Dr BK Nirmal
Department of Zoology
Harishchandra p g college
Varanasi
Innate behaviour
• Innate behaviour patterns are inborn and inflexible
• These are of values in adopting the animals to its environment
• instinctive or innate behaviour is probably the most important type of
behaviour in insects
• Fishes reptiles and birds also depend to a large degree on inborn
instinctive pattern of behaviour especially during migration
Salient features of innate behaviour
• Hereditary basis for example building of web by spiders, nest building
in birds
• Instincts are inherited just as structure of tissues and organs is
inherited
• Innate behaviour shows inflexibility
• Carrying out of instincts depends upon the conditions in the the
internal environment of the organism
• The signals that trigger instinctive acts are called releasers
• An external stimulus or releasers is needed to initiate the response of
of innate behaviour
Other important features of innate behaviour
• It evolves gradually as the structural features evolve
• Natural selection modifies it to fit in the environment
• It consists of stereotype patterns of movement which are similar in all
individuals of a species
• Innate behaviour patterns can sometimes evoked readily by simple stimuli
animal
• An animal may moulds its inherited behaviour in the light of of its
experience
• Genes may control behaviour but for this they must interact with
developing animals environment
Forms of of innate behaviour
• Reflexes and reflex action
• Fixed action pattern
• Modifiable action pattern
Fixed action pattern
• Also called inborn, inherent or instinctive behaviour
• Triggered by external stimuli
• Common examples: visible and audible courtship behaviour of
insects, birds and fishes to attract males
• Nest building, food gathering behaviour
• Web construction, beehive construction
• Attack and defence behaviour
• Migration of birds and fishes along a fixed route
Modifiable action pattern (MAPs)
• Shows basic core of FIPs but still modifiable by different types of
learning processes
• Nest building behaviour of birds and rat
• Singing and calling behaviour of birds.
Reflexes and reflex actions
• Reflex is our fixed, stereotype responses to stimuli
• These are simplest invariable responses of a single organ system
• These depend upon reflex arc
• Examples: eye blinking reflex, knee jerk reflex
• Classification of reflex:
• 1. simple or unconditioned reflexes: transmitted through inheritance
• 2. Conditioned reflexes: acquired or learned reflexes
• [Link] reflexes: rapid, short lived
• [Link] reflexes
Salient features of reflexes
• Threshold, reflex latency,
• Rhythmic response
• Fatigue
• Inhibition
• Summation
