APS126 Hunter Flashcards
Who are the 3 founding fathers of the study of animal behaviour?
Niko Tinbergen
Karl von Frisch
Konrad Lorenz
All 3 won nobel prize in 1973
What are Tinbergen’s four questions?
- What causes the behaviour?
- How does the behaviour develop? (is it innate or learned?)
- What is its current function? (why is it adaptive, how does it increase fitness?)
- Why did the behaviour evolve like this? (i.e. what is the evolutionary history?)
How are Tinbergen’s questions split?
Into proximate (how) and ultimate (why) questions
Proximate (mechanisms): ontogeny (development), causation (physiological causes of behaviour)
Ultimate (evolution): evolutionary history, function (adaptive significance)
What are some species Tinbergen focused on?
Gulls, wasps and sticklebacks
What is another name for the science of animal behaviour?
Ethology
What is Karl von Frisch most famous for?
Identifying dance language of honey bees (don’t use odour as originally thought)
- he was most interested in animal communication (+mechanisms)
What was von Frisch’s early work on?
Fish
What did Konrad Lorenz mainly work with?
Birds (in captivity)
- e.g. imprinting (birds onto him instead of their mothers) - allowed him to study in even more detail
What did Lorenz state there was a difference between?
Learned and innate behaviour
What method of study did Lorenz pioneer?
Comparative method
- looked at courtship displays of ducks to try and infer the evolutionary (i.e. phylogenetic) relationships between duck species
Which of the 3 scientists have best stood the test of time?
Tinbergen
What are Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) genes concerned with?
Fighting disease
- and how suitable/compatible we are as a complementary mate (better to be complementary, rather than mirroring our own) - more efficient at fighting disease as wider range
Naive coastal california garter snakes were more likely to eat/ flick their tongue at…
banana slugs
- suggests genetic basis to diet
What are the two types of drosophila larvae foraging styles?
“sitter” - move little when foraging
“rover” - move around when foraging
- cross-breeding studies show behaviour is caused by single gene (rover is dominant)
similarities between relatives could also arise purely because of similar…
environments
What are knock-out gene experiments?
Inactivating a known gene to determine its effects on development
e.g. removal of fosB gene in mice prevents normal maternal behaviour in mice
How is behavioural and genetic variation maintained?
If members of the species live in different local environments, they may experience different local selection pressures –> different behavioural phenotypes evolve
Low birthweight, poor early growth or pre-birth famine in humans predict adulthood…
health conditions such as CHD, type 2 diabetes, stroke, asthma
- long-term influence from poor foetal gene expression
In the gambia, individuals born during the rainy season have…
increased mortality rates as they mature and into adulthood
- developmental consequences on immune system for rest of lives
Hormones can affect … and … of foetuses
masculinisation, feminisation
Females who shared a uterus with another female were far more likely to…
have children than those who shared a uterus with a male
A study on anolis lizards found that…
those raised on broad surfaces developed longer limbs than those raised on narrow surfaces
- shows that external environment affects growth and locomotion
Flexibility to make … adjustments provides … advantages for individuals in environments where they are likely to encounter … but biologically important conditions during their lifetimes
behavioural, fitness, unpredictable
Maintenance of behavioural flexibility is … so only wort having if the costs are smaller than the benefits gained in a given …
expensive, environment
-e.g. learning requires a lot of energy (for the brain)
The ability of animals to acquire the correct foundation for normal behaviour even under suboptimal conditions is called…
developmental homeostasis
The development of some hugely important traits (e.g. brain development) is strongly … against poor developmental conditions.
Buffered
Male emperor moths can detect females from miles away. The male’s antennae are … to detect female … …
Large, sex pheromones
Moths have 2 types of … systems. What are these?
olfactory
- 1 tuned to species-specific pheromones
- 1 general odour-sensing system
UV light has a very … wavelength
short
Humans have … types of photoreceptors (cone cells) that translate light into … …
3, nerve impulses
- each detect different wavelengths
- birds have 4 types (1 extra for UV light)
Why do male bluethroats have UV patches on their throats?
To attract female mates (sexual selection)
How many paired appendages are there on the nose of a star-nosed mole? What are the specialised sensory structures found in the skin of these appendages called?
11 - not equally sensitive
Eimer’s organs
Appendage 11 of the starnose mole nose has …% of the Eimer’s organs, but more than …% of the nerve fibres going to the brain.
7, 10
appendages 10 and 11 probably for final identification of food before consumption
Where is a noctuid moth’s ear located?
lower area of thorasic segment
- air sacs and 2 receptor cells (A1 and A2, A1 is more sensitive)
- all-or-nothing response of neurons
Watch bit about moth bat direction + echo, lecture tues mar 26, 27:50
Yep
A wave can only be reflected by an object that is larger than…..
Half the wavelength
… … sounds are needed to detect small insects
high pitched
- bat species that specialise on larger insects have deeper calls
Stimulus filtering is…
a universal feature of sensory systems that typically focuses on information relevant to the animal’s survival or reproduction
The female ormia fly is … … to sounds of the same frequency as the crickets make, especially when compared to the male fly.
Maximally sensitive
The herring gull chicks preferring the red pencil to the model gull with a red spot is an example of a…
supernormal stimulus
- Fixed action pattern (FAP) encoded in genes as does not have time to learn how to feed - all-or-nothing responses
Navigation is…
piloting a course from one location to another
When food is <50m away what waggle dance to scout honeybees do?
Round dance
When food is >50m away what waggle dance do scout honeybees do?
Figure of eight dance
What two pieces of information does the waggle dance give other bees?
Distance and direction (in relation to the sun)
How is distance conveyed using the waggle dance?
The duration of the waggle dance (and entire circuit) is proportional to the distance
Worker desert ants take a direct trip straight back to the nest after foraging for dead insect food (by meandering a lot). How?
Ants locate themselves by integrating distance and direction moved - distance by the amount of walking done and direction by the sun’s position or polarised light patterns
Animals that navigate by the sun have to…
correct for the sun’s shifting position. - e.g. bees adjust the direction according to the sun’s position - use internal clock + stopwatch
What do homing pigeons use to find their way home?
Probably combination of sun and magnetism
Pigeons follow … features (e.g…….) to find their way home
Linear, roads and rivers
Which part of the brain is most involved with navigation?
Hippocampus
What is migration?
The seasonal movement of animals between the location where they breed and the location where they live during the non-breeding period
The similarity of offspring attempted migration direction to parents is due to…
genetic similarities
What is the time in which a bird wants to migrate called?
Nocturnal migratory restlessness
MIgration is a derived trait that has arisen … times in thrushes
3
or once then lost 3 times
Name two examples of birds where migration is learned
cranes and geese
(Bekoff and Byers, 1981) Play is…
all motor activity performed postnatally that appears to be purposeless, in which motor patterns from other contexts may often be used in modified forms and altered temporal sequencing.
- if the activity is directed towards another living being it is called social play
For what 3 reasons may play seem “apparently purposeless”
- Observer may fail to decipher the immediate benefit (or function) of play
- The true benefit (function) may not occur until much later
- the benefits (i.e. functions) may be multiple and confounding
Play cannot actually be purposeless as…
it is costly - energetically, reduced vigilance, increased predation, risk of injury
A study of american fur seal pups found that … of pups were predated while playing
85%
Play is most commonly seen in…
mammals, more specifically carnivores, ungulates and rodents.
- varies between species, e.g. young rats play a lot, mice don’t
What were the four hypotheses Lynda Sharpe tested for meerkat play?
- subsequent fighting success (no evidence found)
- reducing aggression (no evidence found)
- social cohesion (no evidence found)
- dispersal partnerships (no evidence found)
Which bird family is play particularly common in?
corvids (crows)
What is an ethogram?
A complete inventory of an animals behavioural repetoire
What are the 3 types of play?
- Object play
- Locomotor play
- Social play
not mutually exclusive
Ravens may play with novel items to help distinguish…
the edible from the non-edible, and to help distinguish new food types
Object play is the most common type of play exhibited by…
predatory or scavenging species
What are the main hypotheses for locomotor play?
- provides ‘lay of the land’ spacial information - for spacial awareness skills
- Provides exercise and develops motor skills
- cerebellar synaptogenesis formation in mice
What are the hypotheses for social play?
- enhances physical skills (in bighorn sheep males play more than females)
- facilitates long-term relationships
- enhances cognitive skills
In Belding’s ground squirrels, those that play…
have more offspring in adulthood
Brown bear cubs that play are more likely to…
survive to independence
Marek Spinka says…
“play creates novel situations and therefore enables animals to deal better with unexpected events later in life”
Rats deprived of social play…
respond negatively to the unexpected (greater stress response)
Dominant/suborndinate roles…
often change during play
In extroverts, focus is … whereas in introverts, focus is …
external, internal
Extroverts gain their energy from …, whereas introverts gain it from … …
stimulation, quiet contemplation
Extroverts think …, introverts think …
broadly, deeply
An extrovert processes information along a … pathway, mainly through the areas of the brain that deal with …, … and …. So information goes in quickly and comes out quickly - they can put together words very quickly.
shorter, speech, active movement, emotions
An introvert’s brain sends information on a longer path, largely through the … sections of the brain and through more parts of the brain, so…..
thinking, more related knowledge is applied to the incoming message.
The short extrovert pathway primarily uses the … neurotransmitter, whereas the longer introvert pathway primarily uses the … neurotransmitter
dopamine (happier when active), acetylcholine (happier when thinking deeply and feeling things)
In Stanley Milgrim’s experiment on obedience, … of people exceeded the danger level of electric shocks
65%
Birth order is thought to have a profound effect on …
personality
First-borns are typically more…
conscientious and responsible, are good leaders and seek approval from authority
Last-borns are typically more…
outgoing, rebellious and social (competing for parental favour - siblings adopt different strategies)
… of the first 23 astronauts into space were first-borns
21
Scientists that caused paradigm shifts (e.g. Darwin and Einstein) have tended to be…
late-borns
Social contact is…
vital to normal development of personality
Male and female brains differ. INAH-3 (in the hypothalamus) controls … … and is 2-3 times larger in men than women.
sexual behaviour
- it is full of androgen-sensitive cells
The SG (in the prefrontal cortex) is associated with … … and is 10% larger in women
social cognition
Men tend to have greater spacial awareness than women. This may be an adaptive trait as…
males defend larger home ranges/territories than women and as a result are more mobile than females. Hippocampus is the associated part of the brain - males tend to have larger hippocampuses
In the brown-headed cowbird the female has to search for host nests to lay her eggs in, hence…
she requires better spacial awareness than males, so females have a larger hippocampus.
Cockerels can assess female … with incredible accuracy, to allocate their … accordingly - we aren’t able to tell
fertility, sperm
It is important, when assessing intelligence or any other capacity, that you test something that is actually…
relevant to the animal
Different personality types of great tits…
survived better in certain seasons than others
Jung suggested that introverts have…. offspring but…
fewer, they are more likely to survive to reproductive age
Parsimony is…
always taking the simplest possible explanation
Knowledge of an animal’s … … is essential for assessing its intelligence
past experience - conclusions are meaningless otherwise
What are taxes?
Innate (i.e. gentic) responses to stimulus. They are directional (move towards (+ve) or away (-ve))
Behaviours are largely genetic if they are…
species-specific, predictable, inflexible, and have constant timing
- e.g. fixed action patterns
What is learning?
The process which manifests itself by adaptive changes in individual behaviour as a result of experience
Non-associative learning includes…
habituation and sensitisation
Habituation is when…
repeated exposure to a stimulus causes an individual to decrease its response to that stimulus
Sensitisation is when…
repeated exposure heightens response
What are the types of associative learning?
- Classic conditioned learning (pavlov)
- Operant conditioning (trial-and-error learning - learns consequences of own actions)
- Observational learning (influenced by presence or actions of other individuals)
What are the 4 types of operant conditioning?
- Positive reinforcement
- Negative reinforcement
- Punishment
- Extinction
What are the 4 types of observational learning?
- Facilitation (presence of conspecifics increases motivation
- Enhancement (presence of conspecific draws attention to area or object)
- Imitation (observer copies same sequence of actions as demonstrator
- Emulation (actor reaches same end result as demonstrator - may take shortcuts)
What is insightful problem-solving?
Immediate understanding of how to solve a problem without trial-and-error or accidental discovery
Which type of crow has been studied for its ability to manufacture and use tools?
New Caledonian crow
Tool use is..
“the use of an external object as a functional extension of mouth or beak, hand or claw, in the attainment of an immediate goal” (Jane Goodall)
Tool use is not necessarily a marker of intelligence, but can be revealing about…
physical cognition
New Caledonian crows display population-wide…
tool use and manufacture, with a diversity of tool types, and maybe even some rudimentary tool culture
How many new caledonian crows were taken to be studied in oxford?
20
- (16 wild-caught, 4 hand-reared)
Captive studies allow… but..
- controlled study of behaviour
- ecological validity may be compromised
- low sample size
2 chicks grew up with regular demonstration of tool-use. The other 2 grew up with no demonstration (but tools available in aviary). What was the result?
All 4 developed tool-use at the same time, suggesting there was a strong genetic influence, but those with no demonstration did not always use the most efficient tools and techniques.
In the planning for food experiment, how many crows succeeded with the hardest challenge (short tool –> medium tool –> long tool –> food)?
4 out of 6, 3 on their first trial
- first spontaneous sequential tool use in bird
What was the bendy wire experiment showing crows were able to do?
Creatively problem solve
- shows insight
- but only one individual tested
Crows also displayed an understanding of…
force
What are the two types of memory?
Semantic memory = fact-learning
Episodic memory = unique recollection, conscious
Western scrub jays display knowledge of the… of food items
perishability
- sacrifice preferred larvae for nuts if they know larvae were cached for too long
- episodic-like memory
The Bischof-Kohler hypothesis states that non-human animals…
are bound to their current motivational state
Western scrub jays displayed the ability to…
plan for their future breakfast by sacrificing some current food.
- not tied to current levels of hunger (not tied to current motivational state)
