Term 2 Lecture 1: animal behaviour Intro Flashcards
Animal behaviour definition
Empirical field based research - behavioural observation.
What an animal does + how/when/why
What triggers it?
Internal (change in physical state) or external (environmental change)
Biotic or abiotic?
Behaviour characteristic of a species
Just as anatomy & physiology is e.g. domestic cats - descend from solitary predators (happily live alone)
Domestic dog - descend from pack animals (dislike to live alone)
Behaviour due to individual variation
Learning and even culture. Active teaching passed down through learning as seen in orangutans
Why study animal behaviour?
Knowledge of the organisms around you is essential for survival - particularly as humans are creating conditions unsuitable for other organisms - observation can help us regulate our exploitation to maximise survival of other organisms. (E.g. Conservation, farming, animal welfare)
Animal welfare
Understanding behaviour allows farmers to provide best care of farm animals and healthy organisms usually have higher output producing more milk,eggs and meat.
Conservation
In the wild and captivity.
Behavioural study allows for better environmental/resource management to protect species
Understanding human behaviour
Our basic fundamental drives are still similar to non human animals so research on other species often applies to us
Biomedicine
Curing humans, initially tested on other animals e.g. behavioural tests for drugs - allows us to understand side effects and functions before human testing
General public interest
Popularity in human society can influence people to research and take interest in other organisms.
Modern humans are often disconnected from nature and need education e.g. to understand the behaviour of a pet.
Sniffer dogs are used by police/military to check for bombs, drugs and even diseases like COVID-19
Define behaviour
How an organism interacts with it’s environment and how it’s environment influences it’s behaviour - this in turn defines the organisms resilience and adaptability to environmental changes
Animal behaviour has a pivotal role
Connects molecular biology and physiology to ecology.
E.g. nervous system > organisms > environment > ecosystems
Behaviour promotes sociality
Sociality is a higher level of organisation
Individuals interactions can create emergent properties of social systems such as cooperation and altruism. Key aspects to understand are human/non-human evolutionary mechanisms that are behind these emergent properties seen in some biosystems
How we study animal behaviours
Practicalities vs. conceptual approaches - the way we think about animal behaviour.
Converting complex behavioural patterns to numerical format for recording/comparison/ quantifying and studying
Tinbergens conceptual approach to the 4 whys
(Niko Tinbergen was a pioneer of quantitative study of animal behaviour 1940’s - 50’s)
4 questions you can ask about the behaviour of any animal.
E.g. female Phlianthus wasp (bee wolf) a solitary wasp that builds a burrow in sandy substrate and lays a single egg that hatches into a larvae that they feed by catching beetles or bees (they paralyze with their venom.) The mother periodically restocks the nest.
How does she do this (mechanistic)
Proximate causation - triggers of a specific behaviour - stimuli, weather, internal processes e.g. nervous or hormonal.
Why does she do this (functional)
Ultimate causation - what does she get out of this? Reproductive success
Tinbergens 4 whys
(AB=CDEF)
Proximate (mechanistic) causation:
1) causation: proximate factor initiating behaviour
2) development: relative roles of genetics and learning in expression of the behaviour
Ultimate (functional) causation:
3) Evolution: how the behaviour evolved from ancestral phenotypes
4) Function: how does the behaviour contribute to the survival of the organisms (what are the ultimate factors involved)
AB =CDEF
Animal Behaviour = Causation, Development, Evolution & Function
4 whys example: Phlianthus wasp
Genetically determined: how to dig burrow/ how to cover it/ how to kill prey
But ability to locate burrow cannot be genetically programmed. Also the wasp can only dig in suitable substrate (which varies in location) so locations must be learnt.
Tinbergen Phlianthus wasp experiment
Tinbergen observed that before leaving the nest to hunt the bee wolf would take her bearings by circling the area.
He placed a ring of pinecones around the nest let her take her bearings a few times
Then whilst she was hunting he moved the ring of pinecones to the left of the nest
On returning she flew to the ring of pinecones and missed the nest - showing that she was using the pinecones to remember the location of her nest.
Tinbergen then tried pinecones in a triangle around the nest with a circle of stones beside it
The Phlianthus female homed in on the ring of stones - showing it was not the pinecones she remembered but their orientation
Lyre bird display
(AB=CDEF)
Causation: presence of mates and hormonal changes (maturation/breeding season)
Development: plumage- inherited, display inherited and sounds learnt from the environment
Evolution: ancestral forms of behaviour such as scratching for food used in mating dance
Function: to attract females and increase potential reproductive success
Cost: risk of predation
Benefit: may find a mate to reproduce
Comparative psychology
Studies of proximal causation
(Often lab based)
- mechanisms underlying a behaviour:
Genetic, developmental, nervous, hormonal
-internal/external stimuli
Genetic or learnt - nature or nurture?
^especially in childhood - development of behaviour
Learning, cognition and intelligence
Ethology and behavioural ecology
-study ultimate causation e.g. what is the selectional advantage of the behaviour in a particular ecological condition?
-study of behaviour in natural environment
- uses cost-benefit analysis e.g. sea lion hunts for fish benefit is food and cost is energy output + risk of predation. If benefit outweighs cost then behaviour is adaptive
^how to quantify benefits and costs?
Natural behaviour and behavioural phenotypes
Genotype -> phenotype
-Capacity for behaviour is inherited
(Subject to natural selection) but much of inherited behaviour can be modified by experience
- behaviour is the product of natural selection on phenotypes and indirectly on genotypes that code these phenotypes
-therefore an animals behavioural repertoire is a set of adaptations that equip it for survival in a particular environment
- behaviour has fitness consequences
Interactions
Communication:
Signals and modes
Inter/intraspecific
Evolution and functions
Complex
