week 5 + 6 - animal behaviour

Question 1

what is behaviour?
Niko Tinbergen

Answer 1

4 question
(proximate)
- Mechanisms
- Developmental
(ultimate)
- Evolutionary
- Survival value-reproduction
All of this comes back to natural selection

Question 1

what is behaviour?

Answer 1

• Many different approaches
• How something interacts with its environment

Question 3

what is behaviour?
- example: african wild dogs

Answer 3

• Hunting behaviour result of genetic makeup
• Evolutionary past
  o Hunting as a group = more meat = more offspring
• Group hunting allele increases in frequency
• Whole population hunts as groups

Question 4

what forms behaviour

Answer 4

Arises from a combination of inherited traits, experience and environment

Question 5

types of behaviour

Answer 5

innate

learned

Question 6

types of behaviour
- innate

Answer 6

genetically programmed response to external stimuli

Question 8

types of behaviour
- learned

Answer 8

relatively persistent behaviour that occurs as a result of experience

Question 9

innate behaviour

Answer 9

• Heritable
• Intrinsic
• Stereotypical
• Consummate
  e.g. birds feeding young

fixed action patterns
- Sequenced of unlearned behavioural acts
o Unique stimulus; unchanging; once initated carried out to completion; behavioural cascades can occur

Question 10

learned behaviour

Answer 10

• Non heritable
• Extrinsic
• Permutable
• Adaptable
• Progressive
  e.g. lions learning to hunt through play
  not many behaviours are 100% learned
• If raised in isolation cub can hunt but not to level to survive

Question 11

supernormal stimulus =

Answer 11

exaggerated stimulus means a more vigorous response

e.g. a male stickleback fish attacks other males if they invade their nesting territory
* Because of the red belly
* Any red and the bottom will attack
Wont attack female with swollen belly

Question 12

types of learned behaviour

Answer 12

• Habituation - learning to ignore something (e.g. ticking clock)
• Observational learning
• Conditional learning - reward / punishment
• Learning through play
• Insight learning - only in species that are more cognitively advance,,, learning through experience and applying to different situations

Question 13

imprinting

Answer 13

Programmed learning
Combination of innate behaviour released in response to a learnt stimulus
* Critical sensitive period
* Establishes a preference or avoidance (e.g. to avoid mating with siblings)
* Irreversible (?)
* Stress increases strength of imprinting

Question 14

social learning and culture

Answer 14

• Transfer of info form indiv. To indiv. Through social learning within and between generation
  Must faster than natural selection

Question 15

evolution of learning

Answer 15

The ability to learn is a trait with an underlying genetic basis
Ability often favoured in environments that change relatively often (no change or constant change = fixed as no point)

Learning from?
Solitary animals - mating/raising young

Question 16

evolution of group living

Answer 16

• For the ‘good of the group’
• Altruism and cooperation
• Increase the fitness of another individual at a cost to yourself
  o Must be a benefit to yourself to do this

Question 17

inclusive fitness

Answer 17

• What is ‘fitness’?
  o Can be achieved in one of two ways
   Having your own offspring (direct fitness)
   Helping relatives to raise their offspring (indirect fitness)
• These together is inclusive fitness
  o Must take both into consideration when helping others

Question 18

Kin selection is….

Answer 18

the backbone of many cooperative or altruistic behaviours

Question 19

Altruism
Hamilton’s rule (1964)

Answer 19

• Solved the paradox of altruism
  rB > C

r= coefficient o relatedness
B = benefit gained by recipient
C = cost to the individual performing the act

People didn’t understand why it would exist for the longest time
Solved this by added in relatedness
- r is very important

Question 20

altruism
- coefficient of relatedness

Answer 20

• % of genes shared by common descent between 2 individuals:
  o Parent and offspring: r = 0.5 (50% of alleles from each parent)
  o Full siblings: r = 0.5 (50% alleles from mother and 50% from father are shared)
  o Grandparents: r = 0.225
  o Uncles/aunts: r = 0.25
  o Cousins: r = 0.125
  In red squirrels mothers will adapot related orphaned pups but not unrelated ones
• Invested interest in genes

Question 21

maintenance of altruism in non-kin

Answer 21

• Reciprocity: ‘Tit-for-tat’
  o E.g. warning calls, grooming
• Mutualism: immediate synergistic benefits shared by all individuals
  o E.g. group hunting

Question 22

Pathways to groups

Answer 22

increasing direct fitness

increasing indirect fitness

delayed individual breeding success

Question 23

Pathways to groups
- increasing direct fitness

Answer 23

o Leads to more fluid groups of non-related individuals
 Mother only raises her own young, but benefit of being in a group
 Lots of eyes looking out for predators
 This means your young are more likely to survive
 Doesn’t matter if related or not

Question 24

pathways to groups
- increasing indirect fitness

Answer 24

o Offspring remain to help parents raise next generation due to ecological constraints
 Isnt anywhere for them to go
 If cant set up own pack
 Better off raising siblings (your own genes)

Question 25

pathways to groups
- delayed individuals breeding success:

Answer 25

o ‘pay-to-stay’ help raise non-kin, gain experience and resources, wait until ecological conditions are right
 Gaining benefits in the meantime

Question 26

does natural selection favour traits that improve an organisms chances of survival and reproductive success

Answer 26

yes

Question 27

is group living very common

Answer 27

yes

Question 28

does group living have a selective advantage

Answer 28

yes

so very few solitude animals

Question 29

advantages of group living

Answer 29

• Breeding
• Foraging (less variability in food source / constant supply)
• Energetic savings
• Antipredation
• Antiparasitic defence
• Transmission of information

Question 30

disadvantages of group living

Answer 30

• Predation (easier for predators to spot you)
• Disease transmission (within the group)
• Risks to young
• In-breeding
• Exploitations (e.g. steeling food)
• competition