Chapter 32 Animal Behavior

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Chapter 32 Animal Behavior

• Modern Biology

1. Most of the pictures used in this presentation
are adapted and/or modified from BIOLOGY
Understanding Life Third ed., Sandra Alters,
(2000) Jones and Barelett Publishers. 2. This
presentation is used for the course Modern
Biology only. 3. Please DO NOT distribute this
presentation without authorization.
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Researchers from various disciplines study
animal behavior

• 32.1 The history of the study of animal behavior
• 32.2 The link between genetics and behavior

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32.1 The history of the study of animal behavior

• Animals continually exhibit a wide range of
  behaviors.
• Behavior patterns of movement, sounds, body
  postures, or any type of change exhibited by an
  animal
• Behaviors also include any type of change in an
  animal, such as coloration or releasing of a
  scent.

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Two Types of Behaviors

• There are two types of behaviors simplex and
  complex behaviors.
• Animal behaviorists study mechanisms of behavior
  and evolutionary basis for them.
• Animals behaviors are referred as being part of
  an animals equipment for survival.

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Simplex Types of Behavior

• Simplex behaviors are simple, automatic responses
  to environmental stimuli.
• Bacteria moves toward nutrient
• Response to avoid car accident

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Complex Behavior

• Complex behaviors are innate responses to learned
  behavior which are limited to multicellular
  animals that can sense stimuli,

process the stimuli, and send out appropriate
motor impulses.
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32.2 The link between geneticsand behavior

• Behaviors depend on neurophysiological mechanisms
  so genes must be involved in the development of
  behavior
• Evidence for genetic regulation of mating
  behaviors in Drosophila having a mutant
  sex-linked gene termed yellow.

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How Proteins Influence the Behaviors?

• Peptide hormone acts as neurotransmitter
• Hormone receptors allow response to hormones
• Activate ion channel and change neural
  sensitivity
• Pigments change perception
• Neural growth factor alters development
• Control gene regulation

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Innate Behavior

• Innate behaviors are neural programs developed at
  time of birth or at an appropriate point in
  maturation.
• The innate behaviors are performed correctly
  first time they are exhibited.
• Innate behaviors help animals stay alive in
  certain situation and provide adaptive advantage
  during reproduction.

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Learned Behavior

• Learned behaviors acquired by experience
• Both genetic factors and the experience of the
  individual influence many aspect of behavior.

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Innate behaviors are performed correctly the
first time they are attempted

• 32.3 Coordination and orientation behaviors
• 32.4 Fixed action patterns

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32.3 Coordination and orientation behaviors

• Coordination specific movements which result in
  effective responses to stimuli
• reflex is the simplest type of coordination
• Orientation movements oriented in relation to
  external stimuli
• kinesis and taxes are representatives of this
  type behavior.

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Coordination Behavior

• A reflex is an automatic response to nerve
  stimulation.
• In human body, knee jerk is the simplest types
  of reflexes.
• In complex organisms, reflex plays a role in
  survival
• Most of behaviors of cnidarian are results of
  reflexes.

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Orientation Behavior Kineses

• Kineses is a change in speed of the random
  movements of animal with respect to changes in
  certain environmental stimuli.
• Pillbugs living under the rotting log

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Orientation Behavior Taxes

• Taxis movement directed toward or away from
  stimulus, such as light, chemical, or heat.
• Animals have programmed taxes also have receptors
  that sense the particular stimuli.

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• Female mosquitoes and itcks have sensory
  receptors that detect warmth, moisture, and
  certain chemicals emitted by mammals.
• Only the female mosquito bites. She needs the
  protein from blood to develop her eggs.

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Phototaxis and Gravitaxis

• Insects flying around the light is another
  example of taxis called phototaxis.
• Common cockroaches tend to avoid the light and
  hence are negative phototactic.

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Orientation behavior of fish
Fish swim upright by orienting their ventral side
to gravity and their dorsal side to light.
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Taxis in a Salmon

• Trout and salmon automatically orient against a
  curent and therefore face and swim upstream.

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32.4 Fixed action patterns

• Fixed action patterns are Innate, complex,
  species-specific behaviors elicited by specific
  stimulus
• EX body maintenance courtship nest building,
  and food behavior

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• Sometimes fixed action behaviors seem logical but
  they are instinctive, not cognitive
• EX greylag goose egg retrieval movements

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Some animals can change their behaviors based on
experience

• 32.5 Learned behaviors and survival
• 32.6 Types of learning

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Instinctive Behavior

• Instinctive behavior important for survival, but
  cannot be changed in response to the change of
  environment.

The survival of the tropical frog depends on the
coloration and its instinct behavior of
remaining complete stillness.
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32.5 Learned behaviors and survival

• Learned behavior adaptation to changing
  conditions based on experience
• Behaviorism automatic and machinelike rote
  learning in a stimulus/response fashion
• Cognitivism continual acquisition, storage,
  and merging of old and new information leading to
  new types of learned behavior

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32.6 Types of learning

• Learned behaviors can help an animal become
  better suited to a particular environment or set
  of conditions.
• Five categories of learned behavior imprinting
• habituation
• classical conditioning
• trial-and-error learning
• insight.

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Imprinting

• Imprinting is a rapid and irreversible type of
  learning that takes place during an early
  developmental stage of some animals.
• Object imprinting has been observed in birds.

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• Parent-offspring imprinting enhances reproductive
  fitness by allowing parents and offspring to
  recognize on another, enable parents to care for
  their offspring.
• Imprinting tends to occur in species that have a
  social organization in which attachment to
  parents or to family group is important.

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Locality Imprinting

• Migrating birds and fishes learn to recognize
  their birthplace by locality imprinting.
• Pacific salmon are imprinted with the odor of the
  stream or lake in which they were born.

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Habituation

• Habituation is the ability of animals to get use
  to to certain types of stimuli.
• Learning to ignore unimportant stimuli is a
  critical ability in an animal confronting a
  barrage of stimuli in a complex environment and
  can help an animal conserve its energy.

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• City pigeons are undisturbed by noise.
• Young chicks stop crouching as familiar-shaped
  birds fly overhead.

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Classical Conditioning

• Classical conditioning associate a new stimulus
  with a natural stimulus that normally evokes a
  response in the animal.
• Eventually the animal will respond to the new
  stimulus alone.
• The classical conditioning must be reinforced
  periodically with the presence of natural
  stimulus.

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Condition Salivation

• Pavlov found that dog had learned to salivate in
  response to unrelated stimuli, such as light,
  tuning fork, and bell.

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• The natural stimulus-response connection is an
  inborn reflex, or an unconditioned response.
• Many unconditioned responses, such as blinking,
  sneezing, vomiting, and coughing, are protective
  to animals.
• This type of responses can most often be modified
  and directed by the processes of learning.

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Trial-and-Error Learning

• Trial-and-Error (Operant conditioning) is a more
  complex form of learning in which an
• animal associates
• something that it
• does with a reward
• or punishment.

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• In operant conditioning, an animal must make the
  proper association between its response and a
  reward and learn to avoid a behavior when the
  stimulus is negative.
• Operant conditioning works only for stimuli and
  responses that have meaning for animals in nature.

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Insight

• Insight or reasoning is the most complex form
  of learning that is best developed in primate,
  such as chimps and human.
• Therefore, the animal is able to perform a
  correct or appropriate behavior the first it
  tries.

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• An animal capable of insight can recognize a
  problem and solve it mentally before ever trying
  out a solution.

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Animals exhibit regularlyrepeated behaviors

• 32.7 Circadian rhythms and biological clocks
• 32.8 Migration

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32.7 Circadian Rhythms and Biological Clocks

• Organisms including animals, plants, protists,
  fungi, and bacteria have internal biological
  clocks that regulate many of their activities.
• This 24-hour cycles of physiological activity and
  behavior are called circadian rhythms.

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Circadian rhythms

• Govern patterns such as sleep and wake cycles,
  feeding patterns, migrations, etc.
• Are regulated by organisms biological clocks
• Use environmental cues such as light,
  temperature, magnetic fields to keep the internal
  clock timed to the outside world.

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Circadian Rhythms is under Genetic Control

• A gene called CLOCK regulate the cyclical
  patterns of behavior and physiology (circadian
  rhythm) in mammals.
• CLOCK-BMAL1 complex induces the transcription of
  CLOCK.
• The accumulation of CLOCK turns off CLOCK
  expression.
• Gene inactivation, in turn, triggers the activity
  of CLOCK-BMAL1 complex and hence CLOCK expression.

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32.8 Migration

• Migration is a movement of animals from region to
  region with the change of season.
• Biological clocks and environmental cues work
  together
• Triggers day length, seasonal temperature
  changes, physiological and hormonal changes in
  animal
• Navigation orientation to an environmental cue,
  such as sun, stars, or magnetic field

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Migration of Golden Plover
American golden plover flies from arctic breeding
grounds to wintering areas in southeastern South
America, a distance of around 13,000 km.
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Monarch ButterflyMigrating Insect

• Monarch butterfly travel long distances (3000
  km) from the eastern United States to Mexico.
• The shorter day and colder temperature of late
  August results in the delayed maturity of monarch
  butterfly.

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Social behaviors ultimately aid the reproductive
fitness of individuals

• 32.9 Communication via social behaviors
• 32.10 Competitive behaviors
• 32.11 Reproductive behaviors
• 32.12 Parenting behaviors and altruism
• 32.13 Group behaviors
• 32.14 Human behavior

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Communication via social behaviors

• Social behaviors help members of the same
  species communicate and interact.

Grooming in chimps consists of the cleaning of
dirt, debris and sometimes parasitic insects from
the body.
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• Advantages
• Reproduction
• Care of offspring
• Defense of a territory
• Obtaining food
• Defending against predators

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32.10 Competitive behaviors

• Used when two or more individuals want same
  scarce resource (food, water, mate)
• Threat displays
• Submissive behavior
• Territorial behavior
• Consequences
• Establishment of new populations
• Most fit have resources to reproduce

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Threat Displays

• Many animals exhibit threat or intimidation
  displays during competition.
• To scare other animals away or cause them of
  back down before fighting takes place.

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Ways of Intimidation display

• Intimidation display usually involve behaviors of
  showing fangs or claws, making noises, changing
  body color to one that is a releaser of
  aggression, and making body appear larger
  (standing upright, making the fur or hair stand
  on end)

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• Threat displays are important social signals and
  communicate the intent to fight.
• Some of the movements and body postures (body
  language) of threat displays that repel
  competitors also attract members of the opposite
  gender.

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Submissive Behavior

• Some animals use submissive behavior to avoid
  fight.
• The submissive behavior is usually a behavior
  opposite to a threat display.
• If an animal is losing a fight, it might

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Territorial Behavior

• A territory is an area that an animal marks off
  as its own, defending it against species.
• These behaviors are called territorial behavior.
• Members of opposite gender are sometimes allowed
  into the territory, often for mating purpose.

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32.11 Reproductive behaviors

• Sexual reproduction
• produces genetic variability among organisms of
  the same species
• increases chances of adaptation and survival of
  individuals of a species
• requires mating behaviors based on communication
  and cooperation

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Courtship

• Fixed pattern courtship rituals are
  species-specific and lead to mating
• Male behaviors which attract female
• Mark and aggressively defend territory
• Display attractive body colors or patterns
• Emit noises or songs as mating calls
• Ritual dances
• Odors attractive to females

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32.12 Parenting behaviors and altruism

• Altruistic behaviors benefit one individual at
  the cost of another
• Parenting behaviors allow young to survive and
  reproduce
• Parenting Activities
• Build protective structure for young
• Provide food
• Defend nest

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32.13 Group behaviors

• Social groups (temporary or permanent) work for
  common good of a species
• Individuals within the group
• have more protection against predators
• warn each other of danger
• protect all young together
• obtain food together
• more efficient division of work by activity
• may be ranked in a social hierarchy

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32.14 Human behavior

• Study of human sociobiology has inherent
  limitations
• cannot experimentally manipulate genes
• cannot vary environments of humans for scientific
  studies
• Nature v. Nurture dichotomy
• genes specify behavioral capacity
• environment shapes use of that capacity for
  learning