Animal Behavior & Welfare Mid-Term Exam

Vocabulary

Behavior

The way an organism outwardly acts in response to an external or internal stimulus

Comparative Pyschology

Historical study of animal behavior from a human psychological perspective, operating on the premise that studying animal behavior serves as a pathway to better understand human behavior

Morgan’s Canon

Morgan’s scientific principle states that an animal action must not be interpreted as the outcome of a high psychological process. Simplest psychological explanation: assume no higher mental capacity until proven. (rule against anthropomorphism)

Behaviorism

Scientific study of behavior conducted purely on observable input and output (stimulus & response), independent of mental state or consciousness, black box approach, experimental method avoiding anecdotal evidence

Operant Conditioning

Animal preforms a task/response to receive reinforcement, behavior is the instrument by which reiforcement is obtained, trial & error learning, Skinner box/thorndike puzzle box

Classical Conditioning

Neutral stimulus paired with a biologically important stimulus, elicits an automatic/involuntary/reflexive response, no task required to be performed by the animal, milk letdown in milking parlor

Motor Theory of Consciousness

Margaret Floy Washburn, compromise between consciousness and behaviorism, The Animal Mind (1908)

Sign Stimulus

External cue that elicits a strong innate response, red spot on adult gull bill, red belly on male stickleback

Fixed Action Pattern (FAP)

Predictable,unvarying behavior secondary to sign stimulus, activated by an innate releasing mechanism (IRM), appears in fully functional form the first time preformed

Tinbergen’s 4 Questions Framework

Mechanism (causation - proximate & current context (how)), Adaptive Function (ultimate & current context (why)), Development (ontogeny - proximate & historical context (how)), Evolutionary History (phylogeny - ultimate & historical context (why))

Mechanism

What immediate physiological, neural, hormonal, or environmental stimuli trigger the behavior right now? Proximate (how context influences behavior)

Adaptive Function

How does the behavior currently increase the animals survival, fitness, or selective advantage? Ultimate (why context influences behavior)

Development/Ontogeny

How does the behavior develop, mature, or change across an individual animal’s lifetime through age and experience? Proximate (how historical context influences behavior) (Ontogeny = lifetime of the individual animal)

Evolutionary History/Phylogeny

How did the behavior evolve across generations and ancestral species over evolutionary time? Ultimate (why historical context influences behavior) (Phylogeny = evolutionary lineage of the species. )

Ethology

Biological study of behavior, studying animals to understand them for their own sake, pioneered by von Frisch, Tinbergen, and Lorenz

Observational

Simply observing an animal and noting what it does without manipulating variables, (risk of assuming causation)

Experimental

Preforming controlled experiments where variables are manipulated to establish causation (manipulating variables to prove causation)

Comparative

Comparing behaviors between different species using evolutionary history to trace how and why behaviors exist (trace behaviors across species?evolutionary history)

Frequency

how often it happens

Duration

how long it lasts

Intensity

level of focus/easily interrupted

Latency

Time between preformance/time delay

Ethogram

Standardized catalog/list of behaviors for a species in an environment, objective and mutually exclusive descriptions, and contextual - no single master ethogram exists

State

Sustained behavior with clear start and stop points

Event

Instantaneous/brief action measured by frequency

Ad-Libitum Sampling

No constraints/write whatever you see/ pilot study

Conspicuous/Continuous

continuous observation for specific rare target behaviors

Point/Instantaneous/Scan

Record at exact predetermined clock intervals

One-Zero/Period Occurance

Based on whether a target behavior occurred at any point during a pre-defined time window

Genotype + Environment Interaction

Behavioral phenotype = Genotype + Environment, Dopamine receptor gene variant combined with diet type

Hair Whorls

Low vs. high facial hair placement indicating temerament

Savaging

Highly heritable sow behavior attacking newborns

Cognition

Acquire, process, store, and act on information

Consciousness

Subjective internal mental experience

Umwelt

Jakob von Uexkull, Unique subjective sensory world/experience of a species based on its sensory capabilities

Detour Paradigm

Navigating around a barrier or fence to reach food

Mirror Recognition

Chimps, dolphins, magpies observing mark in reflection

Discrimination Learning

Choosing black cloth feeder over surrounding open feeders

Habituation

long term stimulus specific waning of response

Extinction / Permanent Habituation

The complete loss of a conditioned response due to prolonged exposure beyond initial habituation

Stimulus flooding

Overwhelming with full intensity fearful stimulus to reduce fear response

Conditioned Taste Aversion

Bait shyness, pairing a taste with delayed nausea / sickness

Somatic

Voluntary muscle control and skin sensory input

Autonomic

Involuntary visceral control of GI tract and heart

Chemoreceptor

Detects chemical compunds (taste,smell,pheromones)

Mechanoreceptor

detects physical movement, fish lateral line detects water movement

Nociceptor

Detects painful thermal mechanical, or chemical stimuli, specialized receptor detecting pain

Electroreceptor

Detects minute electrical fields generated by living muscle contractions, sharks detecting electrical fields from muscle twitching

Thermoreceptor

Detects changes in temperature

Photoreceptor

Detects light photons for vision

Vomeronasal Organ

(Jacobson’s Organ) & Flehmen response, paired sinus organ near hard palate processing sexual pheromones, processes non volatile fluid pheromones drawn in via flehmen response

Primary Stress Hormone

Cortisol / corticosterone hormone secreted during activation of the HPA axis

Oxytocin

Mediates maternal bonding and milk letdown

Steroid Hormones

Testosterone & Estrogen, driving male sexual aggression/libido and female estrus/mating receptivity

Neurotransmitters

Serotonin & Dopamine, regulating mood anxiety coping and reward / curiosity pathways

Avian Imprinting window

26-32 hours after hatching

Chick Object Permance

3-4 days old

Buck Effect Separation Requirments

male separated from herd for at least 3 weeks by a distance of 1 mile, to successfully induce / synchronize estrus in does

Ram Dye Harness Painting

change paint color every 17 days (length of the ewe estrous cycle)

Visual Acuity Ration

Horses (20/30) Dogs (20/85) Cattle & Pig (20/200)

High Frequency Rythms

(<30 minutes) Calf Heart Rate 80-100 beats/minute, Adult Horse Heart Rate 28-40 beats/minute

Ultradian Rhythms

(30 minutes - 24 hours), Pituitary Growth Hormone (GH) Pulses in Cattle every 3.5 hours, Natural Ad - Lib Feeding Bouts: Occurs every 2-3 hours across domestic livestock

Infradian Reproductive Cycle Lengths

(>24 hours) Cows & Sow estrus(21 days) Cow standing heat / estrus last ~ 24 hours

Mare Estrous Cycle

~21 days (range 17-24 days, standing heat/estrus lasts 5-7 days)

Ewe Estrous Cycle

~16-17 days, Doe (goat) ~21 days (standing heat/estrus lasts 24-48 hours)

Sleep Percentages & REM Ratios

Dogs: ~50% of their day sleeping (20% REM sleep)

Cats: ~45-65% sleeping (20% REM sleep)

Cattle: ~25% sleeping (rarely in lateral recumbency)

Horses ~20% sleeping (sleep standing up majority of time)

Social Group Memory Capacity

Pigs: Can recognize & remember up to 20-30 individual herd mates

Cattle: Can recognize & remember up to 50-70 individual herd mates

Sympathetic

Fight or flight, pupil dilation, digestion inhibition

Forked Tongue

Tropotaxis, Snakes determining direction by intensity difference on tongue tips

Feline Facial Pheromone

F3/Feliway Classic , Synthetic scent marking pheromone, associated with facial rubbing and feelings of security / beloning

Cat Appeasing Pheromone

CAP / Feliway Multicat, emited by nursing queen to soothe kittens, used to reduce conflicts

FIS

Feline Interdigital Semiochemical, emitted from paw pads during scratching

Motivation

Neurological process controlling what behavior changes occur and when, input to the brain’s decision making center, mechanistic explanation for current behavior choices

Appetitive behavior

searching for suitable external stimuli

Consummatory Behavior

encountering and utilizing the stimulus once found

Elastic behavior

Small increase in cost causes large drop in performance

Inelastic

preformance continues regardless of coat/barriers

Rebound Effect

Post deprivation spike in behavior frequency

Stereotypy

Repetitive, unchangin, functionless behavior pattern

Variable Cue

preformed only as needed at an energetic cost

Constant Cue

always persent, cannot be turned off

Honest Signaling

accurate portrayk benifiting both parties

Deceit behavior

misleading a reciever to benefit the sender

Batesian Mimicry

harmless species mimicking a venomous one

Endogenous

internal clock independent of external cues

Exogenous

rythm dependent on external environmental stimuli to persist

Zeitgeber

External time giver that resets internal clock

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN)

pacemaker located above optic chiasm

Proestrus

preparing for heat /mating

Metestrus

formation of the corpus luteum

Diestrus

High progesterone level to maitain potential pregnanc, period of low sexual activity

Anestrus

total ovarian inactivity (seasonal of lactstional)

Canine Copulatory Lock (tie)

caused by the engorgement of the males bulbus glandis

Ram effect

introducing a ram synchronizesnewes to bring them into estrus ~15-17 days later

Buller Steer Syndrome

when a submissive steer allows others to mount him (~3% of feedlot steers)

Oigs Experience

Lactational Anestrus, copulation takes 10-30 minutes with large seminal volume

Horses Are

Seasonally polyestrus, estrus behavior includes “winking”

what can cause persistent heat or stallion like behavior (prancing mare)

Granulosa cell tumors

Thermoregulation

licking amniotic fluid off newborns occurs in almost all domestic species except pigs and camels

Hormonal Basis

Mediated primarily by estrogen and oxytocin