Animal Behavior (Life 53-53.5.3)

Question 0

operant conditioning

Answer 0

• animal conditioned to perform an operation on its environment; viewed as another model of learning
  ex: rat could be conditioned to press a lever in response to a stimulus if it got rewarded when it behaved as the experimenter desired

Question 1

Conditioned Reflex

Answer 1

• discovered by Pavlov
  ex: salivation in response to sight, smell, or taste of food natural
• salivation in response to sound learned
• the pairing of a sound with the experience of receiving food conditioned the dog’s nervous system to generate a response
• food=unconditioned stimulus. sound=conditioned stimulus
• Pavlov showed that a simple behavior controlled by the nervous system could be modified through experience

Question 2

behaviorism

Answer 2

1. focused on laboratory environments rather than natural environments
2. focused only on a few species as model systems
3. they focused on questions of learning and memory, excluding other types of behavior such as mating, feeding, communication, etc.

Question 3

ethology

Answer 3

• studying characteristics of animals in their natural environment
• ethologists interested in a wide variety of species, their evolutionary relationships, and the ways in which their behaviors were adapted to their environments

Question 4

fixed action patterns

Answer 4

• the instinctive behaviors that were the main interest of the ethologists were genetically determined patterns
  1. performed without learning
  2. are stereotypic (performed the same way each time)
  3. cannot be modified by learning

Question 5

deprivation experiments

Answer 5

• used to demonstrate that a behavior was genetically determined
• an animal was raised in an environment devoid of opportunities to learn its species-specific behavior
  ex: spider spinning its web

Question 6

releasers

Answer 6

• fixed action patterns usually responses to specific stimuli
• stimuli called releasers
• releasers are very simple subsets of the information available in the environment
  ex: gull chicks pecking the red dot on their parent to regurgitate food

Question 7

Tinbergen’s outline of animal behavior

Answer 7

• Causation: What is the stimulus for behavior? How has the relationship between stimulus and behavior been modified by learning?
• Development: How does the behavior change?
• Function: How does the behavior affect the animal’s chances for survival and reproduction?
• Evolution: How does the behavior compare with similar behaviors in related species and How might it have evolved?

Question 8

proximate causes

Answer 8

• refers to questions of Causation and Development
• immediate genetic, physiological, neurological, and developmental mechanisms that determine how an individual is behaving at a particular time

Question 9

ultimate causes

Answer 9

• refers to the questions of Function and Evolution

- the evolutionary processes that produced the animal’s capacity and tendency to behave in particular ways

Question 10

hygienic vs. nonhygienic bees

Answer 10

• hygienic behavior: if a pupa dies before becoming an adult, workers will uncap the cell and drag the carcass outside the hive
  
  • this increases the resistance of the hive to bacterium that infects and kills larvae
• nonhygienic hives don’t do this
• when a nonhygienic female and a hygienic mall cross, all offspring are nonhygienic
• when F1 backcroseed, then there was a mix. some bees would open cage but not remove body and some would remove the body if the cage was already open
• therefore hygienic behavior has at least two components that are controlled by separate genes

Question 11

behavior and gene cascades

Answer 11

1. genes that control aspects of behavior are generally embedded in gene cascades that offer multiple opportunities for simple genetic changes that will alter the phenotype of even complex behaviors
2. certain genes influence a whole range of genes that contribute to complex behaviors

Question 12

behavior and hormones

Answer 12

• hormones can determine the development of a behavioral potential at an early age and the expression of that behavior at a later age
• sex steroids that are present at birth determine which pattern of behavior develops
• sex steroids present in adulthood determine when that pattern is expressed

Question 13

imprinting

Answer 13

• formation of a parent-offspring bond
• the animal learns a specific set of stimuli during a limited time called a critical period or sensitive period
• imprinting requires only a brief exposure, but its effects are strong and long lasting
  ex: male emperor penguins find their young after long periods of time away
• the critical or sensitive period for imprinting may be determined by a brief developmental or hormonal state
  ex: if a mother goat does not nuzzle and lick her newborn immediately after birth

Question 14

bird song learning

Answer 14

• what they learn is influenced by genes and there is a limited developmental time frame for learning
• two sensitive periods for song learning
  
  1. the nestling stage when a song memory is imprinted
  2. as the bird approaches sexual maturity, he learns to match that song memory
• males seem to have a genetic predisposition to learn their own song and not the songs of other species (“an instinct to learn”)

Question 15

animals must make many behavioral choices

Answer 15

• choice to live:
• the environment in which an animal lives is its habitat
• in most cases the habitat provides not only a protected nest site, but also food and access to mates
• the general hypothesis that guides behavioral ecologists is that the cues animals use to select habitats are reliable predictors of conditions suitable for future survival and reproduction
• the presence of conspecifics-the other members of the same species-is a reliable indicator of the suitability of a particular site for sustaining life

Question 16

cost-benefit approach

Answer 16

-assumes that an animal only has a limited amount of time and energy and therefore cannot afford to engage in behaviors that cost more to perform than they bring it in benefits

Question 17

components of cost of behavior

Answer 17

• the benefits of a behavior can be measured in terms of the enhancement in fitness an animal accrues by performing the behavior
  1. energetic cost-the difference between the energy the animal expends performing the behavior and not performing it
  2. risk cost- the increased chance of being injured or killed as a result of performing the behavior
  3. opportunity cost- the benefit the animal forgoes by not being able to perform other behaviors during the same time interval

Question 18

cost-benefit analysis and territorial behavior

Answer 18

• territorial behavior=aggressive behavior used by an animal to actively deny other animals access to a habitat or resource
• aggressive behavior require a lot of energy, make a male more vulnerable to predation and detract from the time he has for feeding or engaging in parental behavior

Question 19

lek

Answer 19

-an area where males gather for the purpose of engaging in communal displays of their territorial prowess aimed at impressing females and winning the opportunity to mate

Question 20

optimal foraging theory

Answer 20

• helps scientists identify the fitness value of feeding choices
• the primary benefit of foraging is the nutritional value of the food obtained
• costs=energy expended, time lost from other activities that could enhance fitness, and the risk of increased exposure to predators
• animals will make choices that will maximize the rate at which they obtain energy. the more rapidly a foraging animal satisfies its energetic requirements, the lower the opportunity costs and the risk costs
• animals also have nutrient requirements such as essential minerals that animals may incur large energetic costs and risks to obtain

Question 21

biological rhythms coordinate behavior with environmental cycles

Answer 21

• daily and seasonal cycles influence the physiology and behavior of animals
• circadian or circannual

Question 22

circadian rhythms

Answer 22

• the persistence of daily cycles in the absence of environmental time cues suggests that animals have an internal clock
• when two rhythms match completely, they are in phase. if a rhythm is shifted, it is phase-advanced or phase-delayed
• because the period of circadian rhythm is not exactly 24 hrs, it must be phase advanced or phase delayed each day (entrained) to remain in phase with the daily cycle of the environment
• under constant conditions, not entrained. circadian clock will run according to its natural period (free-running)
• in mammals, the master circadian clock consists of two clusters of neurons just above the optic chiasm (suprachiasmatic nuclei or SCN). if destroyed, the animal becomes arrhythmic.
• molecular mechanism of the circadian clock involves negative feedback loops

Question 23

circannual rhythms

Answer 23

• seasonal changes in the environment
• a change in day length (photoperiod) is a reliable indicator of seasonal changes to come for animals
• circannual rhythms=built in neural calendars that keep track of the time of year

Question 24

piloting

Answer 24

- orientation by landmarks | - animals find their way by knowing and remembering the structure of their environment

Question 25

homing

Answer 25

- returning to a specific location | - the ability to return to a nest site, burrow, or other specific location

Question 26

migration and navigation over great distances

Answer 26

- humans use: 1. distance-direction navigation- requires knowing in what direction and how far away the destination is 2. bicoordinate navigation/true navigation- requires knowing the latitude and longitude - animals seems to have a compass sense, which allows them to use environmental cues to determine direction - some appear to have a map sense, which allows them to determine their position - celestial navigation=the ability to locate a position by calculating the angles between celestial objects such as the sun and stars and the horizon at specific times of day - stars offer two sources of information about direction: moving constellations and a fixed point

Question 27

communication

Answer 27

- animal behavior can evolve into systems of information exchange - use different types of signals: chemical, visual, acoustic, mechanosensory

Question 28

communication: visual signals

Answer 28

- offer the advantage of rapid delivery of information over considerable distances - convey without ambiguity the position of the signaler - requires sufficient light and the receiver must be looking directly at the signaler - visual communication not useful at night or in environments that lack light - also can be intercepted by other species

Question 29

communication: acoustic signals

Answer 29

- cannot convey information as rapidly as visual signals can - can be sued at night and in dark environments - not hindered by objects that would interfere with visual signals so they can be transmitted in complex environments such as forests - receiver does not have to be looking at the signaler for the message to be received - useful for communicating over long distances - acoustic signals place the signaler at risk for detection by predators

Question 30

communication: mechanosensory signals

Answer 30

- animals in close contact with each other can communicate by touch ex: dance of honey bees - forager performs a waggle dance is food more than 100m away which conveys information about the distance and direction of the food source - angle of the straight run indicates the direction of the food source relative tot he position of the sun - speed of the dance indicates the distance to the food source - if less than 80m away, performs round dance. odor indicates the flower to be looked for and the dance communicates the fact that the food source is close to the hive

Question 31

communication in multiple sensory modalities

Answer 31

- avoiding ambiguity is a high priority in any signaling system - signal specificity is enhanced if multiple sensory modalities are used