Animal Behavior
AP Biology meerkats 2008-2009
What is behavior?
Behavior
everything an animal does & how it does it
response to stimuli in its environment
innate
inherited, “instinctive”
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learned
ability to learn is inherited, but
the behavior develops during
animal’s lifetime
variable & flexible
change with experience & environment
AP Biology
Why study behavior?
Evolutionary perspective…
part of phenotype
acted upon by natural selection
lead to greater fitness?
lead to greater survival?
lead to greater reproductive success?
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What questions can we ask?
Proximate causes
immediate stimulus & mechanism
“how” & “what” questions
Ultimate causes male songbird
what triggers singing?
evolutionary significance how does he sing?
why does he sing?
how does behavior
contribute to survival
& reproduction
adaptive value
“why” questions
Courtship behavior in cranes
how does daylength influence breeding?
what…how…
AP Biology & why questions
why do cranes breed in spring?
Evolutionary perspective
Adaptive advantage?
innate behaviors
automatic, fixed, “built-in”, no “learning curve”
despite different environments,
all individuals exhibit the behavior
ex. early survival, reproduction, kinesis, taxis
learned behaviors
modified by experience
variable, changeable
flexible with a complex & changing
environment
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1941 | 1973
Ethology
pioneers in the study of animal behavior
Karl von Frisch Niko Tinbergen Konrad Lorenz
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male sticklebacks exhibit
aggressive territoriality
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
attack on red belly stimulus
AP Biology court on swollen belly stimulus
Fixed Action Patterns (FAP)
Digger wasp
egg rolling in geese
Do humans exhibit Fixed Action Patterns? The “eyebrow-flash”
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Supernormal Stimulus
Responding more to a larger sign stimulus
adaptation or experimental artifact?
does lipstick create
a supernormal
stimulus in humans
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Innate: Directed movements
Taxis
change in direction
automatic movement toward (positive taxis) or
away from
(negative taxis) a
stimulus
phototaxis
chemotaxis
Kinesis
change in rate of
movement in
response to a stimulus
AP Biology
Complex Innate behaviors
Migration
“migratory restlessness” seen in birds bred &
raised in captivity
navigate by sun, stars, Earth magnetic fields
Sandpiper
ancient
Monarch fly-ways
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migration Golden plover
Bobolink
Innate & Learning: Imprinting
Learning to form social attachments at a
specific critical period
both learning & innate components
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Konrad Lorenz
Conservation
Conservation biologists
have taken advantage of
imprinting by young
whooping cranes as a
means to teach the Wattled crane conservation
birds a migration
teaching cranes to migrate
route. A pilot wearing
a crane suit in an
Ultralight plane acts
as a surrogate parent.
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Critical period
Sensitive phase for optimal
imprinting
some behavior must be
learned during a receptive
time period
As a brood parasite,
the Cuckoo never
learn the song of their
species as a nestling.
Song development is
totally innate.
AP Biology imprinting/critical period in humans?
Learned behavior
Associative learning
learning to associate
a stimulus with a
consequence
operant conditioning
trial & error learning
associate behavior with
reward or punishment
ex: learning what to eat
classical conditioning
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Pavlovian conditioning
associate a “neutral
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stimulus” with a
“significant stimulus”
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Operant conditioning
Skinner box
B. F. Skinner
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mouse learns to associate behavior
(pressing
AP Biology lever) with reward (food pellet)
Classical conditioning
Ivan Pavlov’s dogs
connect reflex behavior (salivating at sight of
food) to associated stimulus (ringing bell)
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Learning: Habituation
Loss of response to
stimulus
“cry-wolf” effect
decrease in response to
repeated occurrences of
stimulus
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disregard unimportant
stimuli
ex: falling leaves not
triggering fear response in QuickTime™
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Learning: Problem-solving
Do other animals reason?
chimpanzee
problem-solving
tool use crow
sea
AP Biology otter
Social behaviors
Interactions between individuals
develop as evolutionary adaptations
communication / language
agonistic behaviors
dominance hierarchy
cooperation
altruistic behavior
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Let’s go to
the videotape!
Language
Honey bee
communication
dance to
communicate
location of food
source
waggle dance
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Communication by song
Bird song
species identification & mating ritual
mixed learned & innate
critical learning period
Insect song Red-winged blackbird
mating ritual & song
innate, genetically
controlled
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Social behaviors
Agonistic behaviors
threatening & submissive rituals
symbolic, usually no harm done
ex: territoriality, competitor aggression
Let’s go to
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the videotape!
Social behaviors
Dominance hierarchy
social ranking within
a group
pecking order
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Social behaviors
Cooperation
working together in coordination
Pack of African dogs
hunting wildebeest
cooperatively
White pelicans “herding”
AP Biology school of fish
Social behaviors
Altruistic behavior
reduces individual fitness but
increases fitness of recipient
kin selection
increasing survival of close relatives passes
these genes on to the next generation
I would lay
down my life for
2 brothers or
8 cousins!
AP Biology How can this be of adaptive value? Belding ground squirrel
Social interaction requires communication
Pheromones
chemical signal that stimulates a
response from other individuals
alarm pheromones
sex pheromones
AP Biology
human sex pheromone?
Pheromones
Female mosquito use CO2
concentrations to locate victims
marking territory
Spider using moth sex
pheromones, as allomones, The female lion lures male by spreading sex
to lure its prey pheromones, but also by posture & movements
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convergent evolution:
bees, ants, termites…
Colonial mammals mole rats
Naked mole rats
underground colony, tunnels
queen, breeding males, non-breeding workers
hairless, blind
“Picture a hot dog that's been left in a microwave a little
too long…add some buck teeth at one end, and you've got a
fairly good idea of what a Naked Mole Rat looks like.”
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Any
Questions??
AP Biology 2008-2009
EXTRA SLIDES
AP Biology 2008-2009
Mating & parental behavior
Genetic influences
changes in behavior at different stages
of mating
pair bonding
competitor aggression
Environmental influences
modifies behavior
quality of diet
social interactions
learning opportunities
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Pheromones
Human pheromones?
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