Chpt 39 - Part 2 - Complex Animal Behaviors

Question 1

To understand any behavior, we must answer four questions, which are?

Answer 1

1. what stimulus causes the behavior and what physiological (body) mechanisms mediate the response?
2. How does the animal’s experience during growth and development influence the response?
3. How does the behavior make the animal more likely to survive and reproduce?
4. what is the behavior’s evolutionary history?

Question 2

Within these 4 questions, how do we separate it (2 ways)?

Answer 2

Proximate causation (1 and 2)
Ultimate causation (3 and 4)

Question 3

What is proximate causation?

Answer 3

How a behavior occurs or is modified

Question 4

What is ultimate causation?

Answer 4

why a behavior occurs in the context of natural selection
why did evolution”pick” these traits

Question 5

What are 3 stimuli that trigger behavior?

Answer 5

1. Fixed action patterns
2. behavioral rhythms
3. animals signals + communication

Question 6

What is fixed action pattern?

Answer 6

• A sequence of unchangeable unlearned (instinct) acts directly linked to a simple stimulus
• Once initiated, carried through to completion

Question 7

What is the trigger for the behavior in a fixed action pattern?

Answer 7

• external cue
  called sign stimulus

Question 8

Give an example of a fixed action pattern

Answer 8

Behavior: a male fish attacks other males that invade its nesting territory
Mechanism: the red belly is the sign stimulus that releases the aggression in the male fish

Question 9

What is behavioral rhythms?

Answer 9

cycles that are driven by timing like Circadian rhythms or cirannual (seasons)
usually associated with light and dark cycles in the environment but can be linked to lunar cycle or other timing courses

Question 10

Give an example of behavioral rhythms

Answer 10

Behavior: Monarch butterflies embark on a two month season migration
Proximate Cause: decreasing photoperiod and cooler temperatures trigger southward migration

Question 11

Why are behavioral rhythms complex?

Answer 11

its a regular long distance change in location oftentimes with no experience
-butterfiles are born just knowing that have to travel southward to an exact location
fish, birds and other animals do this as well

Question 12

What are some environmental clues for behavioral rhythms?

Answer 12

use solar cues
magneto sense to navigate
Celestial - position of the stars

Question 13

What are animal communication (trigger behaviors)?

Answer 13

intentional transmission and reception of signals between animals
.. causes the other animal to do something

Question 14

What are animal signals (trigger behaviors) and list 3 signals?

Answer 14

stimulus transmitted from one organism to another, with the goal of guiding the other’s behavior.
- Chemical (hormones)
- auditory (alarm call)
Itself a behavior (series of movements like dancing to get a mate)

Question 15

Give an example of animal signals and communication?

Answer 15

Behavior: honeybees leaving the hive fly directly toward the area visited by recently returned bees
Proximate cause: individual bees returning to the hive perform a “waggle dance (the signal” that communicates the distance and direction of the food source

Question 16

What are the 3 examples of the role of experience in animals?

Answer 16

1. Imprinting
2. associative learning
3. social learning

Question 17

What two behaviors play a huge role in the role of experience?

Answer 17

Innate behavior vs Learned behavior

Question 18

What is innate behavior?

Answer 18

Behavior that you are always going to do - developmentally fixed and thus unchangeable

Question 19

What is learned behavior?

Answer 19

behavior that is modified as a result of specific experiences - relies on a combo of nature vs nurture

Question 20

What is nature (in learned behavior)?

Answer 20

the capacity of learning depends on NS organization established during development
following instructions encoded in the genome

Question 21

What is nurture (in learned behavior)?

Answer 21

formation of memories by specific changes in neuronal connectivity

Question 22

What is imprinting?

Answer 22

• development of a long lasting behavioral response to a particular individual or object based on an innately programmed imprinting stimulus
• can only develop during a specific sensitive period of time
• super important for young offspring to develop bonds with parents and vice versa

Question 23

Give an example of imprinting

Answer 23

Behavior: baby ducks follow their mother whenever she moves
Imprinting stimulus: mother is the object the baby ducks got attached to in their first few hours of life

Question 24

What is associative learning?

Answer 24

• Learning to associate one environmental feature with another .. using one type of info as a reliable proxy for other important info
• enormous variation but the organization of an individual’s NS restricts the types of associations that can be formed

Question 25

Give an example of associative learning

Answer 25

Behavior: blue jays avoid eating monarch butterflies and all similar looking insects
Association: blue jay previously ate a butterfly, was disgusting, so learned to associate that pattern to inedible food

Question 26

What is social learning?

Answer 26

learning a behavior by observing behavior of others

Question 27

What does social learning form?

Answer 27

the roots of culture

Question 28

What is culture?

Answer 28

a system of information transfer through social learning or teaching that influences the behavior of individuals in a population

Question 29

Give an example of Social learning

Answer 29

Behavior: young chimps learn how to crack open nuts with two stones
Information transfer: copying what he saw

Question 30

How do animals enhance their survival and reproduction?

Answer 30

by attracting mates, choosing the best mates, competing for mates, and through the care of offspring

Question 31

What is the mating system?

Answer 31

the duration and number of relationships between reproductive males and females of a given species or population

Question 32

What are the 3 types of mating systems?

Answer 32

1. Promiscuous
2. Monogamous
3. Polygamous

Question 33

What is promiscuous and give an example?

Answer 33

no strong pair bonds
- short duration and no strong relationship
- fish in schools whole bunch of semen floating around impossible to tell who belongs to who

Question 34

What is monogamous ?

Answer 34

One male and one female mating

Question 35

What is polygamous?

Answer 35

having multiple partners

Question 36

What is sexual dimorphism?

Answer 36

• The extent in which males and females look different
• varies with the type of mating system such that there is a predictable relationship between mating systems

Question 37

Describe how sexual dimorphism would like in a monogamous pair vs a more polygamous pair

Answer 37

A monogamous pair the birds would look the same in regards to size and color
a polygamous pair one partner is bigger and more colorful than the other

Question 38

Why are the needs of young an important factor constraining the evolution of mating systems and parental care?

Answer 38

• Reproductive fitness increases as a function of offspring # and the likelihood of survival

Question 39

How are males more likely to contribute to parental care?

Answer 39

1. precociousness of young - the baby birds need a lot of care
2. Vulnerability of mother and cubs- male lion is wired to protect them until recover and get old
3. Certainty of paternity - will care more if they know its their kids

Question 40

What is altruism?

Answer 40

a term used to describe behavior that reduce an animal’s individual fitness by increases the fitness of other individuals in the population

Question 41

Give an example of altrusim?

Answer 41

Squirrel sees predator - lets out a warning call
warns others to hide but warning call lets predators know where they are

Question 42

What 3 questions do we ask about the role of evolution (genetics)?

Answer 42

1. to what degree is a behavioral subject to genetic control?
2. to what degree is there a genetic variation in that behavior?
3. how do we explain “selfless” behaviors if its all about individual fitness?

Question 43

What is courtship behavior?

Answer 43

A behavior that results in mating and reproduction
- can be simple using chemical, auditory cues, or visual cues
- can be very complex like a dance

Question 44

Give an example of courtship behavior

Answer 44

Behavior: male fiddler crabs wave their large claws to attract potential mates

Proximate cause: new or full moon linking to reproduction to the times of greatest tidal movement (tides move eggs to deep places so they can actually grow)

Ultimate cause: larvae are more likely to be successfully dispersed from mudflats to safer, deeper waters, increasing offspring survival and this crab’s individual fitness.