Animal Behavior -- EthologyFrom the Greek: Ethos (character) and logia (the study of).

1) You’ve been teleported to Canada, to the wonderful

winter wonderland that is my home province!

1) How would you survive?What are the physical and behavioral responses you would use to stay alive in this cold environment?• 1) Your response represents different

_________________ that humans have developed to help us survive in our environment!

• There are 2 categories of adaptations:• Physical and behavioral adaptations

adaptations

What is an adaptation?

3) A habitat is only populated by organisms that are adapted to survive there.

Adaptations are special physical features or behaviours that make an organism particularly suited to its environment.

Adaptations increase an organism’s chance of survival and so increase its chance of reproducing.

Which animal is better adapted for survival in the arctic?

1) Physical adaptations: These are body structures that allow an animal to find and consume food, defend itself, and to reproduce its species. Physical adaptations help an animal survive in its environment by acting as physical ______________________ for survival. a) E.x. Camouflage, mimicry, chemical defenses, wings, organs, arms, hands, legs and other body parts are all types of physical adaptations that help organisms survive.

tools

2) Behavioral Adaptations allow animals to ___________________ to changes in their habitat as needed, and work together with physical adaptations to help an animal survive and reproduce. Behavioral adaptations are either innate (instinctive) or learned. A hammer without someone to swing it will never fix anything!

respond

Physical adaptation (not covered on exam)1a) Camouflage – the use of color in a

surrounding. Can be static (always the same or seasonally changing) or dynamic (like the chameleon, which can change color as needed).

1b) Mimicry -- Looking or sounding like another living organism. Can be used as camouflage, or to appear like another dangerous organism.The Viceroy butterfly uses mimicry to look like

the Monarch butterfly. Can you tell them apart? Why the bright colours?

Poisonous Not poisonous

Physical adaptation (not covered on exam)

I’m the Monarch!

I’m the Viceroy!

Other examples of mimicry:

Behavioral adaptations are either instinctive or learned.

Instinctive behaviors happen naturally and don’t need to be learned. They are behaviors performed perfectly the first time, even if they’ve never been done before!

Learned behaviors develop from interactions with the environment. They can also be taught to offspring by the parent….

Learned behaviors -- Example 1: OttersOtters can’t swim! They need to learn!

• The YouTube clip linked below shows Molala the baby otter learning to swim with help from mom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4ELyQQp_yU

Otter swim lessons.

Learned Behaviors -- Example 2: Orca HuntersOrcas are extremely smart. They hunt in groups, and use advanced

tactics which can be taught to their offspring.

• These intelligent animals display advanced learning abilities; they are actually practicing their hunting techniques, and allowing the young orcas to practice as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3__L0oAa2T8

Notebook Assignment / Exam Practice

1) Notebook Assignment: What is behavior? Define the terms behavior, stimulus and response in your own words.

– Have your physical or behavioral adaptations ever helped you survive a tricky situation? Tell me a story!

2) What’s the difference between learned and innate behavior? Give an example.

What is behavior? A good definition for writing your exams…

• “Behavior is everything an animal does and how it does it”.

• “It is the way an organism reacts to changes in its internal conditions or external environment”.

The underlined terms = 3 key words in forming a correct answer on an exam or test!

Studying the behavior of animals

is time-intensive

In many behaviors muscular activity is involved, but also non-muscular activities are considered to be behaviors.

Why do the baby geese follow the mother goose?

What is behavior? Behaviors and Evolution… (Notes page 2)

1) Stimulus vs. Response -- Usually behaviors are performed when an animal reacts to a stimulus. A stimulus is any kind of signal that carries information that can be detected (e.g. when we are hungry)• A single, specific reaction to a stimulus is

called a response.E.g. Stimulus: Hunger! Response: find / eat food!

Behavior and Evolution

2) Behavior patterns play an important role in survival and reproduction.• Many behaviors are influenced by genes.• Therefore, studying animal behavior can give us

clues to the role that genes play in creating certain behaviors, especially innate behaviors, or the way in which learned behaviors are acquired and how they develop!

“Some single genes have major consequences for behavior”.

Bonus Info: Ant behavior and genes…E.x. Ants – it’s recently been discovered that genes

can influence the job an ant will perform… e.x. whether the ant is a worker, a soldier, a forager, or a queen.

Chemicals and specific diets control which genetic traits are expressed and which are suppressed.

The result is an ant with physical and behavioral traits for a single specific job!

Why do certain behaviors exist? Why are some innate? Why are they important?

• Studying behavior teaches us about the history of life on the planet. The cause or reason for certain behaviors isn’t always obvious!

• E.x. the proximate and ultimate cause of behaviors.

• Proximate = stimulus X Response Y• Ultimate = Why does stimulus X cause response

Y? What is the benefit to the species?

Let’s look at a couple fish…Let’s look at the difference in behavior between these fish, before and after visual contact with one another, and figure out their ‘motivation’.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AstvbdaqG4

Proximate and Ultimate Causes for Behavior

• Proximate causeWhat stimulus triggers the response?(Stimulus “X” -> Reaction “Y”. )

• Ultimate cause:The evolutionary significance of a behavior. Why

does X --> Y help the organism /species survive?(such as “why did natural selection favor this behavior and not

a different one?”)

Proximate cause: the presence of the other male betta acts as a sign stimulus that releases the aggression in a male fighting fish.Ultimate cause: by chasing away other male fighting fish, a male increases its chance to reproduce with females. More aggression = more reproduction.

4) Innate (instinctive) Behavior

Innate behaviors appear in fully functional form the first time they are performed, even though the animal may have had no previous experience with the stimuli to which it responds.

e.g. FAP. What does FAP stand for?

FAP – Fixed patterns of behavior.

• Many responses are fixed action patterns (FAP).

• A FAP is a sequence of innate behavior that is unchangeable and, once initiated, is usually carried out to completion.

• Usually FAPs are triggered by an external stimulus.

Egg Rolling w/Graylag GooseEx. of Fixed Action Pattern: action is carried out to completion. What happens if you take the egg away in the middle of this action?

Let’s see! (video)

The goose will continue to push the egg (or even an egg-shaped object like a light-bulb) until it’s been placed inside the nest. If the object is taken away, the goose will continue the movement (hence the word ‘fixed’) until ‘completion’.The word ‘fixed’ means ‘permanent’ or ‘unchanging’

Fixed action pattern

Experiment 2:

• Describe the two experiments done by Tinbergen (one involving pine-cones, and one involving moving the grasshopper once the wasp is inside the nest.)

• What type of behavior does this represent?• Is this behavior learned or innate?• What are the proximate and ultimate causes of

the behavior shown in the grasshopper experiment?

Tinbergen’s Sand Wasp ExperimentNest finding behavior of wasps responding to the arrangement of the cones rather than the cones themselves

Are there fixed action patterns in human beings?

Yes!Our reflexes

Other innate behavior; Spiders spinning a web, birds calling for food, birds migrating with the seasons, bears hibernating, etc…

Follow-Up Questions!

• 1) How are proximate causes different from ultimate causes of behavior?

• 2) Look at page 842-843 in your textbook. Name the four different types of learning and provide one example of each. Give a quick description to help you understand each one before next lesson.

Exit Slip / Exam Practice Question:

1) What does FAP stand for?2) What is the proximate and ultimate cause of the Graylag Goose FAP, the innate FAP of moving eggs back into the nest?