The History of Animal Behavior: Past to Present (20-24)

How long have humans been studying animals?

All of human history

Why did prehistoric humans study animal behavior?

To optimize hunting strategies and protect themselves from larger predators

How has the information which prehistoric chumans have learned about animals been passed on?

Orally, and through artistic crafts

The behavior of animals has influenced what types of cultural ideas?

Countless religions and spiritual rituals

Which 2 cultures are notable for representing goods and goddesses based on similarities between their personalities and animals behavior?

Ancient Egyptian and Greek cultures

As humans began settling in groups why was the study of animal behavior important?

It enabled them to elect animals that were docile to breed and domesticate

Who was baset?

Anb ancient Egyptian goddess depicted as a cat, lion, or lion-headed woman

Howw was Baset depicted?

As a lion, cat, or lion-headed woman

What was baset worshiped as?

A protector and defender of the pharaoh

When did Baset first appear?

2800 BCE

What was Baset eventually viewed as a goddess of?

Pregnancy and childbirth

What was a likely influence to the perception of Baset?

The domestication of cats and their behavior around the same time

Who is credited with being the first person to write about animal behavior and the connections between humans and animals?

Aristotle

When did Aristotle document animal behavior?

300 BCE

What were Aristotles documentations on animal behavior based on?>.

Extensive study of their habits and anatomy

What belief did Aristotle hold regarding how animals were organized?

That all animals could be ranked into hierarchical categories of complexity

Where did animals rank on Aristotles hierarchy of animals?

Below humans but above plants

Was Aristotles belief of organism hierarchy widely held at the time?

Yes, many naturalists and philosophers before him held the same view

What was the long lasting influence of Aristotles hierarchical beliefs about organisms?

His early form of animal classification persisted and shaped attitudes and opinions about animals capabilities

Aristotles early method of classifying animals persisted until when?

18th century

What is ethology?

The science of animal behavior

What term did early ethologists use to describe how they studied the natural world?>

“Naturalists”

What were other names for early ethologists?

Naturalists, zooligists, biologists

What were early ethologists mainly concerned with?

Classifying animals and how they operated rather than with behavior specifically

Who suggested the idea of evolution in the early 19th century?

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Who pioneered the modern concept of ehtology and natural selection?

Charles Darwin

What is CHarles Darwin best known for?

His study of animals in the Galapagos Islands and for developing the modern theory of evolution

Charles darwin is one of the most famous __________

Ethologists

What was Charles Darwin’s most influential book?

On the Origin of Species

When was “On the Origin of Species” published?

1859

How did Darwin’s theories pivot the field of biology?

It now included examinations of behavior as a trait that is inherited like physical traits

Which 3 scientists built on the work of Darwin in the 1930’s?

Konrad Lorenz, Niko Tinberen, and Karl von Frisch

Who are considered the “fathers of ethology?”

Niko Tinberg, Konrad Lorenz, and Karl von Frisch

What award did the fathers of ethology win?

Joint nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973

What was Konrad Lorenz’s nationality?

Austrian

What was Konrad Lorenz best known for?

His work on imprinting behavior

What did lorenz discover in grayleg geese?

That when they hatched they identified the first moving object as their mother

What did Lorenz call the process by which young animals recognize a stimuli as their parent?

Imprinting

Imprinting occurs at what point in a young animals development?

A critical point

How did Konrad Lorenz test his imprinting theory?

He removed mallards from their nest and mimicked the sounds of a mother duck

What was the result of Konrad Lorenz’s duckling experiment?

The ducklings fixated on Konrad and followed him around as if he were their mother

What was Niko Tinbergen’s real name?

Nikolaas Tinbergen

Niko Tinbergens’s interests extended beyond what types of behaviors?

Instinctual behaviors

What is another name for instinctual behaviors?

Innate behaviors

Where did Tinburgen’s interests lie?

How animals learned

What research is tinbergen best known for?

His long term research on seagulls

Where did tinbergens research on seagulls take place?

Northern England

What did Tinbergens discover?

That seagulls recognize faces and voices of other seagulls

What tfindings did Tinbegen publish?

Findings on insects, fish, and birds, which all resulted from his observations of animals in their natural habitats

Tinbergen’s 4 questions provide a framework for what?

describing the reasons that behaviors exist

Who was Karl von Frisch?

A german-Austrian scientist who worked alongside Tinbergens

What was von Frisch primarily interested in?

How animals conveyed information to each other

What did Von Frisch research in order to understand how animals conveyed information?

What factors were important for animals when choosing mates

What theories did Von Frisch pioneer?

Theories on sexual selection and mate choice

What notable achievement did Von Frisch make regarding honeybees?

His careful documentation of the special dance honeybees perform to communicate where sources of nectar are

Was Von Frisch the first scientist to notice the honeybees dancing patterns?

No, but he was the first to record and translate their movement

What 2 fields are crucial to the modern fields of animal behavior?

Neuroscience and genetics

Animal behavior research extends to understanding the behavior of what species?

Human Beings

The behavior of animals distantly related to humans provides what tinsights?

The evolutionary benefit of behaviors that have persisted through different sspecies

The study of animal behavior has had what aided what technological development?

Vaccines and medications that are widely used today

What is applied animal behavior?

An approach that aims to improve animal welfare by studying animal behavior and applying treatments and interventions to outside factors like climate change which alter their behavior

When did Niko tinbergen develop his 4 questions?

1963

What can people think of Tinbergen’s 4 questions as?

Different fields of research that examine a behavior from different angles

What 4 reasons did tinbergens argue are needed to be understood to explain a behavior?>

Function, Evolution, Causation, Development

Are tinbergens questions mutually exclusive?

No

In the case of a human eating a sandwich, what would explain the “cause” aspect of tinbergens 4 questions?

The human feeling hungry

In the case of a human eating a sandwich, what would explain the “development” aspect of tinbergens 4 questions?

Learning to make a sandwich from their family and practicing chewing, and eating food as a baby

In the case of a human eating a sandwich, what would explain the “function” aspect of tinbergens 4 questions?

Providing energy for the humans body

In the case of a human eating a sandwich, what would explain the “History” aspect of tinbergens 4 questions?

No other species had developed this ability, but primates eat similar foods like grains, vegetables, and meat/dairy

What is another term for the function question in Tunbergens 4 questions?

Adaptation

What is another term for the history question in Tinbergens 4 questions?

Evolution

What is another term for the cause question in Tinerbgens 4 questions?

Mechanism

What is another term for the development question in tinbergens 4 questions?

Ontogeny

What does the function question ask?

What the function of a behavior is, and how it increases an animals survival/fitness

What does the function question imply about the existence of a behavior?

It must have a functional reason

What does the history question ask?

What other animals exhibit the same behavior in order to understand how the behavior evolved and its origins.

What are humans most recent common ancestor?

Chimpanzees

What is the scientific name for chimpanzees?

Pan Troglodytes

How are chimpanzees behavior similar to a human eating a sandwich?

They also bring their food to their mouths with their hands, and eat foods which are components of a sandwich

By asking the behavior question in the human sandwich example what do we learn?

That the behavior of eating sandwiches originated in humans, but other animals (chimpanzees) exhibit a more simplistic form of the behavior

What does the cause question ask?

Asks what factors cause the behavior to occur at that moment.

What does the cause question imply about behavior?

It is in response to some internal;l or external stimuli

In the human sandwich example, the cause is done by erxternal or internal stimuli? Is it both?

Internal, it is not both.

What does the development question ask?

How an animal developed a behavior, whether it was learned or it was born with the knowledge for the behavior