51 Animal Behavior Flashcards
What does ’ethology’ refer to?
The study of animal behaviour
What is the study of animal behaviour formally called?
Ethology
What basic questions are asked when analysing a behaviour?
- What stimulus elicits the behavior, and what physiological mechanisms mediate the response?
- How does the animal’s experience during growth and development influence the response?
- How does the behavior aid survival and reproduction?
- What is the behaviour’s evolutionary history?
When discussing a behaviours, what two factors are analysed?
The ‘proximate cause’ and the ‘ultimate cause’
What does ’proximate cause’ refer to?
Questions that ask how a behaviour occurs and is influenced.
E.g.
- What stimulus elicits the behavior, and what physiological mechanisms mediate the response?
- How does the animal’s experience during growth and development influence the response?
What does ‘ultimate causation’ refer to?
An analysis of why a behaviour occurs in the context of natural selection.
E.g.
- How does the behavior aid survival and reproduction?
- What is the behavior’s evolutionary history?
What is the ‘how’ of a behaviour called?
Its proximate causation
What is the ‘why’ of a behaviour called?
Its ultimate causation
What is an unchaining response to a simple stimulus called?
A ‘fixed action pattern’
What is a ‘fixed action pattern’?
A largely invariant behavior triggered by a simple cue known as a ‘sign stimulus’.
What is a ’sign stimulus’?
A simple stimulus which leads to a fixed action pattern
What is the input which leads to a fixed action pattern called?
The ’sign stimulus’
In the context of Ethology, what does FAP refer to?
Fixed action pattern
What is an example of a fixed action pattern?
Some simple fish always swim away from the colour red.
The ultimate cause is that their predators are red.
How do animals know where to go when migrating?
Some use the position of the sun while using their circadian and circannual rhythms to account for daily and annual variations respectively.
Others detect magnetic fields.
How do birds etc. perceive magnetic fields?
The heads of migrating fishes and birds contain bits of magnetite. The Earth’s pull on magnetite-containing structures triggers transmission of nerve impulses to the brain.
Alternatively it is possible that the magnetism affects photoreceptors in the eye. The idea that animals “see” the magnetic field is supported by experiments showing that light of particular wavelengths must be present for birds to orient in a magnetic field during the day or night.
What is the main source for ‘calibration’ of the cir-annual rhythm?
Photoperiod.
What is a stimulus transmitted from one animal to another called?
A signal
What is a signal?
A stimulus transmitted from one animal to another
What is a ‘Drosophila melanogaster’?
Fruit fly
What is the binomial name for fruit fly?
Drosophila melanogaster
What are the basic forms of communication seen in animals?
Visual communication, chemical communication, tactile communication and auditory communication.
How do bees communicate the location of food?
With the ‘waggle dance’
What is the ‘waggle dance’?
The ways bees communicate the location of food.
The basic idea is that they wiggle in a figure of eight. The direction in which the central bit faces (the cross of the 8) determines the angle of the food relative to the sun. The length of the straight run and thus the number of waggles indicates how far the food is. A longer straight run with more waggles indicates farther away.
If the food is close they do the circle dance and basically just walk randomly within the confines of a circle.
What are are chemical messengers that are released into the environment called?
Pheromones.
What effects can pheromones raise?
They can lead to sexual attraction or a sense of alarm.
How do minnows respond to predators?
The skin of minnows contains a pheromone. If that skin is damaged by a predator etc. this pheromones it released in to the water.
It is detected by other minnows in the water causing them to panic and swim away, and thus they avoid the predator.
What does ’diurnal’ refer to?
Active during the day
What are organism which are active during the day called?
Diurnal
What are organisms that are active at the evening called?
Crepuscular
What is a good way to determine the impact of upbringing on behaviour?
By using a cross-fostering study
What is a cross-fosteirng study?
When babies of one species are placed in the maternal care of another species.
Innate behaviours will remain unchanged, allowing behaviours driven by imprinting etc. to be identified.
How can the influence of genetics versus the environment be determined?
With a twin study
What is a twin study?
A method of determining ’nature vs. nurture’ by taking two genetically identical twins and raising them in two separate environments
What are behaviours that do not change called?
Innate behaviours
What are ‘innate behaviours’?
Behaviours that are innate and thus not changing.
What is the difference between innate belabours and fixed action patterns?
Innate behaviours and fixed action patterns are mostly the same.
Innate behaviours differ in that they refer to any immutable response whereas fixed action patterns focus more on the idea of stimulus → response
(they often overlap significantly)
What is learning?
The ability of a response to change based on experiences and environmental factors.
What are the basic types of learning?
Imprinting, Spatial Learning, Associative Learning, Cognition/Insight and Social Learning.
What is imprinting?
A form of learning which has both learned and innate components.
Therefore it is the the formation at a specific stage in life of a long-lasting behavioral response to a particular individual or object.
What form of learning has both an innate and learned element?
Imprinting
How is imprinting unique, besides the fact it has both innate and learned elements?
It is is subject to a sensitive period.
What is a sensitive period?
A limited developmental phase when imprinting can occur. It is often during childhood
What type of learning involves a sensitive period?
Imprinting.
What is the attraction between animals mates called?
Their ‘pair-bond’
What does ’pair bond’ refer to?
The attraction between mates or mother and child.
What is spatial learning?
A form of learning through which the location of object etc. is stored.
In what form of learning is the location of items remembered?
Spatial learning
What are some examples of spatial learning and thus what ultimate causes does it fulfil?
Squirrels learn the location of nuts they bury and wasps learn the location of their nests.
Many animals migrate and/or return to breed where they were born.
What is a common method animals use for spatial learning?
Cognitive maps or Landmarks
What are cognitive maps?
The way many animals achieve spatial learning.
A representation in the nervous system of the spatial relationships between objects in an animal’s surroundings. For example it may look at the relative position of two objects to deduce the location of its nest.
(note that it is more abstract than the landmark method in which organisms simply follow the landmarks to their food etc.)
What is the landmark method of spatial learning?
The organism remembers landmarks near the nest/food.
It therefore looks for that landmark and know that what it seeks is nearby.
(note that it is distinct from cognitive maps as the organism simply recognises landmarks and does not look at the spatial relationship between landmarks)
What is associative learning?
A form of learning in which based on their experiences after sensing a stimulus the organism gains either a positive or negative association with that stimulus.
Therefore it may associate seeing an orange wasp with a bad taste etc.
What can associative learning be subdivided into?
Conditioning
What is conditioning a type of?
Associative learning
What can conditioning be divided into?
‘Classical conditioning’ and ‘operant conditioning’
What form of conditioning was developed by Pavlov?
Classical
Who identified classical conditioning?
Ivan Pavlov
What is classical conditioning?
When an arbitrary stimulus becomes associated with a particular outcome.
For example if a bell is played each time a dog is feed it will salivate when just the bell is struck.
What is operant conditioning?
Trial-and-error learning where an animal first learns to associate one of its behaviors with a re- ward or punishment and then tends to repeat or avoid that behavior
What is operant conditioning also known as?
Trial and error learning
What is trial and error learning also known as?
Operant conditioning.
What form of learning is a rat navigating a maze?
Trial and Error (operant conditioning)
What is cognition?
A form of learning in which animals use past experiences to respond to a novel stimulus
What is cognition learning also known as?
Insight learning
What is insight learning also known as?
Cognition
What is the definition of problem solving?
The cognitive activity of devising a method to proceed from one state to another in the face of real or apparent obstacles.
What is social learning?
A form of learning in which organisms solve problems by observing the behaviour of other organisms.
What are the basic ways behaviour can affect survival?
Foraging Behaviour, Mating Behaviour & Mate Choice, and Alturisim.
What idea describes most beneficial method of foraging?
The ‘optimal foraging model’
What is the optimum foraging model?
The idea that natural selection should lead to behaviours which minimise the cost of the foraging while maximising the benefits.
What is consideration when analysing the ultimate cause of behaviours?
How does it balance risk and reward?
If it has low risk it probably has little rewards and thus limited fitness. If the risk is too high it will probably select itself out of the population.
Why is mate choice important in terms of natural selection?
The offspring of the couple have half of each parent’s genome and thus each parent wants to maximise the number of offspring it has.
Therefore it generally want to choose a mate with high fitness. This means the offspring will likely also have at least reasonable fitness as they inherit alleles from both parents.
High parental fitness is also important as it ensure the offspring will be protects in species that provide parental/maternal care.
What are the basic mating systems seen in populations?
Promiscuity, monogamy and polygamy (polygyny and polyandry)
What is promiscuity?
A mating system in which there are no strong pair bonds ands thus mates do not remain together for long
What is monogamy?
A mating system in which the couple remain together and thus often have multiple litters together.
Therefore they have strong pari bonds between each other.
What is polygamy?
A mating system in which one organism has multiple mates simultaneously.
What is the mating system with weak pair bonds?
Promiscuity
What is the mating system in which each individual has only one mate which it forms a strong pair bond with?
Monogamy
What is the mating system in which one individual mates with multiple other individuals simultaneously?
Polygamy.
What can polygamy be divided into?
Polygyny and polyandry
What does ’polygyny’ refer to?
A social structure in which each male has multiple female mates
What does ’polyandry’ refer to?
A social structure in which each female has multiple male mates.
What is it called when each male has multiple female mates?
Polygyny (a from of polygamy)
What is it called when each female has multiple male mates?
Polyandry
What is the extent to which males and females of a species appear differ called?
Sexual dimorphism
What is sexual dimorphism?
The extent to which males and females of a species appear different.
How does the level of sexual dimorphism vary among species based on mating structure?
In monogamous species, males and females are often very similar
Polygynous species are generally dimorphic, with males being showier and often larger than females.
Polyandrous species are also dimorphic, but the females are generally more ornamented and larger than the males.
Based on natural selection, what is a primary factor that impacts whether a species provides paternal care?
One of the most important factors is ‘certainty of paternity.’ In promiscuous social structures or those where external fertilisation occurs parental care will likely not occur as the father does not know which offspring are his. Spending resources on protecting the offspring of other individuals would select against him in terms of natural selection.
Conversely in which the father has high ‘certainty of paternity’ it would be beneficial for him to provide parental care.
What can polygamy be divided into?
Polygyny and polyandry
What does ’polygyny’ refer to?
A social structure in which each male has multiple female mates
What does ’polyandry’ refer to?
A social structure in which each female has multiple male mates.
What is it called when each male has multiple female mates?
Polygyny (a from of polygamy)
What is it called when each female has multiple male mates?
Polyandry
What is the extent to which males and females of a species appear differ called?
Sexual dimorphism
What is sexual dimorphism?
The extent to which males and females of a species appear different.
How does the level of sexual dimorphism vary among species based on mating structure?
In monogamous species, males and females are often very similar
Polygynous species are generally dimorphic, with males being showier and often larger than females.
Polyandrous species are also dimorphic, but the females are generally more ornamented and larger than the males.
Based on natural selection, what is a primary factor that impacts whether a species provides paternal care?
One of the most important factors is ‘certainty of paternity.’ In promiscuous social structures or those where external fertilisation occurs parental care will likely not occur as the father does not know which offspring are his. Spending resources on protecting the offspring of other individuals would select against him in terms of natural selection.
Conversely in which the father has high ‘certainty of paternity’ it would be beneficial for him to provide parental care.
What can polygamy be divided into?
Polygyny and polyandry
What does ’polygyny’ refer to?
A social structure in which each male has multiple female mates
What does ’polyandry’ refer to?
A social structure in which each female has multiple male mates.
What is it called when each male has multiple female mates?
Polygyny (a from of polygamy)
What is it called when each female has multiple male mates?
Polyandry
What is the extent to which males and females of a species appear differ called?
Sexual dimorphism
What is sexual dimorphism?
The extent to which males and females of a species appear different.
How does the level of sexual dimorphism vary among species based on mating structure?
In monogamous species, males and females are often very similar
Polygynous species are generally dimorphic, with males being showier and often larger than females.
Polyandrous species are also dimorphic, but the females are generally more ornamented and larger than the males.
Based on natural selection, what is a primary factor that impacts whether a species provides paternal care?
One of the most important factors is ‘certainty of paternity.’ In promiscuous social structures or those where external fertilisation occurs parental care will likely not occur as the father does not know which offspring are his. Spending resources on protecting the offspring of other individuals would select against him in terms of natural selection.
Conversely in which the father has high ‘certainty of paternity’ it would be beneficial for him to provide parental care.
