ANIMAL BEHAVIOR

Innate Behavior

• Instinct--

• Taxis-

• Seasonal behaviors

Innate Behavior

• Instinct- Suckling

• Taxis- Insect movement toward or away from light, chemicals– Toward Light- Positive Phototaxis– Away from Chemicals – Negative Chemotaxi

• Seasonal behaviors-hibernation, estivation, migration.

Learned Behavior

• Habituation--

• Imprinting--

• Classical conditioning--

• Trial and Error--

Learned Behavior• Habituation--Simplest type. Ignoring repetitive

stimuli. Young birds stop crouching when they see birds fall or other small birds, but learn to ignore.

• Imprinting--Konrad Lorenz and the geese.

• Classical conditioning--Pavlov’s dogs. Associate stimulus with a reward/ punishment.

• Trial and Error--Skinner Box. Associate a behavior with a reward or punishment.

Social Behavior• Communication between individuals of

species.– Touch, Sight, Chemicals, Language

• Touch Ex: Honeybee Waggle Dance• Chemical Ex: Pheromones• Other communication

• Courtship behaviors• Territorial defense

Social BehaviorCourtship

• Pheromones and acoustic signals– Pheromones are chemical messengers used for

communication between individuals, and often serve as sex attractants

• Silk moths are the most famous example

• In humans egg and sperm—they are from two individuals, right?.

• Also human behavior is affected by pheromones.

– Many insects, amphibians, and birds produce species-specific acoustic signals to attract mates.

Social Behavior

• Communication between individuals of species

• using pheromones-moths, ants

• Waggle dance of bees

• Courtship behaviors-Birds, rams

• Territorial defense- Hamadryas Baboons (“Life” Video) also on Discover Ed)or Chimps “Life in Trees”

Communication in Social Groups

• Communicated information:– alarm calls– alarm pheromones– trail pheromones– dance language

• Waggle dance of European honeybee relays direction and distance of a located food source.

– primate vocalizations

Waggle Dance of Honeybees

Angle indicates direction.Tempo indicates distance.

Question• Which of the following illustrate(s) natural

selection? (Choose all correct answers)– The meerkats with the loudest alarm calls have the

highest survival rates, so they survive and pass down their vocalization genes.

– A dog learns to associate a newspaper with a punishment, so it avoids newspapers and hides when the owner brings in the paper.

– A termite follows an ink trail if it is Bic Pen or Paper Mate, but not a Sharpie.