Animal Behavior

Question 1

What is behavior?

Answer 1

An action carried out by muscles under control of the nervous system.

Question 2

What is the purpose of behavior?

Answer 2

Acquiring nutrients, finding a mate, communicating, maintaining homeostasis, and more.

Question 3

What are the origins of behavior?

Answer 3

Evolutionary selection over time, which can affect anatomy.

Question 4

What is innate behavior?

Answer 4

A fixed action pattern; a sequence of unlearned acts that is directly linked to a simple stimulus, called a sign stimulus. They are unlearned and genetically fixed.

Question 5

What is migration?

Answer 5

A regular, long-distance change in location. During migration, many animals pass through environments they have never encountered before.

Question 6

What is the time-compensated sun compass?

Answer 6

The ability of animals to track their position relative to the sun or the North Star, adjusted by their circadian clock.

Question 7

How do circadian clocks oscillate?

Answer 7

They continuously oscillate in constant conditions with a period of about 24 hours.

Question 8

How does the speed of a circadian clock change?

Answer 8

It doesn’t; these clocks run at about the same speed regardless of temperature, even in cold-blooded animals and plants.

Question 9

What are circadian clocks usually synchronized to?

Answer 9

They are synchronized to the daily light/dark cycle of exactly 24 hours.

Question 10

In monarch butterflies and some birds, what dictates migratory patterns?

Answer 10

The position of the sun relative to the time of day.

Question 11

How does the time compensated sun compass guide migration direction?

Answer 11

It uses the relative time of day (maintained by the circadian clock) and the position of the sun to guide migration direction.

Question 12

What direction do monarchs migrate for the winter?

Answer 12

They go southwest for the winter.

Question 13

What happens to monarchs if their circadian clock is shifted by 6 hours?

Answer 13

If the circadian clock of a monarch is shifted 6 hours by maintaining it in an artificially lit chamber, when released outside the monarch’s migration is off by 90 degrees.

Question 14

How did the migration of warblers in Britain compare to that of Germany?

Answer 14

Warblers from Britain migrated west while warblers from Germany migrated southwest.

Question 15

What happened to warblers taken from Britain and bred with birds in Germany?

Answer 15

The birds that were the progeny of the British birds migrated west, while the offspring of the German birds migrated southwest.

Question 16

What does the example of warblers in Europe illustrate about behavior?

Answer 16

Genetics influences behavior. Within a species, there is significant genetic diversity, which can impact innate behavior.

Question 17

What is a signal?

Answer 17

A stimulus transmitted from one organism to another.

Question 18

What is communication?

Answer 18

The transmission and reception of signals between animals, which often causes a behavior.

Question 19

What are the modes of communication?

Answer 19

Visual, chemical, tactile, auditory, and electric.

Question 20

What is the stimulus response chain?

Answer 20

When the response to each stimulus is the stimulus for the next behavior, this is called the stimulus response chain.

Question 21

What is the purpose of bee dancing?

Answer 21

Dancing communicates to other bees in the hive the location of food.

Question 22

When does a bee perform a round dance, and how do other bees respond?

Answer 22

If food is 50 meters away or closer, the bee performs the round dance. Via odor cues, bees figure out the source and location of nearby food.

Question 23

When does a bee perform a waggle dance, and how does this communicate a message?

Answer 23

If food is farther, the bee performs the “waggle dance.” It goes a half circle in one direction, a straight run with a waggle, and a half circle in the other direction. The angle of the straight run relative to the hive’s vertical surface communicates the horizontal angle of the food relative to the sun. The longer the straight run the farther the food.

Question 24

What are pheromones?

Answer 24

Odorant or tastant chemical communication between members of a species.

Question 25

What is the purpose of pheromones in social insects?

Answer 25

The maintenance of the castes and social order.

Question 26

What is the purpose of pheromones in non-social insects?

Answer 26

Mate attraction.

Question 27

What is the purpose of pheromones in fish and mammals?

Answer 27

Mate attraction and danger signals.

Question 28

What is the difference between white-footed mice and California mice?

Answer 28

White-footed mice are less aggressive and have weak parental care. California mice are more aggressive and have strong parental care.

Question 29

In the mice experiment, what did the experimenters do?

Answer 29

They took California mice and had white-footed mice foster them.

Question 30

What was the result of California mice fostered by white-footed mice?

Answer 30

1. Less aggressive toward an intruder
2. No difference in aggression in a neutral situation
3. Reduced paternal behavior.

Question 31

What was the result of white-footed mice fostered by California mice?

Answer 31

1. No difference in aggression toward an intruder.
2. Increased aggression in neutral situations.
3. No difference in paternal behavior.

Question 32

What do the mice experiments show?

Answer 32

Experience during development can modify physiology in a way that alters parental behavior. The influence of experience on behavior can be passed on to progeny.

Question 33

What is learning?

Answer 33

The modification of behavior based on experience. Learning involves the formation of memories by specific changes in neuronal connectivity.

Question 34

What is imprinting?

Answer 34

The establishment of a long-lasting behavioral response to a particular individual or object.

Question 35

What is the sensitive period?

Answer 35

The specific period of development when imprinting can take place. In some birds, imprinting can only happen during the first two days after birth, and bonding is usually via visual cues.

Question 36

What is learning facilitation?

Answer 36

Imprinting between the parent and offspring forms a bond that facilitates the learning of basic behaviors.

Question 37

What is spatial learning?

Answer 37

The establishment of a memory that reflects the environment’s spatial structure.

Question 38

How does a cognitive map work?

Answer 38

Spatial learning can involve formulating a cognitive map that stores the spatial relationship between objects, allowing landmarks and their relationship to be recognized.

Question 39

What is associative learning?

Answer 39

The acquired ability to associate one environmental feature with another.

Question 40

How do blue jays and monarchs illustrate the concept of associative learning?

Answer 40

Blue jays avoid eating monarch butterflies because they associate them with vomiting and indigestion. Vomiting is due to chemicals that the monarch butterflies accumulate from the milkweed plants they eat. They signal this by their orange and black coloring that means danger.

Question 41

What is cognition?

Answer 41

The process of acquiring knowledge that involves awareness, reasoning, recollection, and judgment.

Question 42

What is problem solving?

Answer 42

The cognitive ability of devising a step-wise method to proceed from one condition to another in the face of real or apparent obstacles. Solving problems is evidence of cognition.

Question 43

What is social learning?

Answer 43

The modification of learning through the observation of other individuals.

Question 44

What is culture?

Answer 44

Culture is a system of information transfer through social learning or teaching that influences the behavior of individuals in a population.

Question 45

What is the root of culture?

Answer 45

Social learning.