BIOL205Z: Animal Behaviour Flashcards
Hamilton’s rule
rb>c
R=Relatedness
The chance of the other individual sharing the same gene
B=Benefit of Behaviour
The number of copies of the gene produced by the individual being helped
C=Cost of behaviour
The number of copies of the gene that would have been produced if the energy were instead directed towards their own reproduction
Selfish Genetic Elements (SGE’s)
Any element in the genome that can increase it’s allelic diversity within a generation
SGE’s: Transposons
-“Jumping genes”
-90% of the genome (maize)
-50% in humans
T-Haplotype in Mice
-Females pass on to ~50% of offspring
-Males pass on to ~90% of offspring
-Remains at low (ish) frequency, around 10-40%
Segregation Distorters
Alleles that distort segregation in their own favour
Malaysian Stalk-eyed Fly
-X linked sex ratio distorter
-Targets sperm carrying the Y chromosome
-Results in female biased broods
Harem
A group of females associated with a single male, the male typically defends ‘his’ group of females
Supressor
Mutations that correct the phenotypic defects of another mutation without restoring its wild-type sequence
What is social behaviour?
-Aggression
-Territory
-Dominance
-Sexual behaviour
-Parental behaviour
-Co-operation
-Alturism
Benefits of living in groups
1.Reduced predator pressure
2.Improved foraging ability
3.Improved territorial defence
4.Better care of offspring
Sentinel Behaviour
- One member of co-operative group stands guard
-Rest of group foraging
Selfish Herd Effect
-Everyone trying to get to centre to be away from predator
Dilution effect
-Probability of one individual being taken is lower in groups
Costs of living in a group
1.More competition for food and/or mates
2.Increased risk of infection by disease
3.increased conspicuousness
4.interferance with parental care
mandrils
-dominant males sire more offspring
-common pattern in social groups
-can be seen as a cost, but alternative strategy wouldn’t work any better
increased competition
-males compete for mates
-might not get first access to food or there will be inference with food (damage)
increased conspicuousness
-easier to find really large group than 1-2 individuals
-more likely to be seen by predators
interference with parental care
-males kill offspring that aren’t there’s
-common pattern is that only dominant male and female will reproduce
-staying in group might mean you don’t reproduce
Infanticide
-Male lions will kill cubs when they take over a pride
-Also happens in chacma baboons
Prevention of breeding
-In wild dogs, wolves, hyaenas, meerkats, banded mongooses, dominant females will suppress reproduction in subordinates by inducing stress, control or direct attacks
group management
-lions: females stable centre, males come and go
-hyenas: females dominant over males
-in some species, dominance determined each breeding season
Matrilineal Hierarchies
Inheritance of mothers dominance rank by daughters
-e.g. hyaenas, wolves
Patrilineal Hierarchies
Inheritance of fathers dominance rank
-e.g. colobous monkeys
Coalitions
Dominance determined by social success e.g. chimps
chimp coalitions
chimps will do things for conspecifics with hope they will back them in a fight
dominance in red deer
-depth/pitch of roar is due to size, length is due to muscles in throat
-fights only occur between individuals of the same size
-males reproduce from ages 5-11, females 3-13
-some males never reproduce
Reproductive Skew
Dominant individuals reproduce most
honest signs of dominance
-deeper/louder vocalisation, bigger the individual
-males with higher levels of testosterone have different scent marks
-species stick their hair up to make themselves look bigger
Transivity
-A beats B, B beats C, then A beats C
-Does not always occur and different individuals can be dominant in different situations
Territory
-More or less exclusive area defended by individual or group
-seen in more solitary species
territory in birds
- all territories typically close to each other
-dont get too annoyed with neighbours as they are familiar with them
Home range
An area an animal habitually uses but does not necessarily defend
Is food patchy?
Abundant in one spot, but not widespread over an area
causation
how is the behaviour produced? (mechanism)
ontogeny
how does the behaviour develop in the individual
adaptive value
what is the current utility of the behaviour (function)
evolutionary history
how has the behaviour evolved over time?
what is the comparative method?
comparing species to understand the ecological circumstances that lead to the evolution of a particular trait
female philopatry (most mammals)
-younger females benefit from helping their mothers reproduce more siblings that they are related to by 0.5
-females surrounded by sisters and mother
male philopatry (chimps, gorillas, humans)
incoming female is unrelated to older females in the group, no benefit to helping them reproduce unrelated offspring
outgroup mating
-females start in a group with low relatedness to existing males
-fathers come from another group
-little point helping a mother raise half siblings
homologies
similarities between species based on common evolutionary descent
homoplasies
similarities between several species not present in their ancestor
convergent evolution
different groups of organisms evolve the same solution to a problem independently of one another, NOT from a common ancestor
monogamy
-male and female form a pair bond, short or long term
-both parents may care for offspring
-seen in :
-birds, few fish, few mammals
polygyny
-male mates with several females, each female with only one male
-may be a bond between male and females
usually female provides parental care
-seen in: few birds, many mammals and fish
polygyny resource defence
- defend resource that females use e.g. hummingbirds
- defend resource females pass through e.g. white rhino
polygyny female defence
-defend a small stable group of females e.g.red deer
-defend a large group of females together with several males e.g.baboons
-defend temporary harems whilst on move e.g.wildebeest
polygyny female/resource defence
-defend large area together with females e.g.chimps
polygyny/promiscuity competition/scramble
-males compete for access for fertile females
-no bond
-males search for females, fights when females found e.g. tigers
-large group of males big fight for access to females e.g. frogs
polygyny leks
-males defend small display territory
kakapo case study
-103 individuals
-flightless
-male display on lek
-breeding starts at 9years
-breed every 3-5 years
-live to 90
polyandry
-female has more than one partner
-bond between female and partners
-male or male/female parental care
-seen in : few birds, few insects, few fish, very few mammals
promiscuity
-female and male both have multiple partners
-no bond
-female parental care
-seen in: few birds, many insects, fish and mammals
peacocks
-males defend a small territory where they all display, females chose who to mate with
-extreme method: successful males mate lots, unsuccessful never mate
sneaky males
ones that come in when others are doing displays, and mate with the females
alturism
a behaviour which is costly to the actor and beneficial to the recipient
mutual benefit
a behaviour which is beneficial to both the actor and the recipient
mutualism
cooperation between species
selfishness
a behaviour which is beneficial to the actor and costly to the recipient
spite
a behaviour which is costly to both actor and recipient
direct fitness
the component of fitness gained through the impact of an individuals behaviour on the production of offspring
indirect fitness
the component of fitness gained from aiding the reproduction of related individuals
inclusive fitness
the effect of one individuals actions on everybody’s numbers of offspring weighted by relatedness (direct+indirect fitness)
kin selection
process by which traits are favoured because of their beneficial effects on the fitness of relatives
inclusive fitness equation
relatedness x benefit to reproduction of relative
(rxb)
mechanism
the path from genes and their products leading to the behaviour
relative contribution of genes and environment
to what extent is phenotypic variation a product of genetic vs environmental variation
for behaviour to evolve there needs to be:
a) Individual variation in behaviour
b) Heritable variation
c) Fitness consequences
single gene effect
One gene -> one trait
polygenic inheritance
many genes -> one trait
-e.g. behaviour
-behaviour is limited by a single gene, not controlled by it
pleiotropy
one gene -> many traits
the relationship between genes and traits
-individual difference (evolution)
-how the organism develops (causes of individual behaviour)
two sources of influence on traits
-genes
-environment (physical, social, disease, nutrition etc)
P= G+E
phenotype is affected by genes and the environment
Vp=Vg+Ve
variation in phenotype is affected by genetic and environmental variation
Vd
-dominance effects
-two phenotypes as A is dominant over a
Va
-most important
-determines selectability of trait
Vi
-epistatic effect
-interaction of genes at different loci
-expression of colour (for example) due to what’s happening at B locus
Honey bees
-food induced polyphensim
-amount of royal jelly they get determines whether they are a queen or a worker
blue headed rass
-social induced polyphenism
-male removed from population, female will become a male
heritability
proportion of total phenotypic variance attributable to genetics
-h2=Vg/Vp
-h2= heritability
-Vp= phenotype variation
-Vg= genetic variance
no heritability
= no evolution possible
narrow sense heritability
relative contribution of additive genes compared to the environment is the most important measure, determines selectability
mouse inactivated with fosB gene
-treat their pups with indifference
-inspect pups but leave them alone
-appear otherwise normal in perception, hormones etc
Quantitative trait locus (QTL)
section of DNA that correlates with variation in a quantitative trait
genetics of behaviour
-determines whether or not a behaviour can evolve
-if no variation nothing for behaviour to evolve on
polyphenism
environment can control what behaviours being expressed
flexibility and control
-the environment can cause genes to be switched on or off
-eyes highly canalised phenotype as there is not much differentiation on number of eyes
ostrich
mates with several females that all lay eggs in one nest, where male looks after them
canalisation
phenotype remains fairly invariant when individuals are exposed to a particular environment
when did dogs evolve
14-30,000 years ago
filial imprinting
how a young animal learns the characteristics of its parent
sexual imprinting
the process by which a young animal learns the characteristics of a desirable mate
filial imprinting critical period
ducks and geese: 24-48 hours post hatch
-cats: 2-7 weeks
-dogs: 2-10 weeks, can imprint on two species
filial imprint process
-imprinting can be reversed
-first object seen most likely to be imprinted on
innate bird song
doves, wildfowl, ducks, waders
learnt bird song
-either restricted or unrestricted
-song birds, parrots, hummingbirds
conditioned taste aversion
-occurs when a substance is followed by illness
-requires only one pairing with conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus to establish an automatic response
dog evolution
-could’ve happened by accident: wolves that were slightly more friendly bred together
-dogs today act very much like juvenile wolves
breed typical behaviour
-dogs that produce offspring that are more social and playful are more bred form
silver foxes
-study to see how quickly they go from wild to tame
-at start, completely wild and very aggressive, by 18th generation they were very tame
-individuals that are more comfortable in captivity bred better
blackcaps
-breed two populations, offspring go typically south
-migration triggered by hormones
-more fat levels, good nutrition more likely not to migrate as good resources where they are
development of sex
-in birds, females have hetero-sex chromosome
-sex determination can be genetic or temperature based
intrauterine effects
-uterine environment has effect on later development and behaviour
-if around manly males, can become very masculine individual (both male and female), around females, very feminine individual
imprinting
-sensitive period determine what kind of individual you become or preferences they have
-works unless first individual seen is human
zebra finch preferences
-all white, but males have red beaks and females have orange
-male offspring will always try to mate with same colour beak their mother had, as they assume that’s a female
harlow’s experiment
-study on whether monkey had preference for cuddles or food from mother
-two robotic ‘mothers’ used, one comfy (blanket over it) other no comfort but had food
-monkey favoured robotic mother covered in blanket that could be cuddled
associative learning categories
1) Classical
2) Operant
3) Cognition
3) Cognition
-insight e.g. tool use
-episodic memory and future planning
-complex e.g. language, spatial awareness
-social e.g. copying
-awareness
awareness
-theory of mind
-deception
-metacogniton
avoidance learning
a behaviour (usually negative) is not done in an attempt to not receive a punishment
extinction
a behaviour (response) that had previously been reinforced is no longer effective, so decreases
insight
-animal using what appears to be intelligence -internal modelling of problem
-chimps/crows using tool to reach food - not trial and error (operant)
Episodic memory
the ability to recall unique, personal experiences
Self awareness
Animal has a sense of self as an individual, not just perception of body and feelings
Can an animal recognise itself in the mirror?
the following can:
-chimp
-bonobo
-orangutan
-dolphin
theory of mind
ability to understand that others have beliefs, desires and intentions that are different from one’s own
Cultural evolution
-Acquired behaviour transmitted through social learning
-Selection acts on different learned behaviours
recognition
fit something you see/smell to an experience in the past
mental time travel
can they recall something without needing a cue
self awareness testing
-mirror test: familiarise individual with mirror, put dot on their face and see if they try to rub it off of themselves
e.g. cleaner fish
cognitive empathy
do you know what other individuals know?
social learning
-some social learning will be about complex understanding
-or more simple like blue tits finding out they can pierce foil on milk bottles and get cream out
mate choice
-in guppies, females prefer males with more orange
-although, if they see females choosing males with less orange, they’ll often copy
cultural evolution in primates
-macaques in Japan will sit in hot springs to keep warm
cultural influence
-ravens learn problem solving
-chimps can crack nuts or chew up leaves to put on wounds
communication
an animal responding to a signal sent by another individual
signal examples
Bird song
Deer horns
Lion roar
Man’s beard
Lizard dewlap
Peacock feathers
Zebra’s stripes
Fox smell
Fish colouration
Baboon calls
Grasshopper stridulation
Lamb bleat
Black bird alarm call
Camouflage
what do signals do?
-change behaviour of other animals
-have evolved in response to selection
-both originator of signal and audience affect its development
Factors affecting the type of signal
- Receivers
- General audience effects
- Physical environment
- Influence of other signallers
psychological landscape
-Detectability
-Memorability
-Discriminability
Detectability
- Conspicuousness
- Repetetive
- Stereotyped
- Alerting components
Repetitive (detectability)
-repetetive movements, signal done over and over
-more likely to be picked up
Memorability
- Several sensory modalities (multimodal)
- Association
- Attention
Discriminability
- Different from related signals
- Exaggerated displays
- Contrast with background
sensory exploitation/biases
-bias waiting to happen which can be exploited in order to attract a mate
General audience effects
- Eavesdroppers
- Distance to audience
-e.g. some species make different sounds depending on what predator they see
Eavesdroppers
- Alarm calls
- Territorial behaviour
- Mating behaviour
- Predation
-e.g. frog eating bat will listen for full call of frog to prey on it
Distance of receivers
- Close by: quiet, complex sounds, visual signals, electric signals
- Distant: loud, simple calls, scent signals
-loud calls given first to attract individuals closer, where more complex signals are given
Physical environment
- Environmental effects
- Transmission medium
Environmental effects
- Light
- Noise
- Habitat quality
Transmission medium
-Air
-Water
-Solid
-sound transmits better underwater as it doesn’t lose energy over large distance
influence of other signallers
- Co-operation
- Interference
are receiver and sender;
-Co-operative
OR
-In conflict
-Deceit
-Physical constraints
-Strategic constraints
Co-operation
-Dance of honey bees
-Species identity
-Emotion in social species
Conflict and Deceit
Sexual Signalling
-Mate attraction
-Threat display to rival
Parent-Offspring
-Begging calls
-Signalling hunger
Physical constraints on deceit
-Index: direct relation to attribute
Strategic handicap
-conditional: strategic constraint
-ornament less costly to males in good condition
-trait uses up value it represents e.g. condition, immunity
-ornament must be exaggerated to provide cost
Revealing handicap
-Index: physical constraint
-ornament directly related to male quality e.g. low frequency call
-cost not paid in quality trait represents
-ornament not necessarily exaggerated, likely to be conspicuous
strategic handicap- signals of quality
-vocalisation rate
-plumage colour
-tail ornaments
-antler size
revealing handicap- signals of quality
-skin patch
-low frequency roar of deer
-body size
-asymetry
strategic constraints on deceit
-Conventional Signals: chest badge (receiver imposed cost - predators and other males)
-Song matching versus non-matching in a contest (no differential cost)
successful cheats
-mimicry
-brood parasites
environmental information
-alarm calls
-mobbing calls
-ownership
Referential calls
-different calls for different predators or food information
-Chickens: different calls for aerial and terrestrial predators
-Raven: calls for presence of food: different calls for type and quantity
identity
-Species recognition
-Sex
-Individual identity
Abilities
-Fighting ability
-Genetic quality
-Fitness
Intention
-Fight or flight
-metacommunication: whales, dolphins, higher primates, sea lions
-emotion, social communication: happy/sad/injured, contact
vocal learning
-seals
-cetaceans
-elephants
-bats
-songbbirds
-hummingbirds
-parrots
hormone definition
-chemical messengers released from endocrine glands
-communicate and coordinate information within the animal and between it and the outside world
hormone abilities
-slower response
-reach every cell in the body
-can be maintained over long periods
-short and long-term changes
Neurotransmitters
-rapid response (ms to mins)
-target muscles
-last for short periods
-short term changes
invertebrate hormones
-Ecdysone and juvenile hormone (JH)
Ecdysone
-mainly regulates development - larval moulting (ecdysis) and metamorphosis
-also regulates sleep
Juvenile hormone (JH)
numerous behavioural roles;
-courtship
-sex pheromone production
-diapause
-migration
-caste differences in social insects
Oxytocin
plays a key role in maintaining social relationships both within and outside of kin
effect of environmental oestrogen’s (EEs)
-High levels of synthetic oestrogen’s in waste water and effluents due to use of birth control pills
-Female zebrafish- reduced swimming time, eratic movements and freezing episodes
-Female mice- accelerated puberty and increased anxiety
mating
-uses oestrogen, FSH, LH and testosterone(for courtship)
incubation
-progesterone, secreted by ovaries and placenta
parental care
-prolactin, secreted by pituitary
bonding
-oxytocin, secreted by hypothalamus
dominance
-testosterone, from testes
fight/flight
-adrenalie, corticosterone, secreted by adrenal glands
carpus alitum
-gland where the 2 invertebrate hormones are produced
causation
is there a causal relationship with the hormone
mating behaviour: ring-necked doves
-bi-parental care system
-without courtship behaviour, females don’t produce eggs
-production of nest pushes release of progesterone
-both genders produce milk crop to feed offspring
bi-parental care in burying beetles
-need a carcass in order to lay eggs
-levels of JH triggered by presence of carcass and age of larvae
corticosterone
-offspring have to beg in order to get fed
-if in poor state, beg more as you are hungrier
oxytocin and bonding
-social behaviours have impact on oxytocin levels
