Lecture #18 - Behavioral Ecology

Behavior

What an animal does and how it does it

Ethology

The study of animal behavior

Behavioral Ecology

Study of the adaptive significance of behavior

Proximate Cause

Immediate cause of the response

Ultimate Cause

The reason the behavior exists/its adaptive value

Innate (Instinct) Behaviors

Developmentally fixed, not modified by environment. Exist when there are few opportunities to leave

Ex: Cliff edge avoidance in Kittiwakes, nestling gaping behavior, hunting behavior in cats, sea turtle hatchling orientation

Fixed Action Pattern (FAP)

A sequence of innate behaviors that cannot be stopped once started

Sign Stimulus

The stimulus that starts the FAP

Yawning

Signals a physiological change

Super-normal stimulus

Prefer an excessive stimulus to the normal stimulus

Learning

Modification of behavior resulting from specific experiences

Habituation

Organisms learn to ignore repeated stimuli. The "cry-wolf" effect

Associative Learning

Behavior is conditioned by association. Two types differ in how the association is established

Classical Conditioning

An involuntary response is associated positively or negatively with a stimulus that did not originally elicit the response; for example, Pavlov's dog

Operant Conditioning

Trial and error learning. Behavior is reinforced by reward or punishment. An example is Toads eventually learning not to strike at stinging insects

Cognitive Learning

Solving problems with conscious thought (perception, analysis, judgment, recollection, imagination). Examples are Chimpanzee stacking boxes to reach higher or cows solving problems

Displacement Behaviors

A normal behavior (eating, grooming, etc.) occurring at an odd time; for example, Cat grooming itself after a failed hunt/accident. Birds will often stop to preen in the middle of flight

Filital Imprinting

The recognition, response, and attachment of young to a particular adult or object and usually irreversible. Ducks and geese can imprint on humans (whatever they see first)

Sensitive Period

A limited phase during development imprinting takes place

Playing

Usually young individuals. Often it is practicing certain behaviors that may be important later in life

Migration

Seasonal movement of population between different geographic areas

Zugunruhe

Migratory restlessness. Anxious behavior in migratory animals

Navigation

Knowing where you are and where you want to go

Piloting

Moving from one familiar landmark to the next

Orientation

Identifying and following compass direction

Displaced European Starlings

Adults can orient and navigate, Juveniles can only orient and must learn to navigate

Celestial Naviation

General direction. Orient toward sun during day, North Star at night

Topographic Features

Coastline, Mountain Ranges, Prevailing wind direction

Olfaction

Odors are used by many seabirds to find nesting colonies and their own nests withing a colony

Anosmia

Smell Blindness

Earth's Magnetic Feild

Birds appear to use both the angle and the intensity of magnetic field lines

Magnetic - based model

Magnetite in the beak or eyes are connected to brain nerves

Radial Pair - based model

A pair of molecules in the back of the eye have interacting electrons that can be affected by magnetic fields, which could lead to differences in photoreceptor cells.

Murmuration

Fly in densely-packed, swooping flocks through the sky

Evolutionarily Stable Strategies

An inherited behaviors/strategy that yields the best fitness as long as most/all members of the population adopt it

Optimal Foraging Theory

Selection favors foraging/feeding behavior that is as efficient as possible

Klepto-parasitism

Stealing food from another individual

Territorial Behavior

Benefits of exclusive use must outweigh the cost of defending it. Territorially occurs at intermediate levels of resource availability and quantity

Parent-offspring conflicts

Parents care only until offspring independent; after that they are just competition

Nest Parasitism

Parents forego all parental duties and force another bird species to raise their young.

Sibling rivalry

Competition among siblings for limited paternal resources

Siblicide

Killing siblings as a way to gain access to all of the parental resources

Reciporcal Altruism

Acting in a way that reduces your fitness, but benefits another's fitness with expectation that the other individual will reciprocate in the future.

Ex: Unrelated Vampire bats sharing blood meals

Inclusive Fitness

Your fitness, plus the fitness of your genetic relatives

Kin Selection

Behaviors or strategies that help your genetic relatives survive, even if reduces fitness fro you

Toxoplasmosis

(Cat litter box disease) Caused by a protist infection (Toxoplasma gondii). Makes rats and mice less fearful of open spaces and attracted to cat urine. This increases the probability that the rat or mouse will be eaten by a cat, which is the host where T.G. can reproduce sexually. Common infection in humans; but must avoid if pregnant

Baculovirus

Gypsy Moth that causes the caterpillars to crawl to the top of a tree, die, and kind of 'melt' to release virus particles downward that infect other gypsy moth caterpillars

Entomophaga

A fungus that infects and kills the gypsy moth caterpillar. Infected caterpillars crawl down the tree trunk, head-first, where they die and become dry and crusty