Animal Behavior
What is behavior?
 Behavior is anything an animal does in
response to a stimulus in its
environment
 Environmental cues, such as change of
temperature and the length of daylight
 Heat is a stimulus for the lizard to seek shade
 Change in temp and day length is a stimulus for a
whale to leave the summer time habitat in the
artic
Innate Behavior
 Inborn behavior- programmed by genes
 Fixed-Action Patterns
 Unchanged sequence of patterns
 Triggered by a particular stimulus
 Often involved activities critical for survival
 Rhythms of Behavior-Biological Clock
 Circadian rhythm~24 hour cycle
 Nocturnal vs diurnal
 Tidal
 seasonal
Automatic responses to
stimuli
 Reflex- simplest form of innate behavior
 A reflex is a simple, automatic response that
involves no conscious control
 Blinking , moving your hand from something
hot
 Fight or flight response- mobilized the body
for greater activity
 Body is prepared for danger
 Automatic and controlled by internal
chemical mechanisms
 Being scared- heart rate increase
Instinctive Behavior Patterns
 An instinct is a complex pattern of
innate behavior
 A reflex can happen in less then a second
while instinctive behavior patterns may have
several parts and may take weeks to
complete
 sea gulls
 Instinctive behavior begins when the animal
recognizes a stimulus and continues until all
parts of the behavior have been preformed
Taxis
 In taxis, the animal moves toward or
away from a stimulus.
 Taxis is often exhibited when the stimulus is
light, heat, moisture, sound, or chemicals
 Example: Wood louse and humidity seeking
behavior
 Living in humid areas required for survival
 Prolonged exposure to dry air = death
 General Tendency to keep moving in dry and stop
when in moist
 Only senses humidity of present location
Other types of instinctive
behavior patterns
 Courtship behavior
 Territorial
 Aggression
 Dominance of hierarchy (submission)
 Internal and external cues
 Circadian rhythm, migration, hibernation,
estivation
Instinctive Behavior Patterns
continues
Courtship behavior ensures
reproduction
 Courtship behavior- is a behavior that
males and females of a species carry
out before matting
 Helps them recognize other members
of their species
 Why is this important?
Territoriality reduces
competition
 Chipmunks chasing chipmunks from bird
feeders
 The chipmunk is defending his territory
 A territory is a physical space an animals
defends against other members of its
species
 Contains the animals breeding area, feeding area,
and potential mates
 Territorial behavior has survival value for
both the animal and the species… why?
Aggression threatens other
animals
Aggression is behavior that us used
to intimidate another animal
 Animals fight or threaten one another
in order to defend their young,
territory, resources
 Behavior includes birds singing, teeth
baring, growling
Submission leads to
dominance
 Think of having a younger or older
sibling? Who wins when you argue?
 Usually the older or stronger wins.
 With animals aggressive behavior may
occur in groups. In these groups there
may be different levels of dominant and
submissive animals.
 A dominance hierarchy is a form of social
ranking in which some individuals are more
subordinate then others.
submission
 In a group normally one animal is topranking
 Leads others to food, water and shelter
 Dominate males father most of the offspring
 In groups there are different levels of
dominance think pecking order
Behavior resulting from internal
and external cues
 Some behavior is based on a 24 hour day/night
cycle
 What are some examples of this?
 The 24 hour, light-regulated, sleep/wake cycle
of behavior is called circadian rhythm.



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Keeps you alert during day
Relaxing you at night
Works when you forget to set your alarm
Rhythm is controlled by genes yet are influenced
by jet lag and work conditions
More on rhythms
 Occurs on a yearly or seasonal cycle
 Migration= seasonal
 Migration= instinctive, seasonal movement of
animals
 Birds
 Whales
 Change in day length triggers migration
 Learned and natural behavior
 Young animals learn when and how from
their parents
Other types of internal and
external cues
 Hibernation
A state of inactivity
where body temperature
drops a lot, breathing
slows.
Happens in cold
environments
 Conserves energy
 Animals will eat a lot
before they
hibernate
Storage of fat provides
fuel for body.
 Estivation
 State of reduced
metabolism that
occurs in animals
living in conditions of
intense heat.
 Animals that lack
food or water will
experience this
33.2
Learned Behavior
What is learned behavior?
 When behavior changes because of
practice or experience.
 More complex brains can learn more
 Innate behaviors (the ones we already
talked about) are more common in
invertebrates and learned behaviors are
more common in vertebrates
Why is learning important?
 Survival
 Animals can respond to changing conditions
 Allows animals to adapt to change
 Important for animals with long life
spans.
 Longer you live the greater chance of the
environment changing
Habituation: A simple form of
learning
A lack of a response
 Ex horses not being effected by cars
Occurs when an animal is
repeatedly give a stimulus that is
not associated with any
punishment or reward
Imprinting: A permanent
attachment
Form of learning in which an animal
at a specific critical time in its life
forms a social attachment to
another object
 Ex- ducklings following their mom
Only occurs at a specific time in life
Is irreversible
Learning by trial and error
 Repeating many times to become
successful
 An animal receives an award for a
particular response
 Happens best with motivation
 An internal need that causes an animal to
act, and it is necessary for learning to take
place
Classical Conditioning
 Learning by association
 Sound of the can opener calling your pet
 The pet has been conditioned to respond to a
stimulus other then the smell of food.
 Classical conditioning is learning by
association.
 Pavlov’s dog
Insight
The most complex type of learning
Problem solving
An animal uses previous experience
to respond to a new situation.
Plant responses
Plant Hormones
 Hormones
 Regulate growth and development
 They are a chemical that is produced in one
part of an organism and is transported to
another part, where is causes a physiological
change
 Only a small amount of hormone is needed to make a
change
Important hormones
 Ethylene
 ripening
 Gibberellins
 Increases size of stems & fruit
 Cytokinins
 Stimulate cell division
 Cause dormant seeds to grow
 ***Auxins
 Stimulate cell elongation
Tropic responses in plants
Tropism is a plant’s response to an
external stimulus
 The tropism is called positive if the
plant grows toward the stimulus
 The tropism is called negative if the
plant grows away from the stimulus
Phototropism
 Young Plant Shoots
Bending Toward Light
 Caused by uneven
distribution of auxin in
plants system
 More auxin on side away
from plant.
Gravitropic response
Associated with upward growth of
stems and the downward growth of
roots
Plants response to gravity
Thigmotropism
 Response to
touch
Nastic response
 Responsive
movement of a
plant that is not
dependent on the
direction of the
stimulus
Ex Venus-fly trap