Animal Behavior Short Assignment
Objectives:
 To gain further experience collecting behavioral data
 To create an ethogram
 To conduct a Focal Animal Survey
Introduction:
Your first goal is to spend about 20 minutes observing an animal of your choosing
and to create an ethogram for the species (humans can count but see if you can find
another animal to observe).
The ethogram is a fundamental tool in the study of behavior. It consists of a
behavioral profile or catalogue of behavioral patterns. Essentially it is an inventory of all
activities of a species throughout its lifetime.
One of the most important, and difficult, steps in constructing an ethogram is the
naming and defining of behaviors. Each category of behavior should be given a descriptive
name that does not imply anything about its possible cause or motivation. “Grooming”,
“feeding”, “resting”, and “Socializing” are all descriptive references, while “aggressive
behavior” denotes motivation.
You have been given a copy of an ethogram for spotted hyenas as an example. Be
aware that this ethogram does not follow all the guidelines given for this assignment. Once
you have read the assignment, see if you can identify problems with the spotted hyena
ethogram.
You will be constructing an ethogram for a single species. It is important that the
behavioral descriptions be clear, concise, complete, and objective. Behavioral descriptions
should describe what you saw, not your interpretation of the action. The best way to do this
is to focus on describing motor patterns. You should avoid functional descriptions. For
example, compare the description of a “mount” in the spotted hyena ethogram (this
describes a motor pattern) with a functional definition such as “attempt to mate”. You
should also avoid assigning motivation for behaviors (note that the spotted hyenas
behaviors “push” and “giggle” do not indicate motivation, though one might be tempted to
assign motivation). Be sure to carefully follow the “Additional guidelines” outlined below.
For more good examples of behavioral definitions look at “bite-shake” (an aggressive
behavior, p. 1) and “submissive posture” (an appeasement behavior).
 Additional guidelines:
o Focus on describing motor patterns
o Beware of making inferences about function or motivation
o Avoid anthropomorphism (assigning human emotions or thought processes)
o Do not use the name of the behavior as part of the definition
o Avoid undue overlap among behaviors
o You should be able to give your ethogram to a classmate and have them use it
to make observations on your species
Focal-Animal sampling (FAS) is a method of behavioral data collection that allows
you to accurately measure several behaviors in selected individuals by observing only one
focal animal at a time. All occurrences of behavior and interactions are recorded for an
individual in a group. This provides accurate data on frequencies and durations of
behavior and can be used for behavioral states and events. A standard way of recording
data for a focal animal sample is to keep a minute-to-minute account of the animal’s activity.
At the onset of each minute, record the animal’s behavior and any other behavior observed
during this minute. For example:
9:00 feed, rest, groom, feed
9:01 feed (animal feeds during the entire minute)
9:02 feed, approached and threatened by animal B, sits
9:03 sits
Procedure:
1. After selecting a species, simply sit and carefully watch the animal for 20 minutes.
During your observations, jot down the various categories of behavior in which you
see the animals engaged.
2. Assign names to these behavioral categories using the guidelines given above.
3. Write out a clear definition of each behavioral category you plan to use. Do not use
tautologies in defining your behaviors, i.e. do not define your behavior by using the
name of the behavior. For example, for the category “follow”, an incorrect definition
would be “one animal follows another”. An adequate definition would be “one
animal walks after another.” You should have at least five different behaviors.
4. At the top of your data sheet, record the genus and species of the animal you are
observing and age and sex if possible.
5. Choose at least five behaviors to record for your FAS. Then choose either the same
individual or another of the same species and watch them for about 20 minutes.
6. Carry out a focal animal survey using the attached datasheet. Fill in the first time
slot with the current time and then label each subsequent slot in consecutive
minutes. For example, if you will begin your observation of a single individual at
2:07 pm, fill in the first slot with 2:07 pm and fill in the next 29 slots with
consecutive minutes, 2:08, 2:09, 2:10, etc.
7. Now watch your chosen animal for a full 20 minutes, placing a check mark in the
appropriate behavior category column for every minute in which the animal
engages in that behavior. Your study animal may engage in more than one of the
listed categories of behavior during any given minute and these should all be
recorded.
8. You many find it difficult to keep track of your animal’s whereabouts, particularly if
that animal is part of a large group. If the animal goes out of your field of view for
more than a few seconds you should note a “time out” (“TO”) across the category
spaces on your check sheet for that minute and carry on at the end for as many extra
minutes as you need to compensate for the time the animal was out of view.
Report
Hand in a brief report describing what species or individuals you observed and
include your ethogram and datasheet. Additionally, summarize your data in graphical form.
You should represent the percent of total observation time for each animal during which
that animal engaged in each behavioral pattern listed in your “categories”. Thus for
example, if your adult male lemur engaged in feeding behavior during 14 of 30 minutes you
watch him, he fed for 46.7% of the total time he was observed. Since your animals may
engage in more than one behavior per minute, your bars may total to more than 100% per
individual.
Finally present at least one hypothesis for a factor that might influence the
behaviors you observed and a prediction for that hypothesis. For instance if sex influences
time budgets than you might expect males tamarins to groom more than females.
Furthermore, if the function of grooming is courtship you might expect males to groom in
the presence of females or to only groom other females.
Datasheet
Species:________
Age:___________
Sex:____________
Behaviors
Behaviors
Time
Time
Total%
Total%