animal behavior notes!
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Animal Behavior Notes!. Behavior. What an animal does & How an animal does it! Think of all of the behaviors of your pet...or a friends’ pet. List them and classify them as either being genetically “innate” or learned. Behavioral Ecology. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Animal Behavior Notes!
Behavior
• What an animal does & How an animal does it!
• Think of all of the behaviors of your pet...or a friends’ pet. List them and classify them as either being genetically “innate” or learned.
Behavioral Ecology
• Behavioral Ecology emphasizes evolutionary hypothesis.
• Based on the fact that animals will act in a way that will increase their Darwinian fitness. What does “fitness” refer to in Darwinian terms?
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?
male songbird what triggers
singing? how does he sing? why does he sing?
how does daylength influence breeding?
why do cranes breed in spring?
how does daylength influence breeding?
why do cranes breed in spring?
Courtship behavior in cranes
what,…how… & why questions
Courtship behavior in cranes
what,…how… & why questions
P & E Practice
• Human Sweet-tooth• Sonar Clicks in Bats
ETHOLOGY
Pioneers in the Study of An. BehaviorKarl von Frisch Niko Tinbergen Konrad Lorenz
Two Classifications of Behavior – Who cares???
• ADAPTIVE ADVANTAGE1. innate behaviors • automatic, fixed, “built-in”, no “learning
curve”• despite different environments,
all individuals exhibit the behavior• ex. early survival, reproduction, kinesis, taxis
2. learned behaviors• modified by experience• variable, changeable • flexible with a complex & changing
environment
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
Innate: Fixed Action Patterns (FAP)
Do humans exhibit Fixed Action Patterns?
Digger wasp
egg rolling in geese
Innate: Directed movements
Innate: Migration
Innate & Learned Behavior: Imprinting
Who???
I & L: Imprinting
CRITICAL PERIOD
Learned Behavior
• Associative learning– learning to associate
a stimulus with a consequence
Operant Conditioning
Classical Conditioning
Learning: Habituation
Learning: Problem-solving
• Do other animals reason?
crow
Social Behavior
• Communication/Language• Agonistic Behaviors• Dominance Hierarchy• Cooperation• Altruistic Behavior
a. Language
Communication by song
Communication by scent
Female mosquito use CO2 concentrations to locate victims
Spider using moth sex pheromones, as allomones, to lure its prey
b. Agonistic behaviors
Lizard Behavior
c. Dominance hierarchy
d. Cooperation
e. Altruistic Behavior
kin selection• increasing survival of close relatives
passes these genes on to the next generation
How can this be of adaptive value? Warning Calls