Behavioral Ecology

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Chapter 51

• Behavioral Ecology

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Behavior

• Everything an animal does and how it does it.
• Muscular activity
• Learning
• Secretion of pheromones

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Why Study It?

• Part of an organisms phenotype.
• Acted on by natural selection.

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How is it Studied?

• Proximate questions are those that focus on the
  immediate stimulus and mechanism for the
  behavior.
• Ultimate questions are those that focus on the
  evolutionary reason for the behavior.

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For example
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Ethology The scientific study of behavior
Konrad Lorenz
Karl von Frisch
Niko Tinbergen
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Tinbergens 4 Questions

• What is the mechanistic basis of behavior?
• How does development influence behavior?

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Tinbergens 4 Questions

• What is the evolutionary history of behavior?
• How does behavior contribute to fitness?

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Fixed Action Pattern

• A sequence of unlearned behavioral acts that is
  unchangeable and usually completed
• Triggered by a sign stimulus.

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Fixed Action Pattern
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Imprinting

• Includes both a learning and an innate component.
  
• Sensitive period- When certain behaviors are
  learned.

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The Old Argument

• Nature vs. Nurture?
• Combination of the two
• Innate Behaviors- Developmentally fixed (strongly
  genetic)

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Directed Movements

• Largely genetically controlled

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Kinesis

• Simple change or reaction to a stimulus

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Taxis

• Automatic oriented movement towards or away from
  a stimulus

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Taxis

• Positive- towards stimulus
• Negative- away
• Chemo-, photo-, thermo-, etc.

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Directed Movements

• Migration

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Signals and Communication

• Signal- a behavior that causes change in another
  animals behavior.
• Communication- transmission, reception, and
  response to a signal

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Communication

• Chemical- Pheromones

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Environments effect

• It is NOT Nature vs. Nurture
• It is Nature AND Nurture

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Learning

• The modification of behavior based on previous
  experience

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Habituation

• Loss of responsiveness to a stimuli that convey
  little or no information
• Cry Wolf effect

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Spatial Learning

• Altering behavior based on experience with the
  structure of your environment
• Landmarks

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After the mother visited the nest and flew away,
Tinbergen moved the pinecones a few feet to one
side of the nest.
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Cognitive maps

• Internal code of the spatial relationships
  between objects in the environment

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Associative Learning

• Associating one feature of the environment with
  another.

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Pavlov

• Dogs salivated when fed, and eventually,
  associated feeding with ringing of a bell

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Classical Conditioning

• When an arbitrary stimuli becomes associated with
  a reward or punishment

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Operant Conditioning

• Trial and Error learning