Behaviour

Question 1

What does tail biting cause?

Answer 1

• Pain
• Secondary infections
• Impaired growth, death and condemnation of carcass
• Economic losses of £3.5 million per year
• Stress

Question 2

Give 5 examples of behaviours causing health and welfare problems.

Answer 2

• Pigs tail biting – pain, secondary infection, abscesses
• Horses crib biting – tooth wear, loss of body condition, osteoarthritis of the jaw
• Hyper aggression in pigs – injury, secondary infection
• Calves cross-sucking – abscesses, teat malformation
• Ewes rejecting their lambs – sickness, starvation, death

Question 3

Give 3 examples of behaviour that indicate health and welfare problems.

Answer 3

• Dogs separation anxiety behaviour
• Cats spraying urine
• Sickness behaviour

Question 4

What are Tinbergen’s 4 complementary causes used to explain aspects of animal biology that apply to behaviour?

Answer 4

Mechanism – how does it work? How is the behaviour caused? What are the underlying physiological mechanisms? Genetic basis? Motivational control? Hormones?

Function – what is it for? What is the survival benefit? What is its fitness advantage? Why has it evolved?

Evolution – how did it evolve? Where has the behaviour comes from? What is its phylogeny?

Development – how did it develop in the animal? How does the behaviour develop during lifetime of an individual?

Question 5

Use Tinbergen’s 4 causes to explain the example of starlings singing.

Answer 5

Mechanism – because increasing day length triggers off changes in hormone levels in the body. Because of the way in which air flows through the syrinx and sets up membrane vibrations.

Functions – starlings sing to attract mates for breeding.

Evolution – ancestral birds produced simple sounds that led to more complex current songs.

Development – starlings sing because they have learned songs form their parents and neighbours.

Question 6

Describe the proximal and ultimate explanations as a broader level of analysis and explanation.

Answer 6

Proximate: development and mechanism – how is the behaviour achieved in the individual animal?

Ultimate: function and evolutionary history – what is the behaviour for? What has been its advantage? What is its phylogeny?

Question 7

How is behvaiour an evolved adaptation passed on via genes?

Answer 7

• Alleles in a population.
• Alleles with more surviving copies in itself than its alternative will eventually replace the alternative form in the population.
• There must be or must have been, behavioural alternatives in the population.
• The differences must be or must have been heritable.
• Some behavioural alternatives must confer greater reproductive success than others.
• DNA sequence > mRNA sequence > amino acid sequence > protein
• Proteins like neurotransmitters, steroid hormone receptors, pigments that affect perception. Neural growth factors that affect nerve development, transcription factors that bind to DNA and can affect the transcription of other genes.

Question 8

How can wild animal behaviour be adaptive to human environments?

Answer 8

Maternal behaviours retained during domestication, exploration of new food sources, and learning of new behaviour. Or can be maladaptive – maladaptive navigation, maladaptive exploration and maladaptation locomotion.

Question 9

Why, in domestication, has selective breeding replaced natural selection?

Answer 9

Desirable production traits

Desirable behaviour traits

Desirable aesthetic traits

Question 10

Which behaviours are restricted in livestock and laboratory animals?

Answer 10

Maternal behaviours, restriction of dust bathing, walking and foraging, and restriction of social behaviour.

Question 11

What are the 4 types of explanation for behaviour?

Answer 11

Casual – animal feels some sort of urge, behavioural or hormonal perhaps

Development – due to encountering something in the environment

Evolutionary – instinct

Functional – exploring, trying to gain information to help aid animal’s survival. Or play for enjoyment or develop skills.

Question 12

What is the study of motivation?

Answer 12

The study of how internal and external causal factors interact to determine the likelihood that a behaviour is expressed.

Question 13

From a motivation perspective, when are animal welfare problems likely caused by internal factors?

Answer 13

Animals are prevented from perform in a motivated behaviour

Animals are able to perform the behaviour but are prevented from achieving its functional consequences

Animals are provided the functional consequences but unable to perform the behaviour

Question 14

What is an example of animals not being able to achieve the functional purpose of a behaviour?

Answer 14

Attempts to defend a home area may be undermined by the presence of a cat flap > increased marking/urination and anxiety-like behaviour.

Question 15

What are the predictions of the 2 models on whether functional consequences are enough to satisfy a highly motivated animal?

Answer 15

Homeostatic models – functional consequences of behaviour decrease high levels of motivation allowing animal to achieve idea/set point.

Lorenz model – expression of behaviour is the only way to decrease high levels of motivation.

Question 16

Name the 3 types of animal learning.

Answer 16

Non associative

Associative

Complex

Question 17

Describe non associative learning.

Answer 17

Sensitisation and habituation

• Sensitisation: general, usually short term, enhancement of responsiveness, especially to aversive stimuli.
• Habituation: startle response to repeated sudden sound specific to the stimulus. Adaptive and energy responding.

Question 18

How can sensitisation be used to decrease response to a stimulus?

Answer 18

Response is much decreased at second stimulus. Not simply due to fatigue, as response can be re-elicited by novel/alerting stimulus.

Question 19

How can habituation be used to decrease phobia development?

Answer 19

Habituation used prophylactically to decrease phobia development: play firework sound at low levels to dogs to habituate them.

Question 20

Describe associative learning.

Answer 20

Pavlovian/classical conditioning, instrumental/operant conditioning

Animal learns an association between events and/or actions.

Question 21

Describe Pavlovian/classical conditioning (associative).

Answer 21

Pavlovian/classical conditions is association between an event and an event: for example, dogs learn association between one event/food and another event/sound.

Pavlovian conditioning can occur with aversive as well as appetite unconditioned stimuli, and involve unconditioned responses such as startling and freezing: sweaty hands and racing heart in response to seeing a dentist chair.

Question 22

How did Pavlov investigate conditioning?

Answer 22

Before conditioning, salivation is the hard-wired response to food. Food as the unconditioned stimulus elicits salivation as the unconditioned response. Neutral stimulus/tuning fork has no conditioned response.

During conditioning, tuning fork and food has salivation as the unconditioned response.

After conditioning, tuning fork as CS has salivation as CR.

Question 23

What is the adaptive value of Pavlovian conditioning?

Answer 23

Learning to predict and hence prepare for, though not control, the environment.
- Clicker training is based on simple Pavlovian conditioning clicker becomes associated with food and then can be used to rapidly reinforce desired actions before the food is delivered.
- Animals prefer signalled/predictable events if they are aversive

Question 24

What is the issue with Pavlovian/classical conditioning?

Answer 24

But signalling appetite events/food may increase anticipation/arousal and lead to aggression or schedule-induced behaviour (chewing and excessive drinking).

Reliable signals are better than unreliable signals that may trigger anticipation and lead to frustration when food does not arrive.

Question 25

Distinguish Pavlovian/classical and instrumental/operant conditioning.

Answer 25

Instrumental/operant conditioning/action-outcome learning involves learning to make or withhold a certain action because of its outcome and it allows control. Operant actions are voluntarily emitted whilst operating on the environment. They can be arbitrary, like a rat pressing a lever, in contrast to the hard wired actions, like salivation, that are affected in Pavlovian conditioning.

Question 26

Describe instrumental/operant associative conditioning.

Answer 26

Action outcome conditioning.

• Action/response performed – increasing response R is termed reinforcement, decreasing response R is termed punishment.
• Outcome influences performance of the action – reinforcement and punishment can be induced both positively by providing stimulus or negatively by removing it.

Question 27

Describe reinforcements and punishments in instrumental/operant conditioning.

Answer 27

Can be positive (presentation of a stimulus) or negative (removal of a stimulus).

Reinforcement - increases or maintains the behaviour of interest.

Punishment - decreases the behvaiour of interest.

Question 28

Which method of instrumental/operant should be used for companion animal behvaiour modification?

Answer 28

Positive reinforcement. Most desirable, as the others induce a negative state.

Negative reinforcement, positive punishment and negative punishment are not recommended due to risk of inducing fear frustration and aggression: poor welfare, may slow learning, unsafe

Question 29

What is the strength and speed of learning influenced by?

Answer 29

Contiguity – how close together CS and US/response and outcome are together in time/space. Greater contingency = sound reliably predicts food. More effective way of Pavlovian training.

Contingency – how reliably CS predicts US/outcome follows response. Greater contiguity = some sounds occurs very close in tie to food.

Question 30

Why can positive reinforcement be impractical?

Answer 30

Overshadowing – the most salient of a number of stimuli will be most readily conditioned – it overshadows the others. Application: make sure you do not teach a dog a verbal command by rewarding the desired behaviour, whilst simultaneously making a body gesture which overshadows the command.

Blocking – presence of an already established CS ‘blacks’ conditioning of a new CS.
Application: if a dog has already learnt that a body gesture predicts a reward, then this will block new learning of a verbal command, will need to completely suppress the gesture and re-train.

Question 31

What are the benefits of animals living in groups?

Answer 31

• Dilution of predation risk
• Increased predator detection ability
• Increased ability to defend resources
• Increased ability to detect and catch food
• Cooperative care – look after each other’s young
• Keep warm in cold environments

Question 32

What is cooperative behaviour?

Answer 32

Can occur in social species. Cooperative behaviour directed towards relatives may evolve through a process called kin selection, reciprocal altruism and mutualism.

Question 33

Define kin selection.

Answer 33

A mechanism by which cooperative behaviour can be selected for.

Question 34

Define reciprocal altruism.

Answer 34

Individuals reciprocate cooperative acts.

Question 35

Define mutualism.

Answer 35

Individuals benefit directly from apparent cooperation.

Question 36

What are the costs of group living?

Answer 36

• Increased conspicuousness to predator or prey
• Increased risk of disease and parasitism
• Competition between group members

Question 37

What can competition result in and what can minimise this?

Answer 37

Overt and damaging aggression.

Dominance hierarchies and assessment.

Question 38

What are dominance relationships?

Answer 38

One individual has priority of access to resources over another. A group has many dominance relationships which together give rise to dominance hierarchy. An individual’s position in the hierarchy is its dominance rank. Hierarchies can have complex, non-linear structure.

Question 39

Define assessment. Give an example.

Answer 39

The ability of individuals to assess their relative fighting/competitive capabilities and to resolve disputes on the basis of this assessment.

Horn size: when equally matched there is a steep increase in aggression, as opposed to animals with horns of different sizes.

Question 40

How can group living be flexible?

Answer 40

Emigration and immigration can occur when pay-offs of living in a group outweigh those of solitary living and vice versa: for example, when individuals cannot defend resources or when within group competition is high.

Question 41

What can emigration act to do?

Answer 41

Constrain over-despotic/overly dominant behaviour by dominants.

Question 42

Give 2 examples of species that have group sizes similar to their ancestral species.

Answer 42

Backyard chickens more suited to being in small groups of females.

Pig form a group structure similar to those of wild boar.

Question 43

Name 4 common constraints on group structure and behaviour.

Answer 43

• Group size, density and composition
• Clumped/limited resources
• No voluntary escape option
• Rapid enforced and repeated mixing of animals

Question 44

What is the effect of a group size of 1 on animals?

Answer 44

Removes benefits of social contact. Dogs, horses and boars. Isolation very stressful to sheep.

Question 45

What is the effect of very large groups on animals?

Answer 45

Failure to recognise individuals, lack of cooperation and stable hierarchy. Chickens, fish and pigs.

Question 46

What is the effect of same sex or same age groups on animals?

Answer 46

Increases similarity in group numbers and the hierarchy is less stable. Pigs, dairy calves and chickens.

Question 47

What is the effect of clumped/limited resources on animals?

Answer 47

Clumped/limited resources – low ranking animals may have restricted access to areas if dominants can block key walkways or monopolise clumped resources.

Question 48

If mixing of unfamiliar sows is inevitable, which is the best way of minimising aggression.

Answer 48

Pre-exposing pigs in gradual mixing (hardly ever done) or adding a boar (seems to have a calming effect).

Drugs like stresnil, mixing pigs when inactive and distracting pigs with straw only tackles causes so are ineffective.