ZOTC FINALS

• Basic reasons why animals behave


  • Find food
  • Avoid predators
  • Interact in social groups
  • Reproduce
• Strategies for survival


  • A flamingo standing on one leg, holding the other close to its body, is exhibiting heat regulation behavior by tucking its leg close to its body, the bird conserves heat that would otherwise escape from the exposed leg
• Ethology


  Study of animal behavior
• Behavior


  Reacts to a certain stimulus
• Stimulus


  Elicits a response
• Types of stimuli


  • External Stimulus (outside, e.g. sound, sight, smell, presence of another animal)
  • Internal Stimulus (inside, e.g. hunger, fatigue, feeling cold, hormones)
• Anthropomorphism


  Attributing human emotions to animals, need to be careful about ascribing human emotions to animals
• Cultural universals


  Class of social behavior probably genetically determined
• Sociobiology


  The systematic study of the biological bases of all social behavior in animals
• Causes of behavioral responses


  • Heredity (internal factors)/innate
  • Intelligence (Interaction of 1 and 2)
  • Learning experiences (external factors)
• Innate behavioral patterns


  • Segregate when various breeds within species are crossed
  • Genetic differences appear to involve response thresholds-can be motivated to express a particular behavioral response
  • Instincts and reflexes-based on innate forms of behavior
• How heredity produces response


  • Affect the growth and development of body parts such as sensory or motor organs
  • Genes are responsible for synthesis of specific enzymes, hormones and other chemical substances in the body which in turn affect the behavioral response
• Experience and Learning


  • Show fixed behavioral responses when subjected to certain environmental stimuli
  • Such behavior can be modified by experience, a form of learning
• Intelligence


  • To learn to adjust successfully to environmental situations
  • Organization of behavior
  • Abilities to learn from experiences and to solve problems
• Types of learning


  • Habituation
  • Conditioning
  • Insight learning
  • Imprinting (monkeys)
• Habituation


  Learn not to respond to a stimulus, e.g. cry wolf
• Classical Conditioning


  Associative learning between stimulus normal body condition and a new, e.g. Pavlov: dog salivation with a ringing bell, learns to respond to a previously neutral stimulus in the same way it would to a normal stimulus
• Operant conditioning/insight learning


  Learns to behave in a certain way through repeated practice, trial & error learning - animal tests conditions for desired response, learns that a behavior gets a certain response, e.g. rat presses lever, gets food
• Insight learning

  Most complex type of learning, animal solves a problem, requires past experiences, need to make associations with objects and what can be "done" with them, e.g. chimps and the hanging banana
• Imprinting


  Learning at a specific critical time & forms social attachments to another, both learning with innate components
• Types of Behavior


  • Foraging (recognizing, searching, capturing, and consuming food)
  • Parental care (ensuring survival of young)
  • Courtship (attracting a mate)
  • Reproductive
  • Offensive/Defensive (aggression, submissive behavior, defense from aggressors)
  • Territorial (protect a resource for exclusive use)
  • Social (work to create alliances, help the group)
  • Migratory (movement to a more suitable environment as seasons change)
  • Communication (signaling between one animal & another)
  • Curiosity (investigating new stimulus in environment)
  • Elimination (defecation, urination)
  • Resting (apparent inaction)
  • Play (the purpose is a training for life)
• Polygamy


  • Promiscuity (both males and females have multiple mates)
  • Polygyny (males mate with more than one female)
  • Polyandry (females)
• Polygyny


  • Resource defense polygyny (male guard territory with key resources)
  • Male dominance polygyny (males establish dominance; minimal parental care)
  • Lek polygyny (males aggregate compete at traditional display sites; with no resources)
• Why do animals communicate?


  • Defense (warn away)
  • Alliance (get helper or mate)
  • Elicit play
• Methods of communication


  • Auditory
  • Visual
  • Tactile
  • Chemical (pheromones)
  • Electrical
• Types of communication


  • Vocalization
  • Non-verbal signaling