chapter 8 movement

Intro 8.1

• Animals move to find better conditions. A variety of motivations prompt an animal to move, such as feeding, avoiding predators, and mating

• The ability to change location at almost any time, during their lives distinguishes animals from fungi and plants

Sources of navigational information 8.2

• Navigation is guided movement from one location to another

• Navigation is shaped by 2 sources of information: Genetic and learned

• Genetic info is the product of generations of evolutionary trial and error

• Learned info is when animals accommodate their current surroundings and exploit information obtained from it

Sensing the environment in time and space 8.3

• When making a decision in “real time”, an animal needs to integrate its genetically encoded information and what it’s learned to make the best decision

• Animals need to use directional information to get correct locations

• How does an animal locate the source of a stimulus? By using Triangulation

• They begin with undirected movement, and cues are gained from their environment. They will then measure the intensity of a stimulus from two different locations, shifting the animal’s movement to goal- directed.

How to respond to sensory information: a toolbox 8.4

• Animals use a few basic mechanisms to gather information on where they're going. Here are some basics and their functions.

• Kinesis, Taxis, and counterturning- all have to do with physically moving towards or away from a stimulus

• Landmark, snapshot orientation, compass orientation, and cognitive maps- all have to do with an animal remembering their environment and using that memory to find their locations.

Homing 8.6

• Homing is movement with the goal of reaching a known location usually centred on the animal’s home

• Homing requires mechanisms like landmarks, snapshot orientation, and path integration to find home.

Migration 8.7

• Migration is the act of moving to and returning from a habit or region.

• This can be for many different reasons such as feeding, mating or even giving birth

• Migration can be either innate to the animals or learned.

Dispersal 8.8

• Dispersal is a movement an animal takes that will take it from its birthplace to a different population of the same species.

• This leads to animals being able to colonize new habitats