Animal Behavior

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Animal Behavior

• Mrs. Rightler

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Methods of Study

• Comparative psychology
• Ethology
• Behavioral ecology
• Sociobiology

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Instinct

• Basic set of behaviors present at birth
• May need a trigger
• Behavior improves or changes with experience

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Maturation

• Behavior seen after a period of development has
  occurred
• Improvement or change not based on experience but
  on time
• Ex. Tadpole swimming techniques

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Imprinting

• Konrad Lorenz
• Critical time period ONLY
• Young animal develops attachment to another
  animal or object
• Rapid learning

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Learning
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Habituation

• Animal trained to ignore stimuli
• Dog examples

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Classical Conditioning

• Pavlovs dog
• Animal learns to respond to particular stimuli
• Basic obedience training

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Instrumental Conditioning

• Trial-and-error learning
• Skinner Box
• Behavior can be shaped

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Latent Learning

• Exploratory learning
• No obvious reward
• Helps animal learn about its surroundings

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Insight Learning

• Animal uses experiences and thinking to solve
  problems.
• Tool use
• Primates

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Behavior is Controlled by

• Nervous system
• Endocrine system
• Organizational effects
• Activational effects

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Animal Communication

• Transfer of information from one animal to the
  other (both must be mutually adapted)
• Visual
• Auditory
• Tacticle
• Chemical

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Behavioral Ecology
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Habitat Selection

• Two factors influence habitat choice
• Physiological
• Psychological

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Finding Food
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(No Transcript)
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Foraging Behavior

• Process of locating food resources
• Cost vs. benefit analysis
• Handling time
• Nutritional value
• Status value
• Concentration/density

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Specialists vs. Generalist
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Social Behavior

• Members of the same species
• Usually live full-time in groups
• Can refer to predator-prey interactions

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Group Living

• Animal society stable group of individuals of
  the same species that have cooperative
  relationships outside of mating and raising
  young.
• Invertebrates and vertebrates

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Advantages to Group Life

• Protection from predators
• Increase feeding efficiency
• Protection from elements
• Easy access to potential mates

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Mating Behavior
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Disadvantages of Group Life

• Competition for resources
• Diseases
• Parasites

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Aggression

• Agonistic behavior
• Attacks
• Threat displays
• Maintains territory
• Maintains dominance hierarchy

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Altruism

• Individual sacrifices reproductive potential for
  the benefit of others in the group
• Honeybees
• Turkeys
• Naked mole rats
• Kin selection