AP Bio Animal Behavior Test

Behavior

• Everything an animal does and how it does it

• “an action carried out by muscles under control of the nervous system”

_______ in an environment triggers behaviors

Stimuli

What system is involved in responding to a stimuli

Nervous system

Two main categories of behavior

Innate and learned

Innate behavior

Inherited and instinctive behavior that is under genetic control, and is the same for all individuals in a population

Learned behavior

Behaviors that develop during an animal’s lifetime, being variable and flexible (changing with each animals experiences and environment)

Phenotype

Physical, observable traits of an individual

Genotype

Set of genes of an individual

Behavior from evolutionary perspective

Behavior is a part of phenotype, and is an expression of genes that have been passed on through natural selection (evolution), evolving animals to exhibit behaviors that lead to greater fitness, survival, and reproductive success.

Proximate causes

The immediate cause, or stimulus, for a behavior

Proximate cause of behavior example (2)

Why does a bird sing? A bird sings when it’s time to find a mate so they can reproduce.

How does a bird sing? A bird sings using its vocal system and learned song.

Ultimate causes

The evolutionary significance and cause for a certain behavior in response to a stimulus; how does this behavior promote their survival and reproduction.

Ultimate cause example

Why does a bird sing? A bird sings because it allows for them to mate and reproduce, passing their genes on to another generation.

Adaptive value

How much a trait contributes to an organism’s ability to survive and reproduce successfully.

ex: the adaptive value of their ability to sing is that it brings them a mate to reproduce with.

Would early survival be an innate or learned behavior?

Innate

Would reproduction be an innate or learned behavior?

innate

Would taxis and kinesis be innate or learned behaviors?

innate

Ethology

The study of animal behavior

Fixed Action Patterns

Sequence of behaviors that is essentially unchangeable and usually conducted to completion once started.

Genetically fixed and innate behavior

Sign stimulus

The external sensory cue that triggers a Fixed Action Pattern

Fixed Action Pattern / Sign Stimulus example ON TEST

Male sticklebacks exhibit aggressive territoriality.

They have red bellies, and will recognize other males who enter their territory from their red bellies.

The sign stimulus involved here isn’t the male fish themselves, but the color red associated with them.

Tinbergen (scientist) found that other red colored stimuli, like a red truck passing by, also made them aggressive.

Their aggressive territoriality triggered by the red stimuli is the fixed action pattern that they innately will perform.

On the other hand, female sticklebacks have grey swollen bellies.

If they see a grey swollen belly (sign stimulus), they will try to court.

Digger wasps FAP example

Sign Stimulus: a cricket placed around 2.5 cm from their nest

FAP: Wasps will retreat cricket back to the nest

Geese FAP example

Sign Stimulus: an egg placed just outside of the geese’s reach

FAP: Geese will roll the egg back to its nest

Humans FAP example (2)

1.Sign stimulus: seeing a baby

FAP: eyebrow flash

2.Sign stimulus: seeing someone yawn

FAP: Also yawning

Taxis

Automatic change in direction towards or away from a stimulus

Positive taxis

movement toward a stimulus

negative taxis

movement away from a stimulus

phototaxis

taxis related to the sun

chemotaxis

taxis related to any sort of chemical

rehotaxis

taxis related to the flow of water

kinesis

change in the rate of movement in response to a stimulus

Migration is a ________ innate behavior

Migration is a COMPLEX innate behavior

Migration information from notes

Migratory restlessness is seen in birds bred and raised in captivity, proving that it’s innate

Migration is navigated by the sun, stars, and / or earth’s magnetic fields

Imprinting

The process where innate instinct leads to a bond with a parent or significant figure during a critical developmental period, resulting in a strong and lasting attachment, allowing for development.

Imprinting involves both ______ and ______ components

Innate and learning components

How is imprinting innate?

Ability to attach and imprint is innate

How is imprinting learning?

During imprinting, animals learn behaviors

Critical / Sensitive period

Limited phase in an animal’s development when the learning of a behavior takes place, which is essential for survival in many species, since parents learn to recognize children at this time, and children learn important behaviors for survival.

Lorenz imprinting study

Greylag gooslings were exposed during their critical period, just after hatching, to Lorenz instead of their mother, leading them to imprint on him instead of their mother.

showed no recognition for their mother at all.

Taxis, Sign Stimulus, and FAP in Lorenz imprinting study

Sign stimulus is Lorenz, who the ducks have imprinted on

FAP is positive taxis, following Lorenz, a part of their innate impritingCon behavior

What happens if critical period is missed?

Parents won’t recognize a child and will neglect it, leading it to die

Conservation and imprinting

Conservation biologist have used imprinting to teach birds a migration root, allowing for their survival through a pilot in a suit immigrating a parent

In birds, _______ typically needs to be learned in a critical period

A song

Associative learning

learning to associate a stimulus with a consequence

two types are operant conditioning and classical conditioning

Operant conditioning

“trial and error” learning

associates a behavior with a reward or punishment

Operant conditioning example

learning what to eat: will this food make me sick or fueled?

animals: mouse in skinner box learns to associate behavior of pressing a lever with the reward of a food pellet

humans: gambling; associating behavior of playing the game with the reward of possibly gaining money

classical conditioning

AKA pavlovian conditioning

association of a neutral stimulus with a significant stimulus

classical conditioning example

a dog learns that the sound of a bell means they will be fed soon, if bell is usually rang before they are fed

Pavlov (scientist) studied this idea in his dogs, who then showed the reflex behavior of salivating upon the associated stimulus of ringing a bell

Problem solving requires ______

Cognition

What species is problem solving highly developed in?

Primates and birds

Problem solving is… (innate / learned)

Learned

Chimpanzee problem solving example

Can create and use tools to eat food and can stack boxes to reach things

Otters problem solving example

They can lay black and float with a rock on their belly, so when they catch a shellfish, they can crack it on the rock

Crow problem solving example

In experiment, they learned to pull up a string to acquire food

Social behaviors (list the 5)

Interactions between individuals that develop as evolutionary adaptions

communication

agonistic behaviors

dominance hiearchy

cooperation

altruism

Communication

Ability of individuals to act on information and communicate it to others

Differential reproductive success

certain animals do better than others at passing their genes on, based on their behavioral abilities

Types of communication (4 + 1 extra)

Visual, audible, tactile, and chemical

(sometimes electrical)

What is communication used for? (4)

indicating dominance, finding food, establishing territory, and reproduction

Fruit fly courtship steps

Orienting— visual communication (going in front of female)

Smelling— chemical communication; olfactory stimulus (smelling) indicates that she’s a female, and transfers chemicals to him during tapping to prove he’s the same species

Tapping— tactile communication (tapping female on the back leg)

Singing — auditory communication

after all of this the female will allow mating

Honey Bee communication (ON TEST)

Dances (visual communication) communicate location of a food source

Waggle dance

• conveys direction and distance away that food is through doing a half circle, a straight run, and another half circle around the hive, giving the angle of direction in relation to the sun and distance away that a food source is

round dance

• simply conveys that food is close by to the hive through going around in a tight circle while waggling abdomen

Bird songs use

species identification and mating rituals

Bird songs development (learned or innate)

Learned AND innate

ability to learn the song is innate, but actual learning of it is learned

when must a bird song be developed

during a critical period

crystalizing

learning a song and having it set (birds)

Birds are _______ so they primarily communicate ________

Birds are diurnal so they primarily communicate visually and auditorially

Insect song use

mating ritual

Insect song (learned or innate)

Insect song is innate and genetically controlled

Communication styles of species are largely related to…

Their environment and lifestyle

Agonistic behaviors

threatening and submissive rituals that are symbolic with usually no harm done, where animals fight to gain access to some resource, such as food or a mate.

Outcome of agonistic behaviors is usually based on…

size and strength (weaker individual usually backs down, and loses the resource)

Dominance hierarchy

social ranking within a group

Chickens dominance hierarchy

Pecking order: rooster at top and weakest chickens at the bottom, pecking the weaker chickens

Lions dominance hierarchy

“King” at the top of the pride — he’s most powerful

Cooperation

Animals working in coordination to help individual self and the group with an action they couldn’t do on their own

African dogs cooperation example

Can work together to collectively hunt a wildebeest

White pelicans cooperation example

Come together to “herd” a school of fish

Zebra cooperation example

Come together in a herd for protection against predators, as standing together, their strips look more confusing, making them a more challenging target

Lion cooperation example

female lions come together and collectively hunt an elephant

Altruistic behavior (ON TEST)

Reduces individual fitness but increases fitness of a recipient

How does altruism benefit the altruist?

Through kin selection, increasing the survival and reproductive success of close relatives can help pass their genes on to the next generation

supported by hamilton’s rule

Altruism example

Belding ground squirrel:

female ground squirrels stay close to home while males don’t. They live in mountainous regions of the US where they are vulnerable to predators such as coyotes and hawks. when they see a predator, the female screams, making herself more obvious to the predator, but giving others in her family a warning, allowing for their survival, so they can continue to reproduce and pass her genes to the next generation

Inclusive fitness

The TOTAL effect an individual has on carrying genes to the next generation, through producing its own offspring and providing aid that enables close relatives to increase reproduction

Natural selection ________ altruism

Natural selection favors altruism, as it allows for increase of an individuals INCLUSIVE fitness, even if it decreases their INDIVIDUAL fitness

Hamilton’s rule (the small info we need to know)

The closer a relative is to an animal, the more sense it would make for that animal to show altruistic behaviors towards it

Pheromones

chemical signals that stimulate responses from other individuals

types of pheromones

alarm (warning) and sex (mating)

Minnow pheromone example

When injured, they release an alarm pheromone, signalling to other minnows that there is a threat, leading those fish to huddle together and hide

Mosquito pheromone example

Use CO2 concentrations to locate victims

Spiders pheromone example

spiders use moth sex pheromones to lure in moth prey to eat them

Allomones

substances produced and released by one species that affects another species

example of this is the moth sex pheromone used by a spider to trap moth as prey

dog pheromone example

marking territory

lion pheromone example

female lions produce sex pheromones to attract males

honey bee pheromone example

queen bee releases pheromone that maintains social order through attracting workers to aid her, preventing worker bees from reproducing, and attracting males

colonial mammals

mammals that live according to a social order (with a queen)

colonial mammal example

naked mole rats

live in underground colonies with tunnels

there is one queen, a reproducing female, a few breeding males

(similar to honey bee hive colonies)

behavioral ecology

the study of the ecological and evolutionary basis for animal behavior

Migration

a regular long-distance change in location triggered by environmental stimuli by various animals

circadian clock

an internal mechanism that maintains a 24-hour activity rhythm or cycle

circadian clock example

migrating birds orient differently relative to the sun at distinct times of day using their circadian clock