Animal Behavior

Question 1

Fixed Action Pattern

Answer 1

an instinctive behavioral sequence in response to an external sensory stimulus known as a Releaser (simple sensory cue)

Question 2

Red dot releaser for begging in chicks

Answer 2

chick pecking responses increase when there is a red dot on a gull bill regardless of head shape, head color, and bill shape

Question 3

Behavior spatial learning in wasps

Answer 3

wasps recognize where their hives are located based on certain visual cues

Question 4

Behavior imprinting

Answer 4

a type of learning in which animals learn, during a critical period, a complex set of stimuli that later act as releasers

Question 5

Example of behavior imprinting

Answer 5

newly hatched goslings imprint on the image of the first object they see (usually their parents)

Question 6

Critical period

Answer 6

a time, determined by developmental or hormonal state, during which exposure to certain stimuli produce virtually irreversible effects on behavior

Question 7

What are the five modes of animal communication?

Answer 7

chemical, visual, auditory, tactile, and electric

Question 8

Chemical communication

Answer 8

-occurs via pheromones
-female silkworm moths to attract males
-territory marking by cats and other mammals

Question 9

Tactile communication

Answer 9

-very common, particularly when conditions are poor for visual communication
-dance of honeybees

Question 10

dance of honeybees

Answer 10

-round dance: food source is less than 80 m from the hive, odor on bee’s body helps to provide info about the kind of flower to look for
-waggle dance: food source is more than 80 m away, waggle happens in the direction of where the food is located

Question 11

Migration

Answer 11

seasonal movement between breeding and nonbreeding groups
-juvenile starlings use distance-and-direction navigation
-adult birds were not disrupted by geographic displacement

Question 12

Kramer’s “clock-shifting” experiments

Answer 12

A bird is placed in a circular cage from which it can see the sun and sky but no other visual cues and is trained to expect food in a bin at a certain position (direction). For example, a bird is trained to expect food in the south bin. When tested in the arena at 9AM, it turns to the right of the sun. When tested at 3PM, it turns to the left of the sun. When the bird is exposed to an artificial light/dark cycle, it resets the bird’s internal biological clock. Then when the bird is placed back into the arena, its biological clock has been phase-shifted, so when it uses the sun’s position to tell direction, the bird will go in the wrong direction (wrong bin).

Question 13

Properties of Circadian Rhythms

Answer 13

-oscillate in constant conditions w/ a period of approx 24 hrs
-internal clocks run at ~ the same speed at diff temperatures even in cold-blooded animals and plants
-synchronized to the daily light and dark cycle

Question 14

Older vs younger people and biological clocks

Answer 14

-older people have faster biological clocks
-younger people have slower biological clocks