Chapter 51 Behavioral Biology

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Chapter 51 Behavioral Biology

• Behavior what an animal does and how it does it
  
• (motor and nonmotor components)

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Proximate and ultimate causes of behavior

• Proximate causes are mechanistic, concerned
  with environmental stimuli that trigger behavior,
  as well as the genetic and physiological
  mechanisms behind those behavioral acts
• Ultimate causes the whys of behavior

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Genetic and Environmental Factors

• Nature/Nurture controversy how BOTH genes and
  the environment influence the development of
  phenotypes and thus, behavior
• Today, is studied in terms of the Norm of
  Reaction for a particular genotype, what
  behavioral phenotypes develop in a range of
  environments
• Ex. Fruit flies and dg2 gene protein that
  makes flies sitters or rovers
• Ex. Lovebirds and tucking vs. no tucking behavior

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Figure 51.1 Genetic and environmental components
of behavior a case study
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Depression, violence, alcoholism human
behaviors and genes

• Genes and nongenetic environmental factors seem
  to build on one another

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Innate behavior

• Behavior that is developmentally fixed
  individuals of the same species exhibit virtually
  the same behavior despite the inevitable
  environmental differences within and outside
  their bodies during development and throughout
  life
• Why developed? Contributed to fitness, so
  variant gene forms were lost

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Ethology

• Research field that focused on how animals behave
  in their natural habitats
• Karl von Frisch, Konrad Lorenz, Niko Tinbergen
  Nobel Prize in 1973
• digger wasp and nest locating
• stickleback fish and aggression
• mayflies and egg laying
• FAP fixed action pattern based on sign stimulus

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Figure 51.2 Niko Tinbergens experiments on the
digger wasps nest-locating behavior
Wasps were cued by the arrangement of the
landmarks not the physical objects themselves
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Figure 51.3 Classic demonstration of innate
behavior
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Figure 51.4 Mayflies laying eggs on human-made
surfaces
Mayflies look for polarization in reflected light
off of water asphalt and black plastic ground
coverings used in agriculture give same
appearance, and eggs will not hatch
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Behavioral Ecology

• Research field that views behavior as an
  evolutionary adaptation to the natural ecological
  conditions of animals.
• Natural selection favors behaviors that enhance
  fitness
• Ex. Songbird repertoires why so many? Pg 1126
• Ex. Foraging behavior feeding cost vs. feeding
  benefits Pg. 1127

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Figure 51.5 The repertoire of a songbird
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Figure 51.6 Female warblers prefer males with
large song repertoires
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Figure 51.7 Feeding by young bluegill sunfish
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Learning

• Modification of behavior resulting from specific
  experiences

Alarm calls in Vervet monkeys Leopard loud
bark Eagle cough Snake -- chutter
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Maturation, Habituation, Imprinting

• Maturation ongoing developmental changes in
  neuromuscular systems that affect behavior
• Habituation simple type of learning that
  involves a loss of responsiveness to stimuli that
  convey little or no information
• Imprinting learning that is limited to a
  specific time period in an animals life and is
  generally irreversible involves a sensitive
  period
• Ex. Geese following mother vs. a human
• Ex. Orphans being nonresponsive after abandoned

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Figure 51.9x Geese imprinting
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Figure 51.9 Imprinting Konrad Lorenz with
imprinted geese
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Figure 51.10 Two kinds of bird-song development
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Animals and stimulus associationcan learn to
associate stimuli

• Associative learning ability of many animals to
  learn to associate one stimulus with another
• Classical conditioning type of associative
  learning associates an arbitrary stimulus with a
  reward or punishment
• Ex. Bell rings, dog salivates
• Operant conditioning trial and error learning
  associates one of own behaviors with a reward or
  punishment, and then tends to repeat or avoid
  that behavior as appropriate

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Practice and exercise may explain the ultimate
basis of play

• Play has no apparent external goal, but involves
  movements that ARE goal-directed
• Ex. Stalking of conspecifics
• Play is potentially dangerous or costly
• Practice Hypothesis play is a type of learning
  that allows animals to perfect behaviors needed
  in functional circumstances

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Animal cognition

• What does an animals brain do with the
  information it obtains about the outside world?
• (see page 1133)
• Cognition ability of a animals nervous system
  to perceive, store, process, and use info
  gathered by sensory receptors.
• Study of animal cognition is called cognitive
  ethology

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Cognitive Mechanisms used during movement through
space.

• Kinesis simple change in activity or turning
  rate in response to a stimulus
• Ex. Sow bugs are more active in dry areas and
  less active in humid ones this keeps them in
  moist environments
• Taxis a more less automatic, oriented movement
  toward or away from some stimulus
• Ex. Housefly larvae are negatively phototaxic
  after feeding (are slower then, so keeps away
  from predators)

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Landmarks, Cognitive Maps, Migration

• Use of Landmarks more complex cognitive
  mechanism arbitrary stimulus that animal must
  learn
• Ex. Wasp and pinecones
• Ex. Honeybees and nectar supplies
• Cognitive Maps internal representation of the
  spatial relationships among objects in an
  animals surroundings
• Ex. Jays stores food in caches, finds food
  later, even bypasses food that wouldnt keep

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Figure 51.2 Niko Tinbergens experiments on the
digger wasps nest-locating behavior
Wasps were cued by the arrangement of the
landmarks not the physical objects themselves
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See pages 1135 and 1136.

• Migration behavior regular movement over
  relatively long distances
• Ex. Birds, whales, butterflies
• Use three mechanisms
• 1. piloting uses landmarks to navigate
• 2. orientation animal detects compass
  directions and travels in straight-line path
• 3. navigation determines its present location
  relative to other locations AND detects compass
  direction

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Social Behavior and Sociobiology

• Social behavior any kind of interaction between
  two or more animals, usually of the same species.
• Sociobiology applies evolutionary theory to the
  study and interpretation of social behavior
• Competition
• Agonistic Behavior contest involving
  threatening and submissive behavior determines
  who wins
• Dominance Hierarchies
• Territoriality
• Courtship 1141-1142

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Mating Systems

• Promiscuous behavior no strong pair-bonds or
  lasting relationships.
• Monogamous relationships mates stay together
  for one entire mating cycle (or even for a
  lifetime)
• Polygamous relationships individuals of one sex
  mate with several of the other sex
• -polygyny one male, many females
• -polyandry one female, many males

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Signals and Communication

• Signal behavior that causes a change in
  behavior in another animal
• Communication transmission of, reception of,
  and response to signals
• Pheremones chemical signals emitted for
  communication purposes
• Ex. Bees in hive

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Altruism

• Unselfish behavior when individuals behave in
  ways that reduce their INDIVIDUAL behavior in
  increase the fitness of the recipient of the
  behavior
• Ex. Alarm calls makes one individual more
  obvious, but others can hide
• Ex. Sterile workers in bee colony
• Reciprocal altruism behaving unselfishly toward
  others who are not relatives (rare in all species
  except humans)

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Inclusive fitness

• Describes the total effect an individual has on
  proliferating its genes by producing its own
  offspring AND by providing aid that enables other
  close relatives to increase the production of
  their offspring
• See page 1146 coefficient of relatedness
• Hamiltons Rule for natural selection to favor
  an altruistic act, the benefit to the recipient
  multiplied by the coefficient of relatedness must
  exceed the cost to the altruist rBgtC
• Kin selection favors this kind of
  altruistic behavior by enhancing reproductive
  success of relatives