W1 - Animal Behaviour (History, Analysis) [Dr. Madikiza] Flashcards
Explain the history of animal behaviour?
People wanted to understand animals for exploitation of prey through hunting, domestication & scientific study.
Ways prey were & are exploited? (3)
• Hunting.
• Domestication.
• Scientific study.
Hunting?
= understand animal behaviour to better capture prey (from prehistory till today).
Domestication?
= understand animal behaviour to be able to train animals to do what they desire them to do (seen in horses, dogs, not cats).
Scientific study?
= understand animal behaviour for the purposes of answering Tinbergen’s questions.
People involved in scientific study to understand animal behaviour? (3)
• Lorenz.
• Tinbergen.
• von Frisch.
The history of animal behaviour began with ethology, why ethology?
Ethologists believed that in order to fully understand animal behaviour, an animal has to be in its natural environment (no manipulation).
Why the shift & diversification from ethology?
It’s because even though one could understand animal behaviour with the animal in its natural environment, a true scientist would want to quantify that/what they’re seeing & the only way one can do that is through laboratory settings & manipulation in a sense.
Approaches to behavioural studies? (2)
• Mechanistic approach.
• Ethological approach.
Mechanistic approach is AKA?
Comparative psychology.
Mechanistic approach attributes? (5)
• Physiological.
• Developmental.
• Quantitative.
• Laboratory-orientated.
• Manipulate the animal.
Ethological approach attributes? (4)
• Evolutionary.
• Comparative.
• Descriptive.
• Field-oriented.
Mechanistic approach answers which questions of Tinbergen? (2)
• What does the behaviour? (Causation)
• How did the behaviour develop? (Ontogeny)
Ethological approach answers which Tinbergen questions? (2)
• Function of behaviour? (Function/Survival value)
• How it evolved? (Phylogeny)
Niko Tinbergen?
= founder of Experimental ethology.
The 4 Questions of Tinbergen?
• Causation/Mechanism.
• Ontogeny/Development.
• Function/Survival value.
• Evolution/Phylogeny.
Questions asked under Causation? (3)
- How does it work?
- Which stimuli illicit the behaviour patterns?
- What neurobiological, psychological or physiological mechanisms contribute or regulate this behaviour?
Questions asked under Ontogeny? (4)
- How did it develop?
- How did the behaviour arise during the lifetime of the individual?
- How does the development process work?
- How does the environment influence the development of this behaviour?
Questions asked under Function? (3)
- What is the behaviour’s survival value?
- Why does the behaviour exist?
- Why does behaving in a particular way help the individual to survive & reproduce?
Questions asked under Phylogeny? (2)
- How did the behaviour evolve?
- What factors might have been involved in molding this behaviour over the course of evolution.
Tinbergen’s HOW questions?
= deal with the immediate/proximate causation of a specific behaviour (immediate explanation).
Tinbergen’s WHY questions?
= focus on ultimate causation, ie., the evolutionary origin & purpose of a behaviour (long-term explanation).
Level of analysis in the study of animal behaviour?
= involves answering questions on animal behaviour through the lenses of Tinbergen’s questions.
Example that we used to analyze animal behaviour with Tinbergen’s questions?
Singing in male zebra finches.
Causation/Mechanism?
= neural pathways, muscular & endocrine explanation for behaviour.
What causes male zebra finches to sing? (3)
• Elevated blood concentration of estrogen.
• High rates of neural circuitry in certain brain areas (song areas).
• Muscles in the vocal cord vibrate to enable song production.
Ontogeny/Development?
= explanations of how genetic inheritance & experience influence behavioural development, neural pathways, muscular and endocrine explanations for behaviour.
What causes zebra finches to sing? (2)
• They sing because they have undergone puberty.
• They learnt their songs from their fathers.
Evolution/Phylogeny?
= evolutionary (historical) explanations.
Why do zebra finches sing?
Zebra finches might sing because they are finches & that all finches song because they have evolved from a common ancestral species that sings.
Function/Survival value?
= explanations of how the behaviour increases survival and/or reproductive success.
Why do male zebra finches sing/portray this particular behaviour?
It’s because this behaviour increases the chance of attracting female zebra finches and reproducing.
Why do young salmon migrate to the sea? (2)
• Proximate explanations.
• Ultimate explanations.
Things to note about genes? (3)
• Only expressed if the environment allows them to be expressed.
• Tie in to innate behaviour.
• Often used to explain Causative & Ontogenic explanations.
Ethology?
= the scientific study of animal behaviour in natural conditions, which attempts to combine causal & functional explanations.
Aims & Objectives of Ethology? (6)
- Understand why animals behave the way that they do.
- Understand the causes of behaviour.
- The physiological mechanism that generates the action.
- Study evolutionary history of behaviour.
- Understand how the behaviour develops.
- Study the range of behaviours prevalent in the animal kingdom.
Atlantic salmon migration: Causation?
Increasing day-length & temperature trigger a suite of physiological changes, which in turn change the ontogeny and behaviour of the young salmon.
Atlantic salmon migration: Ontogeny?
The salmon needs to reach a certain size to be able to migrate successfully, so it will have to wait until it is large enough.
Atlantic salmon migration: Function? (2)
- Enables salmon to exploit the richer food resources & large feeding areas in the sea.
- Migrating salmon are larger, and therefore have a higher reproductive success through increased fecundity (in females) & superior ability to compete for females (in males).
Atlantic salmon migration: Phylogeny? (2)
- Different strategies practiced by ancestors are retained in current-day species.
- Atlantic salmon share the migratory behaviour with closely related species.
