Animal Behaviour: Module 4 Flashcards
what is individual behaviour
an action carried our by muscles under the control of the CNS in response to stimulus
what are fixed action patterns?
a sequence of unlearned acts directly linked to a simple stimulus, it is unchangeable, once initiated it is carried to completion, the trigger for this behaviour is an external cue called a sign stimulus
what do environmental stimuli do for behaviour?
-trigger behaviours
-provides cues and clues animals use to carry out those behaviours
-ex. migration
define migration
a regular, usually seasonal, change in location
describe migration behaviour.
-not directly elicited by spatial variation in food availibility
-an adaptation
-yields long term benefits
-involved selection operating, or large spatial and temporal scales (ex. using the sun to track their position, circadian clock, magnetic field, etc)
how do migrating animals use an internal circadian clock to their benefit?
-some migratory animals track their positions relative to the sun (and the sun’s position is relative to the earth changes throughout the day- which causes a hurdle for them)
-adjust for these changes by means of an internal circadian clock that maintains a 24 hour activity rhythm
what is a cue for migratory animals that is available day or night, regardless of weather?
earth magnetic field
define what a circadian clock and cirannual rhythm is, and how they differ.
circadian clock: internal mechanism that maintains a 24 hours activity rhythm/cycle
curannual rhythm: behavioural rhythms linked to the yearly cycle of seasons, and influenced by periods of daylight and darkness in environment
why would migration involving voyages over shorter terms and shorter spatial scales be beneficial for some animals, and why would they do it?
-done by lots of aquatic animals at night
-this movement consumes lots of energy
-swim up to food rich surface waters at night to feed, when it’s dark, since they would be hidden from predators that rely on light to sense their prey
-return to the depth before the sun rises
why would animals that migrate to the waters surface to consume food live in deep waters (at the bottom), if their food source is at the top?
the colder, oxygen rich water at depth may be more conducive to growing larger or producing more eggs
behaviour helps animals ___________ interactions between individuals of the ___________ species and __________ species
mediate, same, different
courtship often involved complex sequences of ___________ that communicate critical information between courting males and females
behaviour
define communication
one individual producing a signal or producing some kind of signal that travels through a medium, to be recieved by a recipient individual
what are the four common modes of animal communication
visual, chemical, tactile, auditory
what is a stimulus response chain, and give an example of what type of organism displays this.
-each stimulus is itself the stimulus for the next behaviour
-fruit flies
what is chemical communication?
transmission and reception of signals in the form of specific molecules, and is closely related to an animals lifestyle and environment
why would auditory communication be helpful in deep waters?
sound is transmitted through water easily
how is short to long range communication is mediated in many mammals and insects?
pheromones
describe pheromones
-specific secreted substances that bind to a specific receptor in the recieving individual and trigger a specific response.
-seen in gypsy moths, where the females release a volatile pheromone for the males to find them
how can pheromones be used with gypsy moth infestations?
-could make traps baited with pheromones
-if it has enough, it makes it impossible for males to find females
-making them unable to mate
what is an example of chemical communication?
pollinating animals visiting plants
what is the effectiveness of a signal effected by?
the medium it has to travel through (ex. air or water_
a rapid change in _________ can render a signal totally useless
medium
what does turbidity mean
cloudiness
what are two ways human acitivty can alter signals?
blocking visual communication (ex. cloudiness) and noise pollution
what did red winged blackbirds do to combat anthropogenic (from human acitivity) interference with signals?
increased the frequency of their territorial songs, to dodge the anthropogenic noise that dominates at lower frequencies
learning links __________ with future ___________
experience, behaviour
what is imprinting?
establishment of a long lasting behavioural response to a particular individual or object, and can only take place during the sensitive period during development, and some species will imprint on the first object they encounter
what are the conditions of imprinting Lorenz found from his study?
-occurs during a sensitive period during a particular period of an individuals life
-it is irreversible
-involved learning of species-specific characters that transcend the individual
-completed at a time when the appropriate reaction has not yet been preformed
imprinting involves characteristics of the ______ rather than just the characteristics of the _______
species, individual
does imprinting happen before the behaviour is actually preformed, or is it something in the moment? give an example
-occurs well before the behaviour is preformed
-ex. sexual imprinting: learn who to mate with before they are even close to reproductively mature
describe the findings of the zebra finch chicks sexual imprinting experiment.
-females that has imprinted an artificially ornamented fathers preferred ornamented males as adult males
-male offspring showed no preference for either ornamented or non ornamented females
how do wasps find their nests?
used physical landmarks, and if you changed the landmarks the female is no longer able to find its nest
what is spatial learning?
establishment of a memory that reflects the environment’s spatial learning. an organism’s fitness may be enhanced by their capacity for spatial learning
what is classical conditioning?
a stimulus becomes associated with a particular outcome
what is operant conditioning?
trial and error learning, learns to associate one of its behaviours with reward or punishment
associate learning reflects the ability of individuals to link ______ and ________
cause and effect
how did blue jays learn to stop eating monarch butterflies? what is this an example of?
ate them, and found out that they are toxic, and now avoid them, example of associative learning
why is it harder for associative learning to occur for plants like poison ivy?
poison ivy rash appears well after contact. so it would be difficult for any animal to link the wash with the plant and by association learn to avoid it
what is fitness?
ability of individuals to survive and reproduce
what is foraging?
food obtaining behaviour, enhances efficeny of feeding
how does low population density affect foraging behaviour?
short distance foraging yields enough good
how does high population density affect foraging behaviour?
long distance foraging could enable the larvae to move past areas of food depletion
foraging behaviour is a ________ between the benefits of ________ and _________ of obtaining food
compromise, nutrition, cost
what is the optimal foraging behaviour?
natural selection should favour a foraging behaviour that minimizes the cost of foraging and maximize the benefits
what is a risk that could influence foraging behaviour ?
predation risk
if a forager is foraging in a risk sensitive manner, what is it influenced by?
how desperate it is for food
what are the two components of sexual selection?
-intrasexual competition
-mate choice
what is intrasexual competition?
-involves agressive behaviours
-one sex, usually the males, may increase their mating sucess by territorally defending the other sex (often females_ or the resources that females need to reproduce
-often ritualized
-can settle a dispute, without causing harm
why would females be the choosy sex?
their reproductive success is often limited by the resources available to them, whereas the male’s reproductive success is more strongly limited by its ability to mate with females. more choosier….more reproductive success (is the idea)
why would females choose a mate with ornaments?
ornaments, such as a beard or struttung, indicate the genetic quality of the male because genes are all that these males contribute to their offspring
what type of traits can sexual selection lead to?
exaggerated male traits when there is a genetic linkage between the male trait and female preference for that trait
what are satellite males or females mimics?
-strongly resemble females and manage to insert themselves between the parental male and the real female during courtship
-they would then have priority to fertilize the female eggs when she lays them
what is the success of satellite males or female mimics dependent on?
-frequency dependent
-there can be no satellite males if there are no parental males
-the reproductive success of the species decreases if the frequency of parental males decreases
what will some males do when there is preference for dominant alpha males?
-individuals males will attempt to sneak copulations or sneak fertilizations
-do this until their alpha male
bulk of parental care is preformed by the male or female for internal fertilization?
female
in fish, that practice external fertilization, who does the bulk of the parental care?
males
describe the correlation between parental care and fitness.
parents are investing in their own fitness and not necessarily the fitness of the offspring, with parental care
what does low investment in parental investment lead to?
low offspring success, diminsihing returns betweens investements by the parent and success of the offspring
what does very high parental investment lead to?
no longer increases offspring success
how are offspring best served for parental investment?
-parents invest to the point that success of the offspring is maximized
-parent should stop investing much earlier
