Animal Behavior

Innate

instinct behavior that is genetically determined or inherited

Learned

behavior aquired through experiences

Types of animal behavior

sexual, social, agonistic, cyclical, allelomimetic

Social behavior

solitary animals: species that live most of their life on their own, but will interact to reproduce

social animals: species that live in groups or commonly interact with eachother

Agonistic behavior

social interactions that involve conflict such as fighting, threats, and submission. can be due to food, mates, and territory

Cycllical behavior

circadian rhythm: biological clock, suprachiasmatic nucleus, light synchronization

pineal gland

migration: food availability, breeding, weather

hibernation: decrease in metabloic activity, storage of food

Allelomimetic behavior

animals perform the same behavior at the same time under the same stimulus. very common in all domestic animals. ex: feeding, barking/howling, sleeping

Interspecies interactions types

mutualism, commensalism, parasitism, competition

Mutualism

both species experience mutual benefit from the interaction (ex: clownfish and sea anemones)

Comensalism

only one species is benefited, while the other is not harmed or benefited (ex: birds nesting in trees)

Parasitism

one species is benefited while the other is harmed (ex: tapeworms absorb nutrients from host)

Competition

fitness of both species is lowered due to resource reduction (ex: lions and hyenas compete for same prey)

Motivation

process in the brain that determine how likely a behavior is to occur and the urgency in which it is performed (ex: grazing, foraging, nesting, grooming, escaping predators)

Types of learning

associative, non-associative, observational

Associative learning

animals learn to associate a stimulus with a response (classical conditioning vs operative conditioning)

Non-associative learning

reaction to stimulus is solely based on the exposure to stimulus (habituation vs sensitization)

Observational learning

observers gain knowledge from watching demonstrator

Classical vs operant conditioning

classical: when an environmental stimulus elicits an involuntary/innate behavior after conditioning (ex: pavlovs dogs)

operant: animal learns to modify behavior to obtain reward or avoid punishment (ex: ring bell for food)

-positive vs negative punishment = decrese behavior performance

-positive vs negative reinforcement = increase behavior performance

Habituation

decreasing an innate response by repeating presentation of the same stimulus (ex: repeatedly exposing a horse to a plastic bag to decrease spooking)

Sensitization

repeated exposure to a stimulus causes a progressively stronger response (ex: repeated electricity can eventually lead to seizures with little further stimulation)