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Physiology of Behaviour > Behavioural Ecology > Flashcards

Behavioural Ecology Flashcards

1
Q

What is behaviour?

A

Everything an animal does involving action and/or a response to a stimulus - the way an animal acts

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2
Q

Five principles of behavioural ecology

A
  1. Learning and cognition
  2. Mating behaviour
  3. Social behaviour
  4. Communication
  5. Feeding behaviour
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3
Q

What are Tinbergen’s four questions?

A
  1. Function or adaption
  2. Evolution or phylogeny
  3. Causation or mechanism
  4. Development or ontogeny
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4
Q

What is function or adaption?

A

Why is the animal performing the behaviour and how does the behaviour increase the animals fitness?

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5
Q

Function or adaption example

A

Nurturing of young to increase their chance of survival, migrating to warmer habitats, escaping from predators

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6
Q

What is evolution or phylogeny?

A

How did the behaviour evolve? How has natural selection modified the behaviour over evolutionary time?

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7
Q

Evolution or phylogeny example

A

How fight in birds may have evolved from gliding in dinosaurs

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8
Q

What is causation or mechanism?

A

What causes the behaviour to be performed? Which stimuli elicit or what physiological mechanisms cause the behaviour?

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9
Q

Causation or mechanism example

A

Role of pheromones and hormones, such as increasing testosterone levels causing male display behaviour in many of birds species, beaks causing herring gull chicks to peck

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10
Q

What is development or ontogeny?

A

How has the behaviour developed during the lifetime of the individual? In what way was it been influenced by experience and learning?

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11
Q

Development or ontogeny example

A

How courtship behaviour improves with age in many birds, how predators learn to avoid dangerous prey

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12
Q

What is ethology?

A

The scientific study of non-human animal behaviour, usually with a focus on behaviour under natural conditions, and viewing behaviour as an evolutionary adaptive trait

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13
Q

3 things behavioural ecology needs to understand animal behaviour

A
  1. How it develops
  2. How it evolves
  3. How it contributes to survival and reproductive success
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14
Q

What is innate behaviours?

A

Innate behaviours that are developmentally fixed, under strong genetic influence and does not need practice

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15
Q

What is a fixed action pattern?

A

A sequence of unlearned, innate behaviours that are unchangeable

Triggered by an external sensory stimuli known as a sign stimulus
Once initiated, is is carried to completion

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16
Q

Fixed action pattern example (robin)

A

Male robins will attack bundle of red leathers in the territory, but will ignore juvenile (no red feathers)

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17
Q

What is learning?

A

Modification of behaviour based on specific experiences

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18
Q

5 types of learning

A
  1. Inprinting
  2. Sensitisation
  3. Habituation
  4. Classical conditioning
  5. Operant conditioning
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19
Q

What is imprinting?

A

Behaviour that includes both learning and innate components and is not irreversible
Distinguished from other types of learning by a sensitive or critical period

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20
Q

What is sensitisation?

A

Learned from a single stimulus experience
Increase in responsiveness to a stimulus

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21
Q

What is habituation?

A

Learned from a single stimulus
Repetition of stimulus causes a reduction in response

The animals are most likely to habituate in response to weak, less important, repeated or frequent stimuli

22
Q

What is classical conditioning?

A

It’s associated with an involuntary response and a stimulus
Pavlov dogs

23
Q

What is operant conditioning?

A

It’s associated with a voluntary behaviour and a consequence
Skinners box

24
Q

What is mating behaviour?

A

Making behaviour is the product of a form of natural selection called sexual selection (individuals, with certain inherited characteristics are more likely than other individuals to obtain mates)

25
Q

What are the two types of mating behaviour?

A
  1. Intersexual selection or mate choice
  2. Intrasexual selection
26
Q

What is intersexual selection?

A

Where individuals of one sex, often female are choosy in the selection of mates from the opposite sex

27
Q

Examples of intersexual selection

A

Courtship behaviour, colourations, vocalisations

28
Q

What is intrasexual selection?

A

Selection within the same sex, where individuals of one sex, often males compete directly for mates of the opposite sex

29
Q

Examples of intrasexual selection

A

Dominance in males, defending of the females

30
Q

What are the four types of mating systems?

A
  1. Monogamy- One female, one male
  2. Polygyny- One female, multiple males
  3. Polyandry- One male, multiple females
  4. Polygynandry- Multiple males, multiple females
31
Q

What is resource-defence polygyny?

A

Males gain access to females indirectly by holding critical resources

32
Q

What is female-defence polygyny?

A

Females aggravate and can be defended by a male

33
Q

What is male-dominance polygyny?

A

Female select mates from an aggregation of males

34
Q

What is inclusive fitness?

A

The number of offspring equivalent an individual rears, rescues or otherwise support through its behaviour

35
Q

What is altruism?

A

The behaviour of an animal that benefits another at its own expense

36
Q

Altruism example (naked mole rats)

A

In naked mole rat populations, nonreproductive individuals may sacrifice their lives to protect the reproductive individuals from predators

37
Q

What is reciprocal altruism?

A

Altruistic behaviour towards unrelated individuals can be adaptive if the aided individual return the favour in the future

38
Q

What is Hamilton’s rule?

A

Hamilton proposed a quantitive measure up for predicting when natural selection would favour, altruistic acts among related individuals

39
Q

What are the three key variables in an altruistic act?

A
  1. Benefits the recipient (B)
  2. Cost to the altruist (C)
  3. Coefficient of relatedness (r)

rB.>C

40
Q

What is play behaviours?

A

When animals perform a behaviour voluntarily over and over again, with another individual without causing stress

41
Q

Why are play behaviours good?

A
  1. Development of physical and psychological skills
  2. Learn to cope with the unexpected
  3. Improve motor skills
  4. Learn boundaries and social skills
42
Q

Why are play behaviours bad?

A
  1. High energy
  2. Risk of injury/death
  3. Who is foraging or hunting for food?
  4. Who is keeping watch for predators?
43
Q

Hormones and play behaviour

A

Play fighting in juvenile males is thought to be linked through testosterone and practising for adult fights

44
Q

What is animal communication?

A

A signal is a behaviour that causes a change in another animals behaviour

‘Any interaction taken place between an individual acting as a sender, who delivers some information to another individual that acts as a receiver who uses this to form a decision’

45
Q

What are the five types of animal communication?

A
  1. Visual
  2. Auditory
  3. Chemical
  4. Tactile
  5. Electrical
46
Q

Feeding types

A
  1. Carnivore
  2. Herbivore
  3. Fruigvore
  4. Foliovore
  5. Omnivore
  6. Insectivore
  7. Piscivore
  8. Derribore
47
Q

What is optimal foraging theory?

A

A framework used to investigate the economics of different foraging decisions

The theory of natural selection indicates the behaviour should be optimised to increase the viable chances

48
Q

Types of anti-predator behaviour

A
  1. Avoiding detection
  2. Evading capture
  3. Fighting back
49
Q

Avoiding detection examples

A
  1. Camouflage.
  2. Being quiet
  3. Habitat choice
  4. Avoidance
50
Q

Evading capture examples

A
  1. Fleeing
  2. Distractions
51
Q

Fighting back examples

A
  1. Mobbing
  2. Warning signs/signals
  3. Chemical defence

Physiology of Behaviour (12 decks)

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