Animal Behavior Notes!

• Animal Behavior Notes!

Behavior

• What an animal does & How an animal does it!
• Think of all of the behaviors of your pet...or a friends’ pet. List them and classify them as either being genetically “innate” or learned.

ETHOLOGY the study of animal behavior with emphasis on the behavioral patterns that occur in natural environments.

• Pioneers in the Study of Animal Behavior

• Karl von Frisch

• Niko Tinbergen

• Konrad Lorenz

Behavioral Ecology

• Behavioral Ecology emphasizes evolutionary hypothesis.
• Based on the fact that animals will act in a way that will increase their Darwinian fitness. What does “fitness” refer to in Darwinian terms?

• What is evolutionary fitness?

• Evolutionary fitness measures how many viable, fertile offspring an individual (or an allele) leaves in the next and subsequent generations, relative to others in the population.

• Adaptive behavior

• An adaptive behavior increases an individual’s evolutionary fitness relative to other individuals in the population.

When we observe behavior we may ask both proximate & ultimate questions OR offer proximate or ultimate explanations.

• Proximate questions
• about behavior

• Proximate questions address the mechanisms that produce a behavior: the environmental stimuli that trigger a behavior and the genetic and physiological mechanisms that make it possible.
• For example,
• How does an animal carry out a particular behavior?

• Ultimate questions about behavior

• Ultimate questions address the evolutionary significance of a behavior: how a behavior increases the evolutionary fitness of the animal demonstrating it, helping it to survive and reproduce in its environment.
• For example,
• Why does the animal show this behavior?

• Niko Tinbergen

• Suggested 4 questions that must be answered to fully understand any behavior.
• These questions are either ultimate questions or proximate questions.

• Proximate vs Ultimate

• What is the mechanistic basis of the behavior, including chemical, anatomical, & physiological mechanisms?
• What is the evolutionary history of the behavior?
• How does development of the animal, from zygote to mature individual, influence the behavior?
• How does the behavior contribute to survival & reproduction (fitness)?

• PROXIMATE

• ULTIMATE

• PROXIMATE

• ULTIMATE

• Q#1: Red-crowned cranes breed in spring and early summer. Choose a proximate explanation:

• Breeding is most likely to be successful in spring and early summer.
• Increasing day length triggers the release of breeding hormones.
• Ample food is available for chicks at this time.

• Increasing day length triggers the release of breeding hormones.

• Breeding is most likely to be successful in spring and early summer.
• Hormonal changes in the spring trigger breeding behaviors.
• Breeding is triggered by the effect of increased day length on the birds’ photoreceptors.

• Q#2: Red-crowned cranes breed in spring and early summer. Choose an ultimate explanation:

• Breeding is most likely to be successful in spring and early summer.