1. Chapter 35: Animal Behavior
Section 1: Elements of Behavior

2. Behavior and Survival
The behavior of an animal is just as important to its survival and reproduction as any of its physical characteristics
For that reason, animal behaviors have evolved in many different ways, just as animal physical characteristics have
Behavior is in an organism’s genetic makeup
Behaviors can enhance an animal’s ability to survive

3. Behavior and Survival
There are some behaviors that animals must perform automatically in order to survive
“Know” how to hunt soon after they are born
Dolphins must know in advance that they have to hold their breath under water
Other behaviors must be more flexible and capable of being changed by experience
Hummingbirds must learn to find food in different kinds of flowers at different times of the year

4. Behavior and Survival
A variety of automatic and flexible behaviors exist in the animal kingdom
Instinct
Learning

5. Instincts Instincts are behaviors that can be called inborn
Instincts are built into an animal’s nervous system and cannot be changed during the animal’s lifetime, even by learned experiences
Instinctive behaviors are genetically controlled
Many instinctive behaviors consist of actions that always continue in a certain order once they have begun

6. Instincts
Although some instinctive behaviors are relatively simple, others can be very complex
Web-building behavior in spiders
Courtship behaviors in insects, fish, birds, and mammals

7. Learning Learned behaviors are shaped by experience
Learning is the way animals change their behavior as a result of experience
Learning is valuable to an animal because it may enhance the animal’s chances of survival and its chances of reproduction and passing on its genes to another generation

8. Learning There are several different ways in which animals learn
Habituation
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
Insight learning

9. Learning
Habituation is a decrease in response to a stimulus that neither rewards nor harms an animal
One of the simplest ways in which animals learn
EXAMPLE
Very young ducks and geese are frightened of any shadow that moves overhead
Within a few days of hatching, however, the young birds find that some shadows moving overhead – the shadows of adult geese and ducks – mean nothing
They soon habituate to these shadows and no longer try to escape from them

10. Learning
Classical conditioning occurs when an animal makes a mental connection between a stimulus and some kid of good or bad event
Pavlov’s dogs
Operant conditioning is sometimes called trial-and-error learning
An animal learns to behave in a certain way in order to receive a reward or avoid punishment
EXAMPLE
A predator learns not to eat a particular prey in order to avoid an unpleasant experience

11. Learning
In insight learning, an animal applies something it has already learned to a new situation – without a period of trial-and-error
Rare among most animals
Common only in primates

12. Instinct and Learning Combined
Some behaviors cannot occur without some learning on the part of the animal
For example, newborn ducks and geese have a built-in urge to follow their mother
But this instinct to follow does not include a picture of what their mother looks like
This picture must be provided by experience in a process called imprinting
The newborn bird will follow the first large slowly moving object it sees

13. Chapter 35: Animal Behavior
Section 2: Communication: Signals for Survival

14. Communication: Signals for Survival
Any time animal behavior involves more than one individual, some form of communication is involved
Communication is the passing of information from one animal to another
Animals use many varied techniques to communicate with one another

15. Sensing the Natural World
No two animal species sense the world in the same way
Each animal species has a unique way of gathering and transmitting information
Understanding the differences between our sensory world and that of animals is important in the study of animal behavior
Today, many scientists study animals under natural conditions
Ethologists

16. Why Animals Communicate
Animals communicate with one another for a variety of reasons
Courtship behavior
Food
Potential dangers

17. How Animals Communicate
Animals communicate with other members of their species and with other species
The ways in which they communicate are limited only by the kinds of stimuli their senses can detect
Visual signals
Movement and color
Sound signals
Chemical signals
Well-developed sense of smell
Produce special chemicals called pheromones that transmit information
Electrical signals

18. Language
Some forms of animal communication are more complicated than any of the signals just described
Animal “dances”
Human language is the most complicated form of communication

19. Chapter 35: Animal Behavior
Section 3: The Evolution of Behavior

20. The Evolution of Behavior
The physical structures in organisms develop according to a program contained in their DNA
Different characteristics are coded in different genes or groups of genes
Variations in these genes lead to inheritable variations in the characteristics of the animals that carry them

21. The Evolution of Behavior
Genes code for behaviors as well as for physical characteristics
Evidence for genetic control of behavior can be demonstrated by crossing closely related animals that show different behaviors
The evolutionary fitness of an individual is increased if it forms some type of social group with others of its kind