CHAPTER 35: Behavioral Adaptations to the Environment

Behavior

An action triggered by the nervous system in response to an environmental cue.

Behavioral ecology

Study of how behavior evolves to boost survival and reproduction.

Proximate questions

Asks how a behavior occurs via stimuli, body systems, or genes.

Ultimate questions

Ask why a behavior exists from an evolutionary standpoint.

Innate behavior

Genetically programmed behavior that appears in all individuals without prior experience.

Fixed action patterns (FAPs)

A sequence of unchangeable, instinctive behaviors triggered by a specific stimulus.

Learning

A modification of behavior as a result of specific experiences, such as environmental or social conditions.

Habituation

The loss of a response to a stimulus after repeated exposure, allowing an animal to focus on more relevant stimuli.

Imprinting

Learning that is limited to a specific time period in an animal's life and is generally irreversible.

Foraging

Food-obtaining behavior and mechanisms any animal can use to discover and capture food.

Stimuli

Environmental cues that trigger a response in an organism.

Proximate causes

The immediate mechanisms that cause a behavior, answering proximate questions.

Ultimate causes

The evolutionary reasons behind a behavior, as determined by ultimate questions.

Sensitive period

The limited phase in an animal’s development during which it can learn certain behaviors, like imprinting.

Kinesis

A non-directional movement in response to a stimulus, where the rate of movement or turning depends on the intensity of the stimulus rather than its direction.

Taxis

A directed movement toward or away from a stimulus.

Positive taxis

Movement directed toward a stimulus.

Negative taxis

Movement directed away from a stimulus.

Spatial learning

The process by which animals establish memories of landmarks in their environment to remember locations of food, nests, mates, and hazards.

Migration

The regular back-and-forth movement of animals between two geographic areas, often linked to spatial learning and environmental cues.

Associative learning

The ability to associate one environmental feature with another, allowing animals to predict outcomes based on specific stimuli. Memory is a key component

Trial-and-error learning

Learning through direct experience, where an animal associates its own behaviors with positive or negative effects, influencing future actions.

Social learning

Learning by observing the behavior of others, enabling the acquisition of new behaviors and information through social interactions.

Cognition

The process by which an animal's nervous system perceives, stores, integrates, and uses information gathered by the senses, facilitating problem-solving and decision-making.

Problem solving

The cognitive process of applying past experiences to overcome obstacles in novel situations, demonstrating advanced problem-solving abilities.

Foraging

Food-obtaining behavior and mechanisms that animals use to discover, capture, and consume food, influenced by natural selection to maximize efficiency.

Generalist animals

Animals that consume a wide variety of food sources, adapting to readily available resources.

Specialist animals

Animals that eat only specific and often extreme food sources, making them vulnerable to habitat loss and resource scarcity.

Search image

The mental representation or filter that enables an animal to efficiently find particular foods by focusing on key characteristics such as size and color.

Optimal foraging theory

The concept that an animal's feeding behavior should maximize energy gain while minimizing energy expenditure and the risk of predation.

Signal

A stimulus transmitted by one animal to another, facilitating interactions and communication.

Communication

The sending, reception, and response to signals between animals, essential for coordinating social behaviors and activities.

Promiscuous mating system

A mating system where there are no strong pair-bonds between males and females, leading to increased genetic diversity and population size.

Monogamous

A mating system characterized by a bond between one male and one female, with shared parental care, which increases offspring survival chances.

Polygamous

A mating system where an individual of one sex mates with several of the other, often involving dominant individuals controlling access to mates and resources.

Endocrine disruptors

Chemicals that disrupt vertebrate endocrine systems by mimicking or interfering with hormone activity, leading to abnormal behaviors and reproductive issues.

Social behavior

Any kind of interaction between two or more animals, typically of the same species, including mating, aggression, cooperation, and group behaviors.

Sociobiology

The study of how social behaviors are adaptive and how they could have evolved by natural selection, examining the evolutionary basis of social interactions.

Territory

An area, usually fixed in location, that one or more individuals defend and exclude other members of the same species from, typically for feeding, mating, or rearing young.

Agonistic behavior

Threats, rituals, and sometimes combat that determine which competitor gains access to a specific resource, such as food, mates, or territories. These interactions are often more intimidating than deadly.

Dominance hierarchy

A ranking of individuals based on social interactions, where higher-ranking individuals have preferential access to resources.

Altruism

Behavior that reduces an individual’s fitness while increasing the fitness of others in the population, often involving self-sacrifice for the benefit of the group.

Inclusive fitness

An individual’s success at perpetuating its genes by producing its own offspring and by helping close relatives to produce offspring, contributing to overall genetic success.