1. US 8933 Relate aspects of animal behaviour to environmental factors
AND
AS Describe animal Behaviour and Plant Responses to Environmental factors
Responses
Innate and Learned
Stimuli
Taxis and Kinesis
Navigation
Environmental Cues
Biological Clocks
Controlling Rhythm
Actograms
Human Biorhythms

2. Human Responses Humans have 5 senses. They are: Sight Hearing Touch
Taste
Smell (olfaction)
Do all species in the animal Kingdom share the same senses

3. STIMULI Animals may respond to the following things… Light (photo)
Chemical (chemo)
Temperature (thermo)
Touch (thigmo)
Sound (audio)
Gravity (geo/gravi)
What was our little ‘gator responding to?
Touch!

4. Central Nervous system
RESPONSES
Animals exhibit behaviours, which are a response to a stimulus.
Stimulus
BANG!
Receptor
Nerve (electrical) impulse
CNS
Central Nervous system
Neck muscles
Effector
Nerve (electrical) impulse
Response

5. INNATE AND LEARNED Responses may be INNATE (genetic) or LEARNED.
responses include:
- Taxis (directional)
- Kinesis (non-directional)
- Reflex reactions (short-circuits the brain)
responses include:
- Conditioning (Pavlov's dogs)
- Habit (response wanes with no effect)
- Operant (youtube – OC using my cat)
- Imprinting (animal behaviour.net)
Click to view ‘gator responses

6. TAXIS AND KINESIS
These are both types of movement that are an innate and stereotyped (always the same) response.
TAXIS
Positive or Negative – towards or away- (e.g. “negative phototaxis”)
Animals must be able to detect the direction!
KINESIS
Non-directional.
Random movement where activity depends on intensity of stimulus.
If it involves speed = orthokinesis
If it involves turning = klinokinesis
Lab Manual pg 173/4

7. NAVIGATION
Migration
A periodic movement that may involve going to an unfamiliar area, or movement of over 10,000km. It may even take multiple generations.
Uses environmental cues such as magnetism, sun compass, wave direction, etc.
Homing
Returning to a home base. Often uses visual cues.
The stimuli are environmental cues (day length etc) and the response is a rather impressive movement. This may be over 10,000 km, unfamiliar territory, and may take several generations.
Lab Manual pg 182-4, 180, 176-7…

8. ENVIRONMENTAL CUES
Animals respond to many numbers of environmental cues.
These include astronomically caused cycles, such as...
The earth orbiting the sun (seasons) “circannual”, e.g hibernation (inactive through winter) and
- aestivation (inactive through summer)
The Moon orbiting the Earth (phases of the moon) “circalunar”
The Earth spinning on its axis (day/night) “circadian”, e.g.
- diurnal (active during the day)
- nocturnal (active during the night), and
- crepuscular (active at dusk and dawn).
The Earth spinning on its axis also causes the tides “circatidal”
Lab Manual pg 188/189

9. BIOLOGICAL CLOCKS Regular behaviour patterns need to be reset.
Exogenous rhythms are controlled by external stimuli
Endogenous rhythms are controlled by an internal mechanisms
Most behaviours are controlled by a combination of both.
A zeitgeber (“time giver” – such as sunrise or high tide) is used to reset the biological clock.
This is known as entrainment.
How can we test if it is endogenous or exogenous? 
Remove external stimuli and see what happens…
Endogenous rhythms will continue to operate at pretty much the same time.
Exogenous rhythms will appear quite random.

10. CONTROLLING RHYTHMS So... how does it work?
Your pacemaker (timekeeper) lies in the hypothalamus in your brain.
Light entrains the hypothalamus which signals the pineal gland to release melatonin at night - makes us drowsy.
There is less light in the winter, therefore more melatonin is released... may cause S.A.D. in humans!
Lab Manual pg 190

11. ACTOGRAMS An actogram shows activity through the day.
Note: the data is plotted twice to make the patterns more obvious.
Is this endogenous or exogenous?
Endogenous! It continues even without stimuli.
What is it’s free running period?
= about 23hr 35min
A phase shift is where an animal is shifted to another time zone. 
Lab Manual pg 193/4/5

12. HUMAN BIORHYTHMS Humans display a number of Biological rhythms:
Our sleep/wake cycle (24hrs 11minutes ± 16 minutes) - tested using students (tee hee) who were confined to permanent lighting conditions.
We process alcohol better depending on the time of day (really bad in the early hours of the morning).
The hypothalamus controls production of many hormones, as in urinary, cardiovascular and immune systems.
Learning ability goes like this:  
Lab Manual pg 191/2