Animal Behavior Flashcards
umwelt
What’s an animal’s world like?
- point of view of a particular animal: each animal senses the environment
- it is often unproductive to compare animal behavior or intelligence to human behavior
- needed to study animal behavior
comparative psychology
study of general rules of behavior that apply to both humans and other animals
ethology
study of animal behavior in a natural environment
behavioral ecology
study of evolutionary and environmental context of animal behavior and how behavior can maximize evolutionary and reproductive success
ethologists
- believe we should study how animals behave in the wild
- argued that results from historical studies are not valid because they are not based in natural contexts
- behavior is inextricable from psychology, morphology, and habitat
proximate cause
why, in an immediate sense, an animal decides to do a thing
sign stimulus
ultimate cause
why, in a macroevolutionary sense, a behavior persists in a population
fixed action patterns
- stereotyped behavior that is an unchanging response to certain conditions
- a goose will roll any egg-shaped object back to its nest, even if the egg is taken away or if it’s not even an egg
releaser
- releasers initiate stereotyped behavior
- with the goose, the releaser is the presence of an egg-shaped object near the next
- particular aspect of the releaser that animals respond to is the sign stimulus
proximate and ultimate cause of goose behavior
write down + reason out
male sticklebacks example
experimentally varying parts of a releaser helps to determine the sign stimulus
male sticklebacks aggressively defend their territory from other males to prevent competition
sign stimulus: red underbelly which generates the fixed action pattern
energetic cost
energy expended in the behavior compared to resting
risk cost
risk of injury or death while doing the behavior
opportunity cost
the forfeited benefits of whatever else the animal might have been doing instead of the behavior
defending territory
has specific costs and benefits
elephant seals: suffer serious injury or death in territorial fights
pronghorns: climb up hills and bellow loudly
sage grouse: elaborate dances and calls
BUT the benefit is increased offspring and therefore greater
immediacy of benefits
benefits to a behavior may not be immediate
a young elephant male seal cannot hope to best the beachmaster and obtain access to mates
so, young males fight in order to gain practice for future fights, no immediate benefit
optimal foraging theory
explains food-related behavior
benefit: nutrients and calories
costs: similar to those of aggressive behavior
depends on resource distribution
Brownian
albatross will forage in a random distribution since food is evenly distributed
Levy
distribution will show a characteristics dimension of flight lengths in albatross since food is concentrated
foraging patterns
consistent between species
depends on other individuals
distance between individuals in a group provides information about food density
evolutionary stable strategies
- become fixed in a population
- a behavior that is well-optimized that any other alternative will incur less benefits will become the only type of behavior in a population
socially coordinated behavior
when an individual adjusts its action to the presence of conspecific in order to increase its own reproductive success
Hamilton’s rule
Hamilton’s Rule
describes the fitness balance between relatedness and reproductive success
one’s own offspring shares 50% of genes: direct fitness
siblings share 50% of genes, so siblings’ kids will share 25% of genes: indirect fitness
rB≥C
inclusive fitness
measure of the alleles of an individual that are being passed down to the next generation either due to one own’s offspring or that of related individuals
monogamy
may last a breeding season or a whole lifetime due to imprinting on each other
lek
shared breeding ground where males carry out displays
defend territory
harem
group of females that interact with one male
defend individuals
sequential hermaphrodites
change sex over the course of their life
ex: the largest clownfish turns into a female in a social group
fish can change back and forth depending on dominance hierarchy
agonistic behavior
behavior related to fighting
territoriality
defending an area from intruders
ritualized threat displays
displays that prevent injury or death due to a mutual understanding of aggression
dominance hierarchy
an animal at the top has won social encounters with everyone in the group
fluid - can change
eusociality
extreme cooperative behavior
division of reproductive labor - only a few reproduce
non-reproducing individuals give up their direct fitness in favor of working together to raise their inclusive fitness
benefit of indirect fitness ≥ cost of direct fitness loss
if behaviors vary between populations
behavior is purely learned
