Behavior Flashcards
What is behaviour
The ways in which an animal responds to internal and external stimuli
What is courtship behaviour
Behaviour in which an animal displays in order to attract a mate such as peacocks displaying their feathers to attract females.
What are the different mating strategies and examples
Stay together forever or until one dies, only then will they look for a new mate. E.g. Swans
Find mates in the breeding season, then leave after, e.g. Robins
(These two strategies, both parents usually help raise offspring)
Forming breeding groups that mate with dominent male. Usually stay together. E.g. Deer.
Male don’t help in raising offspring.
Why do animals care for there offspring and why do they risk their lives protecting them
So they reach the age in which they can survive alone so they are able to carry on their genes. They are willing to die as there offspring will spread more of their genes then them
What is a reflex
An automatic response to an stimuli
What is an inmate reflex
A reflex that we don’t have to learn and in hard wired into our brains.
Why is inate behaviour useful
I t increases the chance of survival and its controlled by genes. The ones with better innate behaviour patterns are more likely to survive and pass of their genes
What is the science of ethology and who founded it
It is the study of animal behaviour and was founded by niko Tinbergen
What is behaviour imprinting
A simple learning. Something that can only be learned shortly after birth or hatching but stays with the animal for life
What is and what does a choice chamber
A container with segments, each with different conditions and is used to investigate what conditions an organism likes best
What is habituation
The removal of a reaction to a stimulus. E.g. Repeated loud noises to horses, at first they will be scared but see nothing bad happen so will become used to it and remove their reactions
What is classical conditioning
A type of learning that starts with an innate reflex action to a specific stimuli but then learns to also use that reaction for another unrelated stimuli
What is operant conditioning
A type of learning that occurs when an animal learns to associate a type of behaviour with something good or bad happening. Such as pressing a button for a reward
What are the different ways animals communicate and examples
Visual signals such as female glowworms glowing to attracts a male or someone using body language
Sound such as birds singing to keep others out of their territory or male grasshoppers making a high pitch sound to attract females
Chemical substances such as pheromones used to attract others
What are the ways plants communicate with animals
Bright coloured chemicals in flowers to attract insects
Chemical scents that spread in the air and attract insects
Bright coloured fruit show animals it’s ready to be eaten so seeds are dispersed
Poisons that go in the air so insects that might eat them don’t go near
Poisons in leaf to stop animal eating it
How do plants communicate with one and other
Plants such as acacia trees make poison in leafs and that uses lots of energy so is only made when attacked. When it’s attacked it releases ethene to tell other trees to start producing poison
What is co evolution
When two species evolve together over time
How have insects and plants co evolved
Insects that recognise flower scents are more likely to survive as there is food and flowers have grown bigger as the bigger they are the more likely an insect is to land on it and pollinate it
What are the 5 stages of human evolution and time periods
Ardi : 4.4 million years ago Australopithecus afarensis : 3.6-2.8'million years ago Homo habilis: 2.4-1.4 millions years ago Homo erectus: 1.8-0.5 million years ago Homo sapien: 195,000 years to now
Why didn’t any human leave Africa until 60,000 years ago
Because it was hard until then where it was an ice age and many of the ice was solid so it would have been easier to cross over to Yemen from Africa and into Europe and Asia
Why is mtDNA and why is it more useful than other DNA when tracing back in history
mtDNA is a lot more common in cells as there are loads of mitochondria so there is a greater chance of it being in good enough condition to identify the genetic sequence but nuclear DNA is only in one in every cell as only one nucleus so is less likely to be useable
What is courtship behaviour
A type of behaviour performed in order to attract a mate
Why is imprinting useful
In the wild, the first thing an animal such as a duckling would see would be its mother, imprinting behaviour means the duckling knows to stay close to its mother so it will be fed, protected and taught
Definition of learning
Change in behaviour due result of experience
Give an example of habituation (sea animal)
Sea hare has a gill that sticks out its back. If the sea hare is touched, it will quickly retract its gill to protect it. If it keeps getting touched, it will see no danger and will stop retracting it when touched
Give an example of classical conditioning
Pavlov rang a bell before giving a dog food. The dog would salivate when it was given food but not before, its ears would just prick up when the bell was rung. After doing this several times, the dog learnt to associate the bell with food and would start to salivate when it heard the bell
What is social behaviour
Behaviours between members of the same species
Give two differences between nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial found in mitochondria, nuclear in nucleus
Nuclear DNA from father and mother, mitochondrial only mother as comes from egg cytoplasm
