Animal Behaviour

Sr.# Topics Page#

1. History of Animal behavior development 01

2. Theories of Animal behavior development 02

3. Development of Animal behavior 03

4. Types of Animal behavior 04

5. Instinct Behavior 05

6. Imprinting 06

Table of Contents:

DEVELOPMENT OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR

Animal Behavior is the scientific study of the wild and wonderful ways in which animals interact

with each other, with other living beings, and with the environment.

History

SCALA NATURAE AND LAMARCK'S THEORIES

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744 - 1829) was the first biologist to describe a complex theory of

evolution. His theory substantially comprised two statements: first, that animal organs and

behaviour can change according to the way they are used; and second, that those characteristics

can transmit from one generation to the next (the example of the giraffe whose neck becomes

longer while trying to reach the upper leaves of a tree is well-known).

The second statement is that every living organism, humans included, tends to reach a greater

level of perfection. When Charles Darwin went to the Galapagos Islands, he was well aware of

Lamarck's theories and was influenced by them.

Theory of evolution by natural selection and the beginnings of ethology

Ethologists have been concerned particularly with the evolution of behaviour and the

understanding of behaviour in terms of the theory of natural selection. In one sense, the first

modern ethologist was Charles Darwin, whose book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and

Animals influenced many ethologists.

He pursued his interest in behaviour by encouraging his protégé George Romanes, who

investigated animal learning and intelligence using an anthropomorphic method, anecdotal

cognitivism, that did not gain scientific support.

Other early ethologists, such as Charles O. Whitman, Oskar Heinroth, Wallace Craig and Julian

Huxley, instead concentrated on behaviours that can be called instinctive, or natural, in that they

occur in all members of a species under specified circumstances. Their beginning for studying

the behaviour of a new species was to construct an ethogram (a description of the main types of

behaviour with their frequencies of occurrence).

I. DEVELOPMENT OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR

ONTOGENY OF BEHAVIOR

Behavioral development is the result of the continuous interaction of genetic and environmental

factors. The genetic code is fixed, but an animal will not develop appropriately without the right

cues from the environment. Some behaviours are innate, such as suckling, standing, running,

pecking, etc. In animal embryos there are two inborn behavioral patterns and accordingly they

are classified as precocial and altricial embryos

PRECOCIAL EMBRYO:

In various mammals like horse, buffalo, deer, elephant, hamster etc. the embryo behave like a

miniature of their parents. Their movements resemble parent as soon as they born. They start

walking, feeding, to some extent protecting themselves from enemies etc. e.g. Goat

ALTRICIAL EMBRYO:

In others the embryos do not resemble their parents called as altricial embryos. These embryos

have to modify after birth to resemble their parents. Altricial embryos are dependent on their

parents for feeding and protection. In some cases they have to be intensively cared. E.g.

Kangaroo

THEORIES OF BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT:

PREFORMATION:

This is an old concept stating that the animal is complete even if it is in form of sperm or egg, so

all the behaviour are present in the individual from these stages naturally. This concept is not

accepted now.

SYSTEMOGENOUS BEHAVIOR:

According to this concept, the movements needed for survival under the particular environmental

situation develop before birth, and that the outcome may vary from species to species, depending

environmental factors available at birth. But behavior in different species are pre-determined

EPIGENESIS:

According to this theory various characteristics along with the behavior are not present in the

initial stages (sperms or eggs) but they are formed during the development and become visible.

This concept was first put forth by Needleeem (1959).

EQUIFINALITY:

It is the phenomenon by which a structure or behavior pattern may develop by different routes. It

is believed that there are a vast number of processes ranging from those that may be influenced

or uninfluenced by environmental factors and those that are heavily dependent upon experience.

The resultant of all these together finally gives rise to particular personality to the individual of a

behavioral pattern is known as equifinality.

MATURATION AND BEHAVIORAL CHANGES:

In the animals it has been observed that juveniles behave different as compared to their adult

parents. E.g. frog and its tadpole behave differently. When alarmed the frog jumps to blue

background whereas the tadpole jumps towards the green background.

Green

Blue

INSTINCT BEHAVIOUR

An instinct is a stereotyped, species-typical behavior that appears fully functional the first

time it is performed, without the need for learning.

Such behaviors are usually triggered by a particular stimulus or cue, and are not readily

modified by subsequent experience.

For instance, a kangaroo rat instantly performs an automatic escape jump maneuver when

it hears the sound of a striking rattlesnake, even if it has never encountered a snake

before.

Clearly, instinctive behaviors play an important role in survival, but our understanding of

the forces that promote and guide their development in living animals is in fact quite

limited.

IMPRINTING

In another classic study of instinctive behavior, ethologist Konrad Lorenz showed that

baby ducks and geese, which are observed to closely follow their mother on their early

forays away from the nest, could also be induced to follow a substitute.

The baby birds would form an attachment to whatever individual was present as they

opened their eyes and moved about after hatching, regardless of that individual's species

identity.

Young birds that had thus imprinted on Lorenz followed him everywhere as they

matured, and as adults, these birds were observed to court humans, in preference to

members of their own species.

Lorenz concluded that imprinting represented a kind of preprogrammed learning, guided

by a mechanism that under normal circumstances would not be corrupted by individuals

of the wrong species.

In the natural situation, imprinting would facilitate the babies' social attachment to their

mother, which later allows them to recognize appropriate mating partners.

References:

Gray, P. (2007) Psychology (5th Ed.) (pp. 64–66) New York: Worth Publishers.

Mills, C.W. ([1959] 2000). The Sociological Imagination. 40th ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

Naiman, J. (2008). How Societies Work: Class, Power and Change in a Canadian Context. 4th ed. Halifax and Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing.