Animal Behavior Flashcards
Behavior
Change in the activity of an organism in response to a stimulus (an external or internal cue or combo of cues)
Innate Behavior
examples?
Genetically hardwired, requires no learning
Instinctive (fixed action patterns) - determined by natural selection
ex. jump-back behavior of kangaroo rats when they hear the sound of a rattlesnake’s tail
Learned Behavior
examples?
Developed through experience
ex. a rat can be trained to pull a lever if food is released as a reward
Proximate (mechanistic) causation
Explains how actions occur, can be genetic, neurological, hormonal, immunological, and skeletal-muscular
Ultimate (evolutionary) causation
Explains why actions occur
Looks at the effects of behavior on fitness, through an understanding of the ecology of the organism and its evolution
Fixed Action Patterns
example?
Sequence of behaviors essentially unchangeable and conducted to completion once started (triggered by a specific stimulus)
-ex. graylag goose egg-retrieval behavior
Imprinting
Results in newborn animals bonding with their parent(s)
Spatial Learning
Entails memorizing the features or layout of an environment, such as a maze, tank, or section of forest
Conditioning
Requires that an animal form an association between two events, such as a lever and food
Cognition
Involves complex thought, which is evidenced in behaviors such as a tool manufacture and use, language acquisition, and problem-solving
Habituation
A simple form of learning in which an animal stops responding to a stimulus after a period of repeated exposure
ex. prairie dogs
Optimal Foraging
The hypothesis that animals maximize their feeding efficiency
Fitness is proportional to Feeding efficiency is proportional to Benefits/Costs
- animals maximize benefits and minimize costs they will have more time and energy for reproduction and higher fitness
Differentiate between innate and learned behavior
Innate behavior - instinctive, not modified by individual, inherited, generally uniform, ex. suckling instinct in newborns, walking for humans, flying for birds and bees; migration; foraging; finding sex partners
Learned behavior - based on experience, modified by individual, not inherited, high variation within population, ex. acquisition of language and social skills, domesticated behavior in pets, training dolphins to perform
Differentiate between proximate and ultimate causation
Proximate is How
Ultimate is Why
What does it mean by fitness trade-offs with respect to animal behavior
example?
Inescapable compromises between two traits that cannot be optimized simultaneously
- ex. animal cannot maximize both the energy invested in finding food and in finding mates
Two things to remember about Cost-Benefit Analysis
- The choices made by non-human animals are not known to be conscious choices
- The behavior of individuals varies within population
What does it mean by cost-benefit analysis with respect to studies on animal behavior
measured in terms of their impact on fitness-the ability to produce viable and fertile offspring
Behavior ecology
Study of the behavioral adaptations that evolved in response to ecological selection pressures
Argentine Ant Behavior
- extremely invasive in many parts of the world
- live in colonies and defend territories by fighting with neighboring ants
- proximate: they identify each other via smelly waxy “tags” on their exoskeletons
- ultimate: they are not fighting to maintain their feeding territories, they have more time and energy to produce offspring, increasing their fitness
Altruism
Behaviors that lower the fitness of the individual but increase the fitness of another individual
