Animal Behavior

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Animal Behavior
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Behavior

• Behavior anything an animal does in response to
  a stimulus in its environment
• Innate behavior behavior that appears without
  being taught or learned (inherited)
• Example stimulus heat response lizard seeks
  shade
• Behaviors have adaptive value

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Inherited Behavior (Innate Behavior)

• Genetically programmed
• Ex why a mouse runs from a cat
• Natural selection favors certain behaviors
• Behavior affects ability to survive and reproduce
• Hormonal balance and nervous system affects how
  sensitive an animal is to a stimulus
• Genes control the production of hormones and
  development of the nervous system

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Innate Behavior Includes

• Automatic responses
• Instinctive responses

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Automatic Responses

• Reflex simple, automatic response that involves
  no conscious control
• Fight-or-Flight Response mobilizes body for
  greater activity controlled by hormones
• Increased heart rate
• Increased respiratory rate

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Instinctive Behavior

• Instinct Behavior a complex pattern of innate
  behavior, so it takes a little longer
• may have several parts and take long to complete
• Begins when an animal recognizes a stimulus and
  continues until all parts of behavior are
  performed
• Ex greylag goose instinctively retrieves an egg
  that rolled out of the nest

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Courtship Behavior

• Behavior that males and females of a species
  carry out before mating
• Instinctive behavior evolved through natural
  selection
• Ensures that members of the same species find
  each other and mate

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Territoriality Reduces Competition

• Territory a physical space an animal defends
  against other members of its species
• Breeding area, feeding area, mating area, etc.
• Drive away others
• It reduces conflicts, controls population growth,
  and provides for efficient use of resources
• Animals spaced out, so competition is reduced

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Aggressive Behavior Threatens Other Animals

• Aggressive behavior used to intimidate another
  animal of the same species
• Used to defend their young, defend their
  territory, or defend a resource like food
• Rarely fight to death
• Defeated individual shows submission

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Submission leads to dominance hierarchies

• Dominance hierarchy form of social ranking
  within a group in which some individuals are more
  subordinate than others
• Usually one animal is the top-ranking, dominant
  individual

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Behavior comes from internal and external cues

• Circadian rhythm a 24-hour cycle of behavior
• Migration instinctive, seasonal movement of
  animals
• Hibernation a state in which the body
  temperature drops substantially, oxygen
  consumption decreases, and breathing rates
  decline
• Conserves energy
• Eat a lot to build up body fat
• Estivation a state of reduced metabolism that
  occurs in animals living in conditions of extreme
  heat

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Learned Behavior

• Habituation when an animal is repeatedly given
  a stimulus that is not associated with any
  punishment or reward
• Horse and car horns
• Imprinting when an animal, at a specific time
  in its life, forms a social attachment to another
  object
• Duckling and mother

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Learned Behavior

• Trial-and-error Learning animal receives a
  reward for making a particular response
• Motivation an internal need that causes an
  animal to act
• Conditioning Learning by association
• Pavlovs dog
• Insight learning in which an animal uses
  previous experience to respond to a new situation
• Most complex learning

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The Role of Communication

• Communication an exchange of information that
  results in a change of behavior
• Most animals communicate by sounds, sights,
  touches, or smells
• Language the use of symbols to represent ideas
  (complex nervous system, memory, and insight)