Ch. 45 Animal Behavior

Question 1

behavior

Answer 1

anything the animal does and how it does it

-response to a stimulus

Question 2

what are tinbergen’s four questions?

Answer 2

1. causation
2. development
3. adaptive function
4. evolutionary history

Question 3

causality

Answer 3

1. proximate: HOW (what stimulus triggered this? what are genetic/physiological mechanisms of this behavior?)
2. ultimate: WHY (why did natural selection favor this behavior? how does behavior improve fitness?)

Question 4

example: the spiny lobster forages at night and returns to its den before dawn. what are proximate and ultimate causes of this behavior?

Answer 4

proximate: HOW they navigate at night? physiological mechanism to guide them in the dark with the earth’s magnetism
ultimate: WHY do they navigate at night? hunting for food under cover of darkness protects them from predation

Question 5

behavior is a combination of _____ and _____ factors

Answer 5

genetic and environmental

Question 6

development

Answer 6

how did the behavior develop?

• genes and the environment shaping behavior
• ex. bird sings because he learned to sing form his father

Question 7

adaptive function

Answer 7

• behavior and how its promotes the survival/reproduction of individuals
• ex. male bird sings because it attracts females = more reproduction

Question 8

evolutionary history

Answer 8

how behavior evolved over time

• complex bird songs evolved because ancestors sang over time and the songs became habituated in the population
• bird songs may have evolved because originally used to claim territories, but now used to attract mates

Question 9

innate behaviors

Answer 9

instinctive and carried out regardless of earlier experiences
-male bombyx moth innately flies toward female pheromones (does not need to learn this, does it spontaneously)

Question 10

learned behaviors

Answer 10

depend’s on an individual’s experiences

-fruit flies avoid flying toward area where they had an unpleasant experience

Question 11

displays

Answer 11

patterns of behavior that are species specific, tend to be highly repeatable, and similar from one individual to the next

• example of a fixed action pattern
• birds who are isolated usually still perform the same displays as their own species of birds

Question 12

fixed action pattern (FAP)

Answer 12

• series of behaviors that are automatically followed through to completion once initiated
• innate
• behavior s so important that all variaiton has been lost

-ex. goose egg retrieval, fish attacking automatically

Question 13

key stimulus

Answer 13

example - misplaced egg

“trigger”

Question 14

supernormal stimulus

Answer 14

-soccer ball instead of an egg

supernormal because the soccer ball is way larger than any egg and causes an exaggerated response

Question 15

feature detectors

Answer 15

carries out stimulus recognition

• specialized sensory receptors that respond to important signals in the environment
• sometimes these responses trigger the release of certain hormones

Question 16

hormones can affect _____

Answer 16

behavior

ex. testosterone

Question 17

learning

Answer 17

when experiences lead to changes in behavior

Question 18

non associative learning

Answer 18

learning that occurs in the absence of any particular outcome (such a punishment/reward)

-“habituation” and “sensitization” is a type of associative learning

Question 19

habituation

Answer 19

-examples: initially, chicks crouch when a shadow is over them, but they learn to stop crouching because there is no real threat

decreased response to a stimulus over time
less sensitive to each subsequent response

Question 20

sensitization

Answer 20

increased response to a stimulus over time

more sensitive to each subsequent response

Question 21

associative learning (conditioning)

Answer 21

animal learns to link (associate) two events

• classical
• operative

Question 22

classical conditioning

Answer 22

when two stimuli are paired that have nothing to do with each other

-example: dogs hear ringing bell sound/receive meat powder (eventually, dogs salivate at the sound of the bell alone)

Question 23

operant conditioning

Answer 23

linking a behavior with a reward or punishment
-reward leads to more occurrences of a behavior, punishment leads to less of a particular behavior

ex: training a dog to pee/poop outside

Question 24

type of conditioning where association is made between a stimulus and a behavior

Answer 24

classical

Question 25

type of conditioning where association is made between a behavior and a response

Answer 25

operant

Question 26

imitation

Answer 26

one individual copies another

ex: octopus learns to open a jar by watching a human do it

Question 27

imprinting

Answer 27

type of learning typically seen in young animals

-young animals acquire a certain behavior in response to key experiences during a critical part of their development

Question 28

filial imprinting

Answer 28

• usually irreversible
• the first being that a hatchling sees is its parent
• typical in animals whose offspring leave the nest and walk around while still young (they need to know who their parents are)
• NOT typical in offspring whose young stay in the nest

Question 29

kineses

Answer 29

random, undirected movements

ex: paramecium flails when it is in uncomfortable water temperatures, but is not moving toward anything, just random movement for discomfort

Question 30

taxes (taxis)

Answer 30

movements in a specific direction in response to a stimulus

ex: bacteria moving toward a magnetic field

Question 31

why are female usually pickier about their mate choices?

Answer 31

females must invest more energy into making eggs, so they make sure they find a good mate who will input good genes and lead to the most successful reproduction possible

Question 32

circadian clock

Answer 32

regulate many daily rhythms in animals such as feeding, sleeping, eating, reproduction, core body temp, hormones

Question 33

migration

Answer 33

the long distance movement of a population associated with the change in seasons/resources

Question 34

piloting

Answer 34

use of familiar landmarks
-In many birds and mammals, young follow their
parents and memorize the route

Question 35

compass orientation

Answer 35

movement in a particular direction

– Using the sun, stars, or the Earth’s magnetic field

Question 36

communication

Answer 36

transfer of information between two individuals (sender and receiver)

Question 37

sender

Answer 37

supplies signal that elicits a response form a receiver

bright petals of a flower signal to an insect that pollen/nectar are available

Question 38

ritualization

Answer 38

1. making behavior more obvious
2. reducing amount of variaiton of the behavior
3. separate behavior form the original function

ex: scent markings for territory (original function was to eliminate waste, now pee on things to mark your territory)

Question 39

advertisement displays

Answer 39

• individuals draw attention to their status

- complex bird songs, cricket calls, frog sounds

Question 40

altruism

Answer 40

self sacrifice
-decrease the fitness of the organism exhibiting the behavior and increase the fitness of the recipient

• group works better as a unit
• self sacrifice trumps selfish behavior in terms of natural selection

this is GROUP SELECTION

Question 41

evolutionary stable strategy

Answer 41

behavior that is not readily driven to extinction by an alternative strategy

Question 42

reciprocal altruism

Answer 42

individuals exchange favors

Question 43

kin selection

Answer 43

1. individual can have offspring
2. individual can have no offspring and help to raise another individual instead who is related to them

(hamilton’s rule)

Question 44

eusocial

Answer 44

overlapping generations live in the same nest

Question 45

optimal foraging theory

Answer 45

what should I eat and how cheap can I get it?

-States that animals make decisions that maximize the intake of usable energy

• Usable energy = the energy taken in minus the energy spent looking for & ingesting food
• Also must take into account the risk of being eaten while foraging

example: if birds travel far, its more cost effective to forage a lot of insects to make the travel worth their time

Question 46

sexual selection

Answer 46

traits evolve that increase the probability of finding/attracting mates

Question 47

sexual dimorphism

Answer 47

phenotypic differences between sexes

ex: male and female lions look very different
males are usually more showy because they must attract mates, also they do not use a lot of energy in making sperm. females use a lot of energy to make eggs and are usually not as showy

Question 48

intrasexual selection

Answer 48

is when members of the same sex (within a species) compete with each other in order to gain opportunities to mate with others

e.g. the male against male competition for females

Question 49

intersexual selection

Answer 49

selection based on one sex of the species preferring some characteristic in the other sex of the species

ex: female peacocks tend to prefer male peacocks with bright plumage: a brightly colored male peacock has a selective advantage