Animal Behavior Study Guide
Ch. 1,10,11,12; Activity 1 and 2
Animal Behavior: is the study of all of the observable activities of an organism.
1. Historical Background: Be able to summarize
Know terms: typological thinking, anthropomorphic, animal tropisms, behavioralism
Reductionism and Animal tropisms = the elements of which more complex beh. responses are composed;
Kinesis - undirected locomotion movements - end in best conditions; Taxis - directed locomotion toward a
condition or set of conditions
Ethology - developed in Europe from zoology; emphasized the study of the evolution of behavior with
careful observation and experimentation in the field
Comparative Psychology - N. Amer.; from psychology, emphasized learning and environmental effects on
behavior; developed beh. theories w/ lab. experiments and carefully controlled variables.
Physiological Behavior - Explains behavior in terms of physiology (nervous system, hormones and cell
function) - underlying physiological causes.
Behavioral Ecology - emphasizes the interactions of an animal with its environment
Sociobiology - studies of social behavior from an evolutionary perspective
2. Methods for studying animal behavior:

Watching behavior is not the same thing as observing behavior
Ethogram = a inventory of an animal’s behavior. Unbiased, factual.
Proximate causation or immediate causes for behavior (how questions)- spans 1 lifetime
Ultimate causation (why questions) or the evolutionary reasons for the behavior; spans more than one
lifetime
Levels of analysis in the study of animal behavior

Design an experiment to test your hypothesis to answer your question
1. Direct experimental manipulation
2. Comparative method - identify the environmental and/or other conditions that appear to make a
behavior advantageous - compare different, unrelated species that have similar behavior.
Determine what factors in life style and environment are similar.
3. Comparative method - look at closely related species with different behavior. Compare their
behavior to the differences in their environment and general surroundings. In this way one can
determine possible factors that are resulting in the observed divergence.
4. Prediction testing - predict causative factors and test.

Collect, Analyze and Report results. How to do a table.

Scan sampling versus focal animal, continuous recording observations

Understand why quantifying behavior is an issue and why it’s important
Ex. White-crowned sparrow – the physiology of song development (proximate causes) and the evolutionary
reasons learning a dialect may help this species survive and reproduce and the phylogeny of song learning in
birds (ultimate causes);
3. Evolution
Species = an interbreeding group of organisms that does not breed with other groups of organisms
Evolution: (biological definition) a change in allele frequencies over time
possible causes of change: mutation, gene flow in and out of population, selection (natural, sexual
selection (non-random mating) and artificial selection included here), random genetic drift resulting
from small population size
Natural selection: The differential reproductive success of individuals within a species that occurs because
of genetic or hereditary differences among them
** selection acts on organism as a whole not on individual genes **
Be able to describe the process of natural selection.
Sources of Genetic Variation
Heritability – h2 – proportion of variability due to inherited genes
4. Evidence of genetic basis of behavior - necessary for evolution of behavior
a. difference in behavior among different strains
b. effects of artificial selection on behavior
c. the behavior of interspecies hybrids
d. twin studies
e. instinctive behavior - no learning opportunities
** For all of the above be able to explain how these illustrate at least some genetic control of behavior and
be able to give at least one example.
5. Macroevolution:
Phylogeny – the history of descent of a group of taxa
Traits can be analogous – no common ancestry, but similar due to convergent evolution
Or they can be homologous – similar due to common ancestry
6. Behavioral Development
a. Interactive Theory of Development – genes influence all behavior – regulate anatomy and physiology,
nervous system function. The environment can influence gene expression. This is epigenesis.
i. Be able to explain the nature versus nurture conflict
b. Prior to birth - spontaneous motility, internally stimulated motility, and evoked motility, integrated
movements. Development over time and patterns in responsiveness are due to nervous system
development, which in turn is regulated by genes.
c. Song development in White-crown sparrow – be able to explain how this is a good example of how
genes and learning can be both involved in behavior development; know how it is similar to human
language development.
d. Honey bee example of the Interactive Theory – environment influences gene expression.
e. Developmental switch mechanisms and polyphenism – food, social and predator induced. Male and
female differences. All are examples of the Interactive Theory of Development
f. Restricted Development

Sign stimulus = an external signal that elicits specific responses

Fixed Action Pattern = an innate stereotypic behavioral response to a specific sign stimulus

Innate releasing mechanism = a neural process, triggered by the sign stimulus that preprograms an
animal for receiving the sign stimulus and mediates a specific behavioral response.

Be able to describe examples
g. Semirestricted Development
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Programmed learning - imprinting, mobbing, language development
g. Flexible Development

Habituation = the persistent waning of a response from repeated stimulus presentations
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Associative learning = acquired connection between a stimulus and a response that did not exist
before. Classical and Operant

Cognitive learning = problem solving. Insight, Sign, and Latent learning

Know examples and be able to explain about these.
h. Adaptation and Constraints on Learning - When is learning advantageous, when is restricted
development advantageous, and when is semirestricted development advantageous?
7. Nervous System and Behavior
a. Nerve cells and sensory perception 1. Umwelt - an animal’s environment as constructed by its sensory apparatus. This depends on the
stimulus filtering system of an animal.
2. structure of neuron
3. interrelationship among motor, sensory and interneurons
4. Photoreception - simple light sensitive single cell or group of cells to complex organ
structure and function with examples
5. Auditory reception - hearing and tactile or mechanoreception are related. Both translate airborne or
substrate borne vibrations into electrical stimulus.
structure and function with examples
6. Chemoreception - translates chemicals (molecular energy) into electrical signal
structure and function with examples
b. Sensory input is interpreted by the brain = perception.
Example of Sensory-filtering Mechanism. = the nervous system selectively receives and processes
particular information from the environment. Donald Griffin’s work with bats and Ken Roeder’s work
with noctuid moths and their perception of bat vocalizations. Know this system in detail and understand
why it is adaptive to the moths.
c. Competing Stimuli - examples of how the brain may selectively tune out certain signals or handle
competing signals in a hierarchical fashion.
d. Central Pattern Generators – such as the one worked out in the sea slug, Tritonia. You don’t need to know
details, but understand how it works
Animal Care and Use issues
 Animal Welfare Act – general description
 NIH Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals
 Difference between animal rights and animal welfare
 Alternatives to Animal Experimentation: refinement, reduction and replacement
Activities 1 and 2