Ethology Flashcards
Behaviour
the outward response (observable) of an organism to external and internal stimuli. All of the activities that animals engage in such as locomotion, grooming, reproduction, caring for young, communication
Ethology
the study of animal behaviour. Quantitative or qualitative assessment through visual observation or the use of technology.
Includes causation, biological functioning and adaptive evolution
Classification of behaviours
-reflexes
- centrally-generated patterns
- modal action patterns
- motivated behaviours
Reflexes
An involuntary and nearly instantaneous movement in response to stimulus. Made possible by neural pathways outside of the brain.
ex. blink reflex
Centrally- generated patterns
Repetitive movements generated by central circuits, shaped by sensory and neuromuscular dynamics
Ex. breathing
Modal Action Patterns
A sequence of behaviours triggered by a particular stimulus. Species specific.
Ex. nest building
Modulation of modal action patterns
Motivational states, training, or experience alters the strength of a response to a stimulus. Hierarchical control from the brain over intuitive or innate responses
Motivated behaviours
- Conscious, flexible and with variable goals. Ex. going to sleep
- Internally generated rhythms and external signals interact with motivational states.
ex. animals often display circadian rhythm
Applied ethology
The study of the behaviour of animals that are under some form of human management
Main areas of applied ethology
- welfare assessment
- optimize productivity (ex. group housing)
- behavioural disorders (ex. stereotypes)
- behavioural control (ex. animal training)
Pioneers of modern ethology
- Karl von Frisch
- Konrad Lorenz
- Nikolaas Tinbergen
Tinbergen’s Questions
- Proximate causes (Ex. cow mounting)
- Causation (mechanism): what causes the behaviour to be performed? (Ex. both internal (hormones) and external (visual, olfactory) modulators of behaviour)
- Development (Ontogeny): How has the behaviour developed during the lifetime of an individual? (Ex. sexual maturity, learning, age)
- Ultimate Causes
- Function (adaptation): why is the animal performing the behaviour? (Ex. survival and reproduction… contributes to animals personal fitness)
- Evolution (phylogeny): How has this behaviour evolved throughout the species existence? (Ex. comparative approach between closely related species)
How do animal behaviours develop?
Variability between DNA, learning, and the individual RESULTS in different displayed behaviours
How does a behaviour evolve?
In order for any trait to be modified by evolution, 3 principles are required:
- The principle of variation. A trait must vary between the individuals of a population.
- The principle of genetic inheritance. Some of the variation in the population is of genetic origin
- The principle of natural selection. Some variants of the trait must cause variation in the individuals fitness
Behavioural genetics
Genetics influence the behaviour that the animal displays
Ex. Lovebirds- one species carry nesting materials in beak, other species carries nesting material in feathers. These two different types of lovebirds create offspring. These offspring don’t know how to carry material as they do a combination of both parents that doesn’t work well.
Environments influence on behaviour
dull rats raised in an enriched environment saw an increase in maze ability. Bright rats in poor environment saw an decrease in maze ability
Behavioural genetic selection
Genetic selection for behaviour is important for improving animal welfare. This can be difficult though because often a behaviour is linked to multiple genes, or hugely dependant on environment, individual variability or associated production traits.
Domestication
Evidence that domestication has not changed the basic behavioural repertoire of our domestic animal species because domestic animals are able to thrive in the wild
Internal factors regulating animal behaviour
-Body signals- when body state leaves homeostasis, action is taken to return it (ex. low glucose triggers mobilizing energy reserves and eating)
- hormones - influence feeding, sexual, maternal, social
External factors regulating animal behaviour
- Pheromones- used between individuals of same species. Released into exterior to trigger a response. Captured by olfactory mucosa and vomeronasal organ
- biological clocks- circadian rhythms fluctuating within 24 hrs
- surroundings- predators, threats, peers, terrain, food characteristics
Role of experience and behaviour
behaviours are expressed in function with both genetics and experience Ex. breastfeeding is innate but it takes newborn a while to figure it out
Steps to stimulus processing
- Stimuli
- Sensors (neuro, chemo, immunosensors)
- Affective states (motivations, memories, emotions, moods, arousals)
- Perceptions (valence, salience, controllability and predictability)
- Response (physiology, behaviour, immune, morphology, cognition)
Affective state decision when faced with a stimuli
When faced with a stimulus, animals that have more harmful or threatening events happen in their lives will choose to make pessimistic decisions and vice versa
Cognitive bias
The thought process that an animal will choose based on personal experience and preference
Ex. animal choosing to be pessimistic or optimistic. Different frequencies (high= shock, low= food); what will animal do when presented with medium frequency?
Stress and cognitive bias
When faced with stress, an animal will choose to be more pessimistic no matter what their normal cognitive bias is
Anhedonia
The inability to enjoy reward.
Ex. rats will drink less sugar water when encountering stressful event. Even less if the rats cognitive bias is already pessimistic
Judgement Bias and ambiguity
When given an ambiguous decision, emotional state will influence the action. Under stress, will be more pessimistic.
Ex. Cows with red, white, pink screen. Cows will be more optimistic with pink screen when less stressed.
Response to stimulus based on temperament
Behavioural states that are stable over time and repeatable across situations. Every animals unique temperament profile will be determined by a mixture of genetic factors and its experiences, and play a role in the animals response.
Ways to measure temperament
- Reactivity test- Human walks towards head of animal. Record how many steps forward before the animal reacted. Tells you/puts them on a scale of how afraid or calm they were
- Flight speed out of chute
- Chute score- record movement/force of the chute while animal inside
Overall temperament score calculated by equation for these tests
Determine dominance
Video analysis- observe behaviours such as fighting, head butting, displacement, chasing, mounting
Determine Boldness
Novel object test- place object in enclosure and see which animals are bold enough to approach or move to front of herd
Determine Activity Level
Open field test- place animal in enclosure and record different activities (how far they explore, whether they eat, etc.)
Proactive/active coping style
- Higher behavioural activity (aggressive)
- Elevated reactivity of the sympathetic autonomic nervous system (catecholamines, fight-flight response)
- Higher sensitivity to the dopaminergic reward system
Coping style and immune response
Immune response is greater in animals with active coping styles
Reactive/passive coping style
- Lower behavioural activity (freezing)
- Elevated reactivity of the parasympathetic autonomic nervous system (cardiac vagal tone)
- Higher reactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis (cortisol)
Observations of animals
- Visual - minimally intrusive, powerful and reliable, can be time consuming, not always effective when assessing multiple behaviours, subjective in nature
- Video recording- versatile, time consuming, can re-watch, multiple people can observe
Coping style and growth performance
- Active animals eat less when confronted with challenges
- Active spend more energy when confronted with challenges
Issues with anthropomorphism and ethology
- A critical danger to ethology
- Easy to use human emotional states and behaviours to describe individual differences in animals
- Avoid methodology with overt emotional connotations
Anthropomorphism
The attribution of human characteristics and mental faculties to non-human agents.
Rating vs. Coding
Rating- scale
Coding- whether it happened or not
Ethogram
A table of all the behaviours of interest to be observed in the study of one or more animals, that allows for quantification (frequency or duration of behaviour)
Ethogram criteria
- Each of these behaviours must be distinct and independent from one another
- Behaviours must be described explicitly, with no room for interpretation
- An ethogram that consists of too many categories will be difficult to use because an animal’s behaviour may change in seconds
Sampling methods
- continuous sampling
- scan sampling
Continuous sampling
- The observer records all of the activity that occurs while the animals (observe all animals in group or just one of the animals) are being watched
- Better for short lived behaviours
Scan sampling
- The behaviour of one or more individuals in a group of animals are recorded at a predetermined time interval.
- Records states rather than events
monitoring location
Track movement within an area gives insight into behaviour, health, and welfare. Tells us how often they lay down, whether they like to feed in certain area, specific movements of joints,
- GPS tracker
- Ultra wide-band sensors
- video (markerless video tracking or retroreflective markers)
monitoring activity
- video (determine patterns)
- drones (possible mobility assessment)
- accelerometers (measure movement… ex. tail flicks)
- acoustics (intensity and pitch of vocalizations)
- automatic feeding systems
