BIOL113L lecture 16 - Animal Behavior

Niko Tinbergen’s four questions

1. Function: How does this behsvior help the animal survive

2. Phylogeny: How did evolutionary history affect behavior?

3. Developement: How does the animal’s genetic makeup and previous historyu affect state of the animal thus response to stimuli

4. Mechanism, How do enviormental signals itneract with nervous and endocrine system to affect behavior

Ultimate cause vs proximal cause as related to Tinberg

Ultimate cause:

1. Function

2. Phylogeny

Leads to…

Proximate cause

3. Developement (genes and enviorment, learning)

4. Mechanisms →horomones action potentials

which leads to

4. behavior →that then gets

5. (natural selection) selected for, which leads to

6. a new ultimate cause

Phylogeny - sensory bias

Swordtailed fish example →

Developement - genes and the enviroment

Developement - Enviorment

Phenotypic plasticity

Learning

State of the animal

Mechanisms

Stimulus → Response

Envirometnal signal → Hormone → Behavior

Range of behavior sophistication

1. Reflex - shivering when cold, pulling back from hot

2. Fixed action patterns - instinctive pecking of gull chickens at parents bill

3. Optimal Foraging - when should an animal leave the patch

Trade off Vigilance vs Foraging

Flock - less vigilance and more foraging time

Solitary bird - mroe vigilance and less foraging time

*food deprived populations flock size has not impact

Reasons for animal groups

1. greater vigilance (spotting predators)

2. harder to isolate one individual to attack

3. group defense

4. hide in the middle of school or a flock

5. aerodynamics

6. foraging

7. mating swarms

Types of communication in animals

Exaggerated- beta fish, spicebush swallowtail

vs honest - hippos, stalk-eyed flies

Deception → Viceroy butterflies mimicking monarch butterflies

playing dead,

Alternative mating strategies

1. Bluegilled sunfish →satellite males

2. cycling male types (like Side-blotched lizards)

3. Helpers at nest → kin selection

Territory vs homerange

Charnov’s optimal value theorom

A balance between transit time and time cumulative resource intake determines the optimal time in a patch.

more transit time, more time in the patch

More resource intake, more time in patch