CH 33 Animal Behavior

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CH 33Animal Behavior
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What is Behavior?

• Behavior is anything an animal does in response
  to a stimulus.
• Can be innate or learned
• EX. Environmental cues (change in season),
  mating season

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Animal Behavior

• All animals have innate behavior and it is
  inherited due to natural selection because
  certain behaviors help animals survive better

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Automatic Responses

• The simplest form of innate behavior is a reflex
  and it is a response to a stimulus that involves
  no conscious control
• A flight or fight response is controlled by
  hormones (adrenaline) and prepares your body to
  either run or fight when faced with danger

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Instinctive Behavior

• An instinct is a response that doesnt stop until
  all parts of the behavior are done
• Ex. Birds will retrieve eggs that roll out of
  nest until it is back they sometimes even
  collect baseballs and tin cans

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Instinctive Behavior

• Courtship (mating) behavior
• Territorialitydefending territory within the
  same species (by aggressive behavior) marked by
  pheromones
• Reduces conflicts (dominance hierarchy, pecking
  order)
• Controls population growth
• Efficiently uses resources

FYI
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Instinctive Behavior

• Circadian rhythm is a sleep/wake behavior based
  on a 24-hour, light-regulated cycle
• Migration is the instinctive, seasonal movement
• Hibernation is when the body processes slow down
  tremendously (b/c of winter) estivation is the
  same except animals do this in response to heat
  (desert temperatures)

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Learned Behavior

• Animal behavior can also be learned from
  experiences in life (another example of
  adaptation)

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Learned Behavior

• Habituation is when an animal stops responding to
  a certain stimulus because it has been exposed to
  it many times without a reward or punishment
  given
• Imprinting occurs when an animal forms a social
  attachment to another object at a specific
  critical time in its life (right after birth)
• Ex. Boog and Beth the Ranger on Open Season

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Learned Behavior

• Motivation is an internal need that causes an
  animal to act and it often involves satisfying a
  physical need (hunger or thirst)
• Classical conditioning is learning by association
  (how a pet will come running without being called
  when they hear you preparing their food)

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Learned Behavior

• The most complex type of learning is insight.
  Insight is learning in which an animal uses
  previous experience to respond to a new situation

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Communication

• Communication is an exchange of info that results
  in a change of behavior. The ways of
  communication are
• 1. Sound 3. Touch 5. Language
• 2. Sight 4. Smell
• Can be a combination of innate and learned
  behavior