Topic 2 - Behaviour and Evolution Flashcards
What is behaviour
a responce to changes in the environment helping organisms survive. It is either inherited or learned but most behaviour is a mixture of both
What is innate behaviour?
inherited behaviour. Animals can respond right away to a stimulus even though they’ve never done it before. It can be a simple reflex or a complicated behaviour like a courtship ritual.
Give examples of reflex innate behaviour
earthworms show negative phototaxis which means they move away from light
sea anemones wave their tentacles more when stimulated by chemicals emitted by their pray
What is learned behaviour?
it lets animals respond to changing conditions. Animals can learn from previous experiences how to avoid predators and harmful food, and how to find food or a suitable mate.
What is habituation
if you keep giving an animal a stimulus that is neither harmful nor beneficial it quickly learns not to respond to it. By ignoring non-threatening and non-rewarding stimuli, animals can spend their time and energy more efficiently. This is an especially important learning process in young animals - they are born with an inherited tendency to be frightened of loud, bright, sudden stimuli and they must quickly learn which stimuli to ignore so they can concentrate on stimuli that are possibly dangerous.
What behaviour is a mixture of innate and learned?
Imprinting - when an animal learns to recognise its parents and instinctively follows them. it occurs in species which can move soon after they are born. New born animal has an instinct to follow the first moving object it sees (usually a parent, who provides shelter and food) but the animal has no innate instinct of what its parents look like
e.g ducklings
What are the two types of conditioning?
Classical
Operant
What is classical conditioning?
When an animal learns passively (without trying) to associate a ‘neutral stimulus’ with an important one.
Give an example of classical conditioning
Ivan Pavlov.
He studied the behaviour of dogs and noticed they would salivate every time they saw of smelt food. he began to ring a bell just before they were given food. After a while the dogs salivated when the bell was rung even if they weren’t given food
What is Operant conditioning?
“Trial and error”
where the animal actively learns to associate an action with a reward or a punishment. This happens in humans when children are rewarded or punished for specific behaviour.
Give an example of operant conditioning
Burrhus Skinner.
Trained rats and pigeons to obtain a food reward using a small cage he invented. The animal had a choice of buttons to press. When one of the buttons was pressed it was rewarded with food.
He noticed that pigeons and rats used a system of trial and error to learn which button to get the reward
How do we use conditioning?
We use both types to train animals but mainly operant. It can be a reward such as food for doing what you want or punishment for doing something wrong. Punishment is no longer recommended for animals.
Give examples of how we use operant conditioning to train animals
Guide dogs to stop at a roadside and wait for a command
Police sniffer dogs to retrieve drugs
Police horses to only respond to commands from their rider
How do we use a mixture of both types of conditioning
Used when reward can’t be given at the exact tome the act is carried out.
For example a dolphin can’t always be rewarded with a fish at the exact moment it does a jump. The trainer gets the dolphin to learn to associate a whistle with getting fish then whistles when the animal does the jump. The whistle is the reward as it tells the dolphin it will be getting a fish
Why do animals need to communicate
it can help keep the group together
can warn others of predator
communication of mood can avoid unnecessary fighting
baby animals can communicate their needs to their parents
allows predators hunting in a pack to coordinate their attack.
What different ways do animals communicate
sound
chemicals
visual signals
How is sound used for communication
Language.
Whales and dolphins use low frequency sound to communicate over long distances
birds’ calls are used to declare their territory, attract a mate, or warn of predators
How are chemicals used for communication
Chemicals called pheromones can be released by an animal to tell others where it is or where it has been.
Many animals use chemical ‘scents’ to mark the boundaries of their territory
Other chemicals can act as sexual attractants. e.g in some moths the male can detect the females pheromone even if he is several km away
How are visual signals used for communication
Some animals use specific visual signals to communicate
honey bees move in a certain way called a ‘wiggle dance’ when they return to the hive to tell others they found food
Most mammals can communicate certain intentions through their body posture and gestures.
many use behaviours to threaten others to avoid a fight - chimps do this by staring or raising an arm
also used to admit defeat - dog rolling on its back is showing submission
facial expressions. they are different to different species.
What is an ethologist?
they study Animal behaviour
What did Tinbergen study.
Innate behaviour in herring gulls.
Newly hatched gull chicks know how to peck their parents beaks to ask for food. Adult gulls have a red spot on their beak and Tinbergen wanted to know if it was the red spot that made chicks want to peck.
He showed newly hatched chicks cardboard gull heads with different coloured spots on the beak. He counted the number of times the chicks pecked different spots at a given time,.
the chicks pecked at the beaks with red spots most often. Tinbergen concluded that the chicks are born with an instinct to peck at the red spot
What did Lorenz study
He studied how baby bird like ducklings and goose chicks recognise their mother and learn to follow her around.
He took two groups of goose eggs. Group 1 were hatched out by their own mother while group 2 were hatched in an incubator with no mother
the first moving object the chicks in group 1 saw was their mother, group 2 was Lorenz.
Group 2 treated lorenz the same as group 1 treated their mother - they followed him around
goose chicks had formed an attachment to the first moving object they saw
What did Fossey and Goodall study?
social behaviour in apes
Fossey studied mountain gorillas in Africa
Goodall studied chimpanzees in Tanzania.
they observed their behaviour in natural habitat to not disturb them and recorded what they saw.
Both apes are social animals - they live in groups and show social behaviour:
Apes worked together to search for food sources so they found more food
they protected each other from attacks
all males had a social rank which helped prevent fights because everyone knew their place.
Groomed each other which helped to keep them clean but also reinforced the social bonds within the group, helping to keep it together.
They also strengthen bonds by showing affection
What experiment can you do to investigate animal behaviour
Set up choice chamber with 4 sections, A, B, C, D.
Cover A and C with black paper
put damp paper in C and D
put 12 woodlice in the middle, put lid on and leave for 10 min
record the number of woodlice in each area
Make sure other conditions such as temp and size are the same
