Animal Behaviour quiz

categorical variable

assigns an individual to a group or category - example: eye color or ice cream flavour

Ordinal

categorical rank - education levels, 1st 2nd 3rd

Count

example - the number of children a couple has

Continuous variable

example - rate of aggression

quantitative variable that an take any value within a given range and is measured rather than counted

Mechanistic/physiological

how does it work in the moment? how is the trait elicited or produced?

• deals with hormones, endocrine 

• small amount of time leading up to the behaviour 

Developmental/ontogeny

How did it come to be?

Deals with individual development - life stages, age-related, gene expression, learning experience 

Evolution/phylogeny

what is its evolutionary history? how and why did the trait evolve? 

backward looking - what can learn about it or the trait by looking at the organisms evolutionary history

Function/adaptive 

what does it do? why is the trait adaptive? why does the trait persist 

deals with how evolution helps fitness right now, fitness/survival and reproduction 

mechanoreceptors

see the world through touch

• includes pressure, gravity, stretching self in space 

• ex. star nosed mole 

magnetoreceptors

perceiving magnetic fields

often used in navigation and common in aquatic species because water is a good conductor 

Electroreceptors

responding to electric fields

passive = detecting fields created by other species 

active = producing electric pulses/fields and gauge the distortion in them when they come back

photoreceptors

sensing light

chemoreceptors

chemical —> olfaction, pheromones 

proprioreceptors

sense of self in space

things that fly and swim have better proprioception than those that live in 2D

non associative learning 

habituation and sensitization 

strengthening or weakening of an existing connection 

associative

forming a new connection

• imprinting 

• heavily mediated by brain development - “critical period” 

filial imprinting

parent imprinting on baby

sexual imprinting

imprinting early on can result in sexual preference later on in life

habitat imprinting

organisms imprint on habitat they grew up in

operant conditioning

equating a voluntary action with some kind of consequence

• consequence could be a reward, neutral, or a punishment

• trial and error is all form of operant

• intensity of reinforcement correlates to the strength of association

classical conditioning

learning to respond involuntarily to neutral stimulus

ex. pavlov’s dog, jim and dwight 

social learning 

learning to associate an action or consequence by observing the experience of another 

sexual selection theory

one sex often has a limiting reproductive rate (often female) making them choosier of who they mate with. Leads to the evolution of traits that increase reproductive success

indirect effects of being choosy

Strictly genetic

• healthier offspring, fertility success, ‘good genes’ = offspring have higher fitness, “sexy sons” = offspring have higher reproductive success

• want to pick mate that is going to be attractive to the next generation as well

direct effects of being choosy

benefit to the chooser

• resources for them 

• help with parental care 

• protection from predators and/or rival mates 

scramble competition 

mating success depends on ability to find the opposite sex 

• common in solitary species, species with large home ranges, species that hibernate 

• traits selected in the competing sex: spatial memory, spatial navigation

physical combat

• common in species with herd, species with hierarchies

• traits selected for: weapons (teeth, horns, etc.), endurance, body size 

endurance rivalry 

outlast rival competitions → must persist

• most subtle 

• longest survival staying on the territory the longest, mate guarding 

Sperm competition 

ejaculates of rivals compete to fertilize 

• competition for female gametes - males sperm competing with other male’s sperm and their own

• traits: endurance, size, strength

If the strength of sexual selection went up (stronger) would you expect more or less sexual dimorphism?

More sexual dimorphism

If the strength of sexual selection went up, would you expect the trait to evolve slowly or quickly?

more quickly

What happens during sensitization?

action potentials in interneuron fire at a faster rate with repeated stimulation, interneuron releases more NTs with repeated stimulationr

what happens neurologically during habituation?

the action potentials are firing at a slower rate

An animal’s umwelt limits its range of behavioral responses based on the sensory input the animal recieves 

TRUE 

Umwelt results in each individual existing in its own subjective version of the world not the world as it truly is 

TRUE 

Time spent grooming in a one hour period

continuous

observer (name)

categorical

happiness rating (unhappy, sometimes happy, usually happy, happy)

ordinal

Body length in centimeters

continuous

a silkworm moth detecting airborne sex pheromones released by potential mate 

chemoreceptor 

a (weakly) electric knifefish generating and sensing electric fields to locate objects

electroreceptor

a mantis shrimp detecting polarized light patterns on prey

photoreceptor

a barn owl adjusting wing position mid flight based on body orientation in three dimensional space

mechanoreceptor

a european robin orienting its migration route using the earth’s magenetic field

magnetoreceptor

intersexual selection

type of sexual selection where one sex (typically females) chooses mates from the opposite sex based on specific traits

intrasexual selection

where individuals of the same sex compete for mates - sometimes like physical combat