1. Animal Behavior
meerkats

2. What is behavior? Behavior everything an animal does & how it does it
response to stimuli in its environment

3. 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?

4. 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.

5. What is the difference between innate and learned behaviors?
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

6. male sticklebacks exhibit aggressive territoriality
Innate behaviors
Fixed action patterns (FAP)
sequence of behaviors essentially unchangeable & conducted to completion once started
Triggered by a specific stimulus!!
sign stimulus
the releaser that triggers a FAP

7. Goose fixed action patter
The goose will retrieve the egg in the same manner, even if the egg is removed

8. 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.

9. What does it mean that both “nature and nurture” can determine an animal’s behavior?
Animal behavior often involves a combination of genetic programming and environmental factors.

10. High-interaction mother Low-interaction mother
Figure 35.3
High-interaction mother
Low-interaction mother
Pups become relaxed adults
Pups become fearful adults
Female pups become high-interaction mothers
Female pups become low-interaction mothers
Figure 35.3 A cross-fostering experiment with rats
Cross-fostering experiment
Pups become relaxed adults
Pups become fearful adults 10

11. How does this study illustrate the influence of the environment on behavior?
behavioral changes can be passed to future generations the social environment
Interactions with the mother changed gene expression in the rats which affected its development of its neuroendocrine system (fight or flight response)

12. What is habituation? (learning)
An animal learns not to respond to a repeated stimulus that conveys little or no information.

13. What are the ultimate causes of habituation?
May increase reproductive fitness by allowing an animal’s nervous system to focus on stimuli that signal
food,
mates, or
real danger.

14. © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
What is imprinting?
Learning to form social attachments at a critical (sensitive) period
generally irreversible learning and
limited to a specific phase in an animal’s life called a sensitive period.
Examples include
a young bird learning to identify its parents and
song development in birds.
Student Misconceptions and Concerns
1. Many students confuse the changes that occur during an individual’s lifetime with evolutionary change in a species. These individual “adaptations to the environment” can reinforce Lamarckian misconceptions.
2. Students may not have considered the general ability of animals to engage in behavioral responses to their environment and the more limited ability of plants to do likewise. Students might not have considered the different mechanisms that plants and animals employ to move within ecosystems (see Modules 33.9–33.13).
Teaching Tips
1. Although it is important to stress the diverse examples of learning in animals, students tend to understand concepts best by first applying them to their own experiences. Many of the teaching tips below provide examples of learning that occur in our daily lives.
2. Students might wonder why birds have an imprinting period in which they learn to identify their mother. Why, students might wonder, don’t geese simply have an innate ability to recognize an adult female goose? The plasticity of imprinting permits offspring to identify their mother in particular (who has a greater genetic stake in their survival), rather than any adult female.
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. 14

15. Figure 35.5A
Figure 35.5A Konrad Lorenz with geese imprinted on him 15

16. BEHAVIOR: Young geese follow and imprint on their mother.
Example of Imprinting
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.

17. 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.

18. What is the difference between taxis and kinesis?
change in direction
automatic movement toward (positive taxis) or away from (negative taxis) a stimulus
Ex: phototaxis (towards light) hydrotaxis (towards water)
Kinesis
Random movement in response to a stimulus
Ex: starting or stopping, changing speed, turning more/less frequently
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.

19. Sow bugs
Become more active in dry areas and less active in humid areas
Figure 51.7a
Dry open area
Moist site under leaf
(a) Kinesis increases the chance that a sow bug will encounter and stay in a moist environment.

20. Learned behavior Associative learning
learning to associate a stimulus with a consequence
operant conditioning
classical conditioning

21. Operant conditioning Skinner box
B. F. Skinner
Trial and error learning: mouse learns to associate behavior (pressing lever) with reward (food pellet)

22. Classical conditioning
Ivan Pavlov’s dogs
connect reflex behavior (salivating at sight of food) to associated (irrelevant stimulus (ringing bell)

23. 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
Association with irrelevant stimulus with a fixed physiological response
Trial and Error learning

24. Social behaviors Interactions between individuals
develop as evolutionary adaptations
communication / language
agonistic behaviors
dominance hierarchy
cooperation
altruistic behavior

25. What are the various ways in which animals can communicate?
Visual
Audible
Electrical
Chemical
Tactile
Used to indicate dominance, find food, establish territory, and ensure reproductive success!

26. What are pheromones? Pheromones
chemical signal that stimulates a response from other individuals
alarm pheromones
sex pheromones

27. Agonistic Behavior
Threats, rituals, and sometimes combat that determines which competitor gains access to a resource
Caused by conflicts over food, mates, or territories
View Lifewire territoriality video: “lizards cost of defending-lifewire.swf”
Review setting up a behavior experiment:

28. Dominance Hierarchies
A higher ranking animal has greater access to resources than a lower ranking animal.
Decided by confrontation during which one animal gives way to another.
Once established, little or no time is wasted in fighting.
Dominant male mates more often with the females.
AP Biology

29. Social behaviors Cooperation working together in coordination
Tends to increase
the fitness of the individual
and survival of the
population
Pack of African dogs hunting wildebeest cooperatively
White pelicans “herding” school of fish

30. Social behaviors Altruistic behavior
Reduces individual fitness but increases fitness of others in a population
kin selection
increasing survival of close relatives passes these genes on to the next generation
AP Biology
How can this be of adaptive value?
Belding ground squirrel

31. Social Behavior & Reproduction
Natural selection has favored mechanisms that promote successful reproduction.
Behavior is thus adaptive—behavioral traits can evolve.
Sexual competition among males has contributed to the evolution of large size, brilliant breeding colors, antlers, etc.
Known as sexual selection and the traits are called secondary sexual characteristics.
AP Biology