Animal Behavior Flashcards
Behavior Definition
Everything an animal does and how it does it
Innate
Inherent and instinctive, its automatic and consistent (ex: sexual urges)
Learned behavior
Ability to learn is INHERIT but you learn variables and its flexible, changes with experience and environment (ex:a bird song)
Proximate Cause
The how and what (immediate stimulus and mechanism)
ultimate cause
Evolutionary significant (how does behavior contribute to survival and reproduction the why questions)
Ethology
The study of animal behavior
Fixed Action Pattern (FAP)
A sequential behavior carried out from end to finish at the sign of a stimulus (ex: a moth folding in wings to hide from a hawk sing)
Taxis
A change in direction as a response to a negative stimulus towards a positive stimulus
Kinesis
Change in rate of movement in response to a stimulus
Critical period
Sensitive phase for optimal imprinting, some behavior must be learned during a receptive time period (a young bird’s song taught by parents)
Associative learning
Learning to associate a stimulus with a consequence
Operant conditioning
Trial and error learning, associate behavior with reward or punishment (ex: when birds dont eat monarchs because they make them sick)
Classical Conditioning
Pavlovian conditioning, associate a neutral stimulus with a significant stimulant
Ex: PAVOLV’s DOGS
Habituation
The cry wolf effect, decrease response to repeated occurrences of stimulus, disregard as its unimportant stimuli (ex: falling leaves not triggering fear response in baby bird)
Agonistic behavior
Threatening and submissive rituals (ex: territoriality and competitor aggression)
