Behavioral EcologyChapter 51A. P. BiologyLiberty Senior High SchoolMr. Knowles

Why study animal behavior?Understand Human nervous system.Child development.Human communication.Natural selection.

Animal Behavior Behavior- a way an organism responds to stimuli in its environment.Two Parts:The How?- hormone levels, nerve impulses and pathways-Proximate Causation.The Why?- adaptive value to animals survival or reproductive success- Ultimate Causation.

Whats the difference between stimulus and response?Stimulus- some environmental change or factor that can be perceived by a sense.Response- an organisms reaction to an environmental change.

EthologyStudy of natural history of behavior.Early ethologist, like Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen, believed behavior was based on instinct- innate.Example: Egg Retrieval in Geese Insect--> Frogs Tongue

Viewed Behavior in 3 PartsSign Stimulus- appearance of some signal.Innate Releasing Mechanism- sensory mechanism that detects the signal.Fixed Action Pattern- stereotyped act or behavior.

Show Me Egg Retrieval!Nature: Triumph of Life- Brain Power movie

What a sign stimulus!

Innate BehaviorsDetermined by the genes of an organism.Evidence: Behavioral genetics of Robert Tryon, 1940s with rats and mazes Selected for fastest rats, after 7 generations, maze time was 1/2 the average.Drosophila: mutant males fail to disengage females during mating. Also, courtship songs of birds are genetic.

MigrationMany features of migratory behavior in birdsHave been found to be genetically programmed

Comparative PsychologistsBehavior was due to learning.Learning- any modification of behavior that results from experience rather than maturation.Two Kinds:1. Nonassociative Learning: animal forms no association between stimulus and response (habituation = no +/- reinforcement). Ex. Young birds in nest.

Learning2. Associative Learning- behavioral alteration that involves an association between stimulus and response. The behavior is modified or conditioned (classical conditioning).Example: Young predators learning to identify acceptable prey.

Poisonous Coral Snake or Harmless Milk Snake?

Classical conditioning is a type of associative learningIn which an arbitrary stimulus is associated with a reward or punishmentFigure 51.15

What human behaviors are learned? innate?Show me the video!Nova: Secrets of the Wild Child

Spatial LearningSpatial learning is the modification of behaviorBased on experience with the spatial structure of the environment.

In a classic experiment, Niko TinbergenShowed how digger wasps use landmarks to find the entrances to their nestsAfter the mother visited the nest and flew away, Tinbergen moved the pinecones a few feet to one side of the nest.

Problem solving can be learned:-by observing the behavior of other animals.

Can an animal learn anything?Learning Preparedness- what an animal can learn is genetically determined; learning limited by instinct. Adaptive benefit.Example: rats can associate food by smell rather than by color. pigeons associate food by color rather than sound.

Brook Stickleback

Nikolaas TinbergenStudied courtship behavior of the stickleback fish.Identified a stimulus/response chain in animals.Saw sign stimuli as social releasers.

Social ReleasersAre sign stimuli one organism provides to another to communicate:readiness to mate,location of food,potential dangerCommunicate through visual, acoustic, chemical, tactile, or electrical pathways.

When a minnow or catfish is injuredAn alarm substance in the fishs skin disperses in the water, inducing a fright response among fish in the area

Auditory CommunicationExperiments with various insectsHave shown that courtship songs are under genetic control

Social Environment and Aggressive BehaviorCross-fostering studies in California mice and white-footed miceHave uncovered an influence of social environment on the aggressive and parental behaviors of these mice

Influence of cross-fostering on male mice

Variation in Aggressive BehaviorFunnel spiders living in different habitatsExhibit differing degrees of aggressiveness in defense and foraging behaviorFigure 51.1960Population

Such competition may involve agonistic behavior:An often ritualized contest that determines which competitor gains access to a resource.Male competition for mates:Is a source of intrasexual selection that can reduce variation among males.

Betta splendens

A Real Life Example of Agonistic Behavior!Discovery: Anatomy of a Shark Bite video

Communication Without Sound!

Elephant Biology

Elephant CommunicationThe work of Dr. Katherine PayneThe video, 48 Hours: Something Wild, July 2001

Orientation BehaviorsOrient by tracking stimuli in environment.Movement toward or away from stimulus- taxis. Ex. + phototaxis= insects to light.Other movements do not involve specific orientation. Only become more active under unfavorable conditions, inactive under favorable conditions. If activity is dependent on stimulus intensity- Kineses.

Sow bugs:Become more active in dry areas and less active in humid areas

Many stream fish exhibit positive rheotaxisWhere they automatically swim in an upstream directionFigure 51.7b

Konrad LorenzStudied imprinting -forming social attachments early in life.Worked with goslings and filial imprinting.Imprinting seen as innate.

Conservation biologists have taken advantage of imprintingIn programs to save the whooping crane from extinction