1. Animal Behavior
Chapter 34

2. Animal Behavior
Behavior: the way an organism reacts to changes in its environment
Stimulus: signal that carries detectable information
Response: reaction to stimulus

3. 2 types of behavior
Innate behavior
Learned behavior

4. 1) Innate Behavior Instinctive, inborn behavior
Animal “knows” behavior without previous experience to the stimuli in which it responds
Ex: Salmon swimming upstream, dogs barking at snakes/intruders

5. 1) Innate Behavior Animals carry on behaviors with adaptive value:
Getting food
Avoiding predators
Caring for young
Finding shelter
Attracting mates
Enable reproduction & survival of species

6. 1) Innate Behavior Automatic responses Instincts Reflexes
No conscious control
Fight/Flight/Freeze response
Instincts

7. 1) Innate Behavior Fixed Action Patterns Quick automatic response
Animal recognizes stimulus & continues until all parts of behavior are accomplished

8. 2) Learned Behavior
When behavior changes due to practice or experience
Allows animals to adapt to change
Ex: Not putting hand on a hot stove
 4 main types of learning: habituation, classic conditioning, operant conditioning, and insight learning
Black bears have learned to choose minivans as targets for raiding food! (Nat. Geo)

9. 2) Learned Behavior A) Habituation
An animal becomes habituated when it no longer responds to a stimulus.
The gorillas shown here are habituated to the presence of humans.

10. B) Classic Conditioning
Pairing an unconditioned stimulus to with a neutral stimulus to eventually produce a conditioned response.-all based on innate behavior
Ex: Dog gets excited for walk when owner picks up leash.
Classic experiment: Pavlov’s dogs

13. C) Operant Conditioning
When an animal makes a mental connection and CHOOSES to behaves in a certain way through repeated practice, in order to receive a reward or avoid punishment
O.C. focuses on strengthening or weakening voluntary behaviors

17. D) Insight Learning Most complicated form of learning
When an animal applies something it already learned to a new (novel) situation

18. E) Imprinting
Imprinting: Form of learning that occurs at a specific critical time forming a social attachment to an object or individual
Birds imprint within a day or two of hatching
Usually irreversible

19. Patterns of Behavior Behavioral Cycles
Some behaviors are cyclical and follow their environment.
Migration: behavior influenced by seasons
Circadian rhythms: behavior influenced by time of day (sleep at night, active in day)

20. Courtship
Ritualistic behavior regarding mating shows the overall health of potential mates
Courtship: One individual sends out stimuli (sounds, dances, chemicals) to attract mate

21. Social Behavior
Animals frequently interact with members of their own species when hunting, grazing
Greater chances of survival: protect themselves/offspring from predators, work together to find food.

22. Competition
Behavior displayed when animals fight for resources (food, territory) or mates.
May lead to aggression: threatening behavior one animal uses to out-compete another

23. Communication Seen when animals behave socially
Used to convey information from one animal to another
Types of communication: visual, chemical, sound, language (language is likely the most complex)