the young geese observe their mother moving away from them and calling. ULTIMATE CAUSE: On average, geese that follow and imprint on their mother receive more care and learn necessary skills, and thus have a greater chance of surviving than those that do not follow their mother.
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Conservation Conservation biologists have taken advantage of imprinting by young whooping cranes as a means to teach the birds a migration route. A pilot wearing a crane suit in an Ultralight plane acts as a surrogate parent. teaching cranes to migrate Cranes also imprint as hatchlings, creating both problems and opportunities in captive rearing programs designed to save endangered crane species. For instance, a group of 77 endangered whooping cranes hatched and raised by sandhill cranes imprinted on the sandhill foster parents; none of these whooping cranes ever formed a mating pair–bond with another whooping crane. As a consequence, captive breeding programs now isolate young cranes and expose them to the sights and sounds of members of their own species. But imprinting can also be used to aid crane conservation Young whooping cranes imprinted on humans in “crane suits” have been taught to follow these “parents” flying ultralight aircraft along new migration routes. And importantly, such cranes have formed mating pair–bonds with other whooping cranes.
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Critical period Sensitive phase for optimal imprinting
some behavior must be learned during a receptive time period As a brood parasite, the Cuckoo never learn the song of their species as a nestling. Song development is totally innate. imprinting/critical period in humans?
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Learned behavior Associative learning
learning to associate a stimulus with a consequence operant conditioning trial & error learning associate behavior with reward or punishment ex: learning what to eat classical conditioning Pavlovian conditioning associate a “neutral stimulus” with a “significant stimulus”
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Operant conditioning Skinner box
B. F. Skinner mouse learns to associate behavior (pressing lever) with reward (food pellet)
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Classical conditioning
Ivan Pavlov’s dogs connect reflex behavior (salivating at sight of food) to associated stimulus (ringing bell)
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Animal Behavior Review Questions
Match the description/example with the correct behavior category A. Classical conditioning B. Fixed Action Pattern C. Imprinting D. Operant conditioning Highly stereotyped sequence of behaviors that, once begun, is usually carried to completion Learning that occurs during a specific time period; generally irreversible Triggered by a sign stimulus Association with irrelevant stimulus with a fixed physiological response Trial and Error learning
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Mating Behavior and Mate Choice
Is the product of a form of natural selection call sexual selection The mating relationship between males and females Varies a great deal from species to species
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In monogamous relationships
One male mates with one female Figure 51.25a (a) Since monogamous species, such as these trumpeter swans, are often monomorphic, males and females are difficult to distinguish using external characteristics only.
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In a system called polygyny
One male mates with many females The males are often more showy and larger than the females Figure 51.25b Among polygynous species, such as elk, the male (left) is often highly ornamented. (b)
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In polyandrous systems
One female mates with many males The females are often more showy than the males Figure 51.25c (c) In polyandrous species, such as these Wilson’s phalaropes, females (top) are generally more ornamented than males.
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Learning: Problem-solving
Do other animals reason? crow chimpanzee problem-solving sea otter tool use
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Social behaviors Interactions between individuals
develop as evolutionary adaptations communication / language agonistic behaviors dominance hierarchy cooperation altruistic behavior
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Language Honey bee communication
dance to communicate location of food source waggle dance View Waggle Dance AVI file: waggledance180x135.avi
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Communication by song Bird song Insect song
species identification & mating ritual mixed learned & innate critical learning period Insect song mating ritual & song innate, genetically controlled Red-winged blackbird
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Social behaviors Agonistic behaviors threatening & submissive rituals
symbolic, usually no harm done ex: territoriality, competitor aggression View Lifewire territoriality video: “lizards cost of defending-lifewire.swf” Review setting up a behavior experiment:
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Social behaviors Dominance hierarchy social ranking within a group
pecking order
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Social behaviors Cooperation working together in coordination
Pack of African dogs hunting wildebeest cooperatively White pelicans “herding” school of fish
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I would lay down my life for 2 brothers or 8 cousins!
Social behaviors Altruistic behavior reduces individual fitness but increases fitness of others kin selection increasing survival of close relatives passes these genes on to the next generation I would lay down my life for 2 brothers or 8 cousins! How can this be of adaptive value? Belding ground squirrel
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In naked mole rat populations
Nonreproductive individuals may sacrifice their lives protecting the reproductive individuals from predators Figure 51.33
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