Animal Behavior

• Understanding behavior    * Action carried out by muscles under control of nervous system    * Adaptations aiding survival (behaviors can evolve)   * Product of natural selection on phenotype; maximizes fitness 
• Proximate causation: immediate cause like fear; immediate environment stimulus for behavior, internal physiological mechanisms of response; animals may be pre-programmed to have response to cause bc can’t retain experiences and learn for > survival
• Ultimate causation: evolutionary cause; not pre-programmed   * Why this behavior aids survival/reproduction and increases fitness   * Behavior’s evolutionary history (why gene continues to be passed down each generation) 
• Stimuli and behavior (fixed action patterns): unlearned behavior in response to sign stimulus   * Unchangeable, genetically controlled/innate; once initiated, several steps carried to completion 
• Migration: regular, long-distance change in location   * Environmental cues guide migration (innate): position of sun (north star)/circadian clock (genetics)   * Purpose is resources (less daylight, < food bc approaching cold weather) 
• Behavioral rhythms: behaviors occur @ regular intervals   * Circadian rhythm: day cycle rest/activity      * Diurnal: active in day      * Nocturnal: active at night      * Crepuscular: most active @ dawn/dusk/both   * Circannual rhythm: yearly cycle of season (breeding behaviors, migration, hibernation)
• Communication: transmission/reception of mutually recognizable signals   * Signal: behavior causing change in another animal’s behavior    * Visual, chemical, touch/sound (honeybee dance language where round = food is close and waggle = direction/distance) 
• Growth and development/behavior   * Innate behavior: doesn’t vary among individuals, born that way (unless mutation causes behavior to vary)   * Other behaviors vary with experience/differ between individuals   * Learning: modification of behavior resulting from specific experiences 
• Learning    * Imprinting: establishment of long-lasting behavioral response to particular individual/object     * learning/innate components (gen. irreversible)    * Sensitive period: effects of environ. Stimuli are stronger during certain periods of development   * all environments vary in spatial structure   * Spatial learning: memory involving mapping (Niko Tinbergen and digger wasps)   * Associations between experiences (memory is key to all associative learning)    * Associative learning: associating experience with something else happening    * classical conditioning: normal process/unrelated stimulus (salivation and bell with Pavlov’s experiments)   * operant conditioning own behaviors with reward/punishment (B.F. Skinner experiment where fed rat after pushing lever) -> this is learned 
• Cognition: process of knowing involving awareness/reasoning/judgement high-level mental functions   * Problem solving: ability to devise method to overcome obstacles (not by trial/error)   * Length of time/stages it takes for learned behavior to develop varies (white-throated sparrow’s song sensitive period)   * Social learning: learning to solve problems by observing others (velvet monkey alarm calls when danger present) 
• Evolution and behavior (foraging: recognizing, searching, capturing, eating)    * Behavior enhances survival/fitness in population (energy looking for food = energy from food)    * Optimal foraging model: predict animals forge to minimize cost/maximize benefit    * Natural selection favors foraging behavior that maximizes fitness 
• Mating behavior/mate choice   * Major role in determining reproductive success, should maximize # genes passed on for amount put in    * seeking/attracting mates, choosing some potential mates, competing for mates, caring for offspring   * Monogamy: strong pair bonds   * Promiscuous: no strong pair bonds      * Polygamy: 1 male, many females     * Polyandry: 1 female, many males   * Sexual dimorphism: male/female differ in appearance   * Monogamous: sexes are similar   * Polygamous: sex attracting many partners tends to be showier/larger than opposite sex
• Altruism (risk fitness for someone non-related)   * Behavior decreases animals’ individual fitness but increases that of others in pop.    * Appears contrary to natural selection (happens in large family groups such as rat saving friend instead of eating chocolate)    * William Hamilton (evolution doesn’t distinguish between genes from parent -> offspring/genes transmitted indirectly through close relations)   * Inclusive fitness: sum of     * Direct fitness: # alleles animal passes to own offspring     * Indirect fitness: common alleles of close relatives   * Kin selection: indirect selection     * Form of natural selection increasing fitness through breeding success of close relatives (ground squirrels give alarm calls to save close relatives and alarm call gene passed on to next generation) 

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