Unit 8.1

• Behavior


  Any action that can be observed and described
• Nature (inherited)Versus nurture (environmental)


  • Still debated
  • Most evidence points to genetic basis for behaviors
  • May be tied to nervous + endocrine systems
• Experiments that suggest behavior has a genetic basis

  • Nest-building behavior in lovebirds
  • Food choice in garter snakes
  • Twin studies in humans
  • Nurturing behavior in mice
• Fixed Action Patterns (FAPs)


  Unchanging behavioral response
• Increasingly, scientists have found behaviors that were thought to be FAPs could improve with practice
• Instinct


  A durable change in behavior brought about by experience
• Imprinting


  Imitation of behavior observed during sensitive period (period of time when a particular behavior develops)
• Avian brain

  • Especially sensitive to acoustical stimuli during a sensitive period
  • Bird brain
• Social experience appears to have an even stronger influence over development of singing
• Associative Learning

  Any change in behavior that involves an association between two events
• Associative Learning

  • Classical conditioning
  • Operant conditioning
• Orientation

  The ability to travel in a particular direction
• Migration

  Long-distance travel from one location to another
• Navigation

  The ability to change direction in response to environmental cues
• Cognitive Learning

  Learning through observation, imitation, and insight
• Insight learning - Solving a problem without prior experience
• Communication Behavior


  An action by a sender that influences the behavior of a receiver
• Types of Communication


  • Chemical
  • Auditory
  • Visual
  • Tactile
• Pheromones


  Chemical signals that are passed between members of the same species
• Some animals are capable of secreting different pheromones, each with a different meaning
• Auditory communication is faster than chemical communication and effective both day and night
• Visual signals are most often used by species that are active during the day, in contests between males who make use of threat postures, and to establish dominance
• Tactile communication occurs when one animal touches another
• Behavioral Ecology

  Assumes that behavior is subject to natural selection and has a genetic basis, and that some behaviors lead to increased survival and number of offspring
• Behaviors that increase fitness

  • Territoriality
  • Reproductive strategies
  • Social behavior
  • Altruistic behavior
• Territoriality

  Protecting an area against other individuals
• Defending a territory costs energy but provides benefits such as a source of food, the right to one or more females, a place to rear young, and a place providing protection from predators
• Territoriality is more likely to occur during times of reproduction
• Optimal foraging model


  It is adaptive for foraging behavior to be as energetically efficient as possible
• Reproductive strategies

  • Polygamous
  • Polyandrous
  • Monogamous
• Sexual selection


  Adaptive changes in females and males that lead to differential reproductive success, often resulting in female choice and male competition
• Societies

  Living in a society has a greater reproductive benefit than reproductive cost
• Dominance hierarchies


  A way to apportion resources, where higher-ranking individuals have greater access to essential resources
• Altruism

  Behavior that involves a reduction in individual fitness, but may be compensated by an increase in the fitness of another member of the society
• Inclusive Fitness


  Reproductive fitness of self, and reproductive fitness of relatives
• Genetic relatedness may underlie many/most acts of apparent altruism
• Reciprocal altruism

  Occurs in groups of animals that are mutually dependent