What is behaviour

1
What is behaviour?
Animal Behaviour

• The way organisms respond to their environment
  and to other members of the same species
• Behaviour has adaptive significance. It allows
  the animal to better survive or reproduce.

Monday at 800AM
Friday at 324
2
There are four main types of animal behaviour

• Orientation (taxis and kinesis)
• Where do I want to go?
• How will I get there?

2. Foraging Wheres my food?
3. Agonistic (aggression) Whos who in the
neighborhood?
4. Courtship and Mating Ooh! La! La!
The study of animal behaviour is called ETHNOLOGY
3
Orientation behaviours
take the animal to its most favourable location
by
taxis
kinesis
change in the speed of random movement in
response to environmental stimulus
a directed movement towards or away from a
stimulus
This behavior improves the chance of survival by
taking the organism towards a positive
environment and away from a negative environment.
4
What is a tactic response?

• The movement of the whole organism in response to
  an external (environmental) directional stimulus.

It can be POSITIVE - towards the stimulus
(light, humidity, heat etc)
It may be NEGATIVE away from the stimulus
(light, humidity, heat etc)
5
Response Thigmotaxis Phototaxis Geotaxis Thermotax
is Rheotaxis Chemotaxis
Stimulus Temperature Light Chemicals Currents Grav
ity Touch or pressure
6
How does animal behaviour improve their chance of
survival?
Take home task Find one example of how an
animals innate behavior (taxis or kinesis)
improves their chance of survival. Next class
you will be expected to share what you have found.
7
How does tactic behaviour improve an animals
chance of survival?
Flatworms have no eyes therefore they can not see
their food. Using chemotaxis they can sense the
food and move towards it.
8

• Euglena uses photosynthesis to produce its food.
  It exhibits a phototaxic response to light to
  increase its chances of producing food for
  survival.

9
How does kinesis improve an animals chance of
survival?

• Woodlice move less in optimum (humid) conditions
  and more in unfavorable (dry) atmosphere. This
  makes them more likely to move away from a
  negative environment.

10

Agonistic behaviour
Animals respond to each other with aggressive or
defensive actions (usually with members of the
same species.
When two lions meet, the lower ranking lion will
lower its head and rub the forehead of the
dominant lion.
Penguins video
The Betta fish will attack and fight to the
death, any other Betta fish it confronts.
11
How does agonistic behaviour improve an animals
chance of survival?
To defend a territory thereby reducing
competition for resources
To win a mate thereby increasing the chance of
reproductive success
To create a hierarchical community which improves
the chance of survival (protection from
predators, caring for young and sharing of food)
Among the Wild Chimpanzees video
12
Activities that involve finding, courting, and
mating with a member of the same species.An
example would be a peacock fluffing up its
feathers to attract females.
Mating behaviours
Not all individuals behave appropriately!!
13
Mate Selection Example Lion
Males periodically sniff female reproductive
organs for signs of oncoming estrus and if these
signs are detected, they will follow a female
until she is ready to mate. Females may signal
their interest in mating with elaborate tail
movements and by "walking sinuously past" a male
and assuming a mating position.
14
Mate Selection can lead to exaggerated traits
A great deal of energy is expended in creating
the peacocks tail, but when the best tail wins
the mate
The blue footed booby has brilliant coloured feet
in order to attract the best mate
15
Mate Selection can lead to exaggerated traits
Male Bower birds go to great extremes to create
the most beautiful blue nests to lure females
The trials of Life Courting video
16
Foraging behaviours
(the processes of searching for, obtaining and
then consuming food)
help animals optimize their food intake
This behavior improves the chance of survival by
making sure that the energy expended in the
search for food is less than the energy in the
food.
17
There are different types of foragers!!
Herbivores Omnivores Carnivores Specialists Genera
lists
consume plants (primary consumers) consume plants
and animals consume animals only rely on 1 type
of food have a varied diet
18
An example of optimizing foraging strategies
Bluegill Sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) live in
ponds where they prey on small invertebrates such
as Daphnia.
The graph below shows the size of prey that
bluegill sunfish choose to eat under different
conditions of prey density.
19
Whats happening?
When there is a low density of Daphnia, bluegill
sunfish eat
all size Daphnia
When there is a medium density of Daphnia,
bluegill sunfish eat
moderate to large Daphnia
When there is a high density of Daphnia, bluegill
sunfish eat
mostly large Daphnia
How does this behavior increase survival?
20
An example of optimizing foraging strategies
Bumble bees (Bombus sp.) regularly visit flowers
such as foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) to collect
nectar and/or pollen as food.
When approaching foxglove flowers, what foraging
strategy would optimize the acquisition of food?
Read page 523 (Clegg, 2007) and predict the
pattern of foraging from the experimental set-up
on page 524
21
Some behaviours are innate and some are learned
Innate behavior (instinct)

• inherited (controlled by genes)
• a stereotyped response to environmental stimuli
• develops independently of environmental context
• Natural selection plays a role!

Learned behavior

• Reflects conditions experienced by the
  individual during development (a result of
  experience)

22
Innate Animal Behavior

• Instinctive or inborn
• Determined by the "hard-wiring" of the nervous
  system
• Fully functional first time performed
• Some improve with performance ormaturation

Long-jawed orb weaver
NOTE Innate is a Latin word which means "born
with. It is behaviour assumed to be genetically
determined.
Sow with piglet
23
Examples of innate behaviour

• A salamander raised away from water until long
  after its siblings have been swimming will swim
  as well as they do the first time it is placed in
  the water. This elaborate swim response is "built
  in" not something that must be acquired by
  practice.

Other examples Nest building, Suckling, Weaving
a web
24
Learned behavior

• behaviour that is altered as a result of the
  experience of the individual organism
• reflects conditions that the animal experiences
• during
• development

25
(No Transcript)
26
Trail and error learning
a correct choice leads to reward an incorrect
choice leads to no reward
Example mazes Mastering a maze requires a
well-developed nervous system. Rats master mazes
quickly, ants less so
How does this behavior increase fitness (number
of offspring carrying your genes)?
27
A maze has a series of choices. An incorrect
choice leads to a dead end and no reward. A maze
is mastered when an animal can complete the maze
consistently without any wrong turns
(from Clegg, 2008. Biology for the IB Diploma)
28
Insight Learning (Reasoning)

• Sensory information is combined with experiences
  held in memory leading to adaptive behavior
• Intelligent
• behavior

To solve the problem the animal must overcome its
natural drive towards a viable source of food
Only by accident does the hen escape from the
netting and reach the food
After a few attempts the dog understands the
situation and runs away from the food in order to
achieve its goal
29
Classical conditioning
An example of learned behavior
an alteration in the behavior of an animal as a
result of the association of external stimuli

• Pavlovs dogs

30
Pavlovs experiment on conditioning dogs
Using the apparatus shown, Pavlov presented dogs
with food (unconditioned stimulus) and measured
salivary response (unconditioned response).
31
He then rang a bell immediately before presenting
the food. At first, the dogs did not begin
salivating until the food was presented. After a
few trials, the sound of the bell (conditioned
stimulus) caused the dogs to begin to salivate
(conditioned response) regardless of food
presentation.
The dogs learned to associate the sound of the
bell with the presentation of food. As far as
immediate physiological responses were concerned,
the sound of the bell became equivalent to the
presentation food.
Classical conditioning works with involuntary
physiological responses
32
Important words to memorize

• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) a stimulus that
  automatically elicits a response.
• Unconditional Response (UCR) the automatic
  response to an unconditional stimulus.
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS) the stimulus that
  brings on a particular response after being
  paired with an unconditioned stimulus.
• Conditioned response (CR) This refers to a
  response that the conditioned stimulus elicits,
  but only because it has previously been paired
  with the unconditioned stimulus.

33
Development of Birdsong
Inheritance many bird species inherit a basic
song template (subsong) that is sung quietly
Learning as birds listen to their parents, they
modify their song to sound like their parents.
Why is it important that bird song is species
specific?
Why is it important that birds sound like their
parents?
Do data base question from Allott
34
Rhythmic variation in behavior
The woodlouse
Read the article on the woodlouse and answer the
questions.
35
The woodlouse shows nocturnal behaviour patterns
More active at night than day
Reasons for nocturnal behaviour patterns
include to avoid diurnal predators to avoid
hot conditions in the day
Other animals with nocturnal behaviour patterns
include
possum
36
Spider Monkeys show diurnal behaviour patterns
(Ateles geoffroyi)
More active in day than at night
Reasons for diurnal behaviour patterns
include easier to see food, predators, mates in
daylight warmer conditions in day easier to
locomote with light vision
Other animals with diurnal behaviour patterns
include
37
Seasonal variation in behavior
Elk (Cervus elaphus )
Elk have a seasonal life cycle. Calves are born
in spring. Mating occurs in the fall. Summers are
spent feeding in preparation for the long winter.
Elk Fight - King of the Harem Yellowstone
National Park. Youtube. Elk mating call and fight
38
Read the article about the seasonal rhythmic
behaviour in elk and answer the questions
39
How does the process of learning improve an
animals chance of survival?
Take home task Use whatever resources available
to you to find one example of how an animals
innate behavior (taxis or kinesis) improves their
chance of survival. Next class you will be
expected to share what you have found.
40
Learning can improve the chance of survival and
reproduction
Turkey data base question Tarantula data base Q?
Watch the video clips and determine how these
behaviors might improve the chance of survival
and/or reproduction?
Monkey with a death wish
Crazy Cats