Animal Behavior : An overview
The term “Ethology” is used to describe the study of animal behaviors that occur in
natural environments.
Behaviors are innate (instinctive) or learned. There are many behaviors with a
genetic component, but a stimulus is required for the behavior to be manifested.
Such behaviors are called fixed action patterns. For example, a male bird will do
some kind of dance or display to attract females. The dude was never taught this
behavior, and most likely has no clue as to why he’s doing it – it is, therefore, innate.
What is the stimulus? It’s the presence of a female of his species. Imagine a bunch
of male birds of some species that have been separated from females. Somewhere in
their pea-sized brains is a programmed courtship dance, but they’ve never done it.
Then a female is introduced. All the young dudes start doing essentially the same
dance that their daddies did, without ever having been instructed. There are 100’s
of examples. One that I like is when some baby birds see a red spot (birds like red)
on mommy’s beak. They peck on the spot and mommy regurgitates some yummy
food. In this case, both chick and mommy are engaging in fixed action patterns. The
stimulus for the baby is the presence of the red spot. The stimulus for the mom is
having her beak pecked. Chicks will peck a red spot on a fake mommy, and moms
without chicks will puke if you peck their beak.
Proximate and Ultimate behavioral causes: Proximate causes are the immediate
manifestation of an innate behavior. The ultimate cause is increased reproductive
success. This is the link between behavior and survival of the fittest (evolution). If
the animal in question (insect, mammal, whatever) does not engage in the
proximate behavior, it will ultimately be less likely to survive and reproduce. An
example would be ducklings that learn shortly after hatching to follow their mommy
(imprinting). Those that do are rewarded with food and protection, and thus
increase their chances of surviving and reproducing. Those that don’t follow
mommy might get eaten instead of fed.
Imprinting: For the first few days after ducks and geese hatch, they identify
“mommy” and follow “her” around. If there is no real mommy, a surrogate will do.
This can be a human, as I learned once when I got some baby geese to raise for
Christmas dinner. That was a one time experience, because it’s pretty cute having
these little goslings following you around in single file every where you go. I
knocked them off and ate them anyway, but after that experience I went back to
chickens and turkeys, which do not imprint. Cranes imprint too. Some whooping
cranes raised in captivity imprinted on some dude in a whooping crane outfit. When
the time came, said dude climbed into an ultralight plane with his crane suit on and
taught them their migration route. Such is the power of imprinting.
Innate behaviors: (Instinctive) These are the ones that are part of the genetic
programming. Different species of birds build nests in a certain way and in a certain
place. No one taught them how to do it. For example, movement, following
environmental cues (chemical, magnetism, etc.), migration, hibernation,
reproductive behaviors, communication (auditory, visual, chemical), aggression,
fleeing from danger, etc. There are many innate behaviors in the animal world.
Learned behaviors: (As opposed to innate)
Habituation is a learned behavior that does not require a teacher. For example, if a
rat is exposed to a hip hop music for the first time, he might flip out. If he hears hip
hop about the same time every day, it learns to take it in stride…no big deal. He has
become habituated to this particular stimulus.
Spatial learning: Animals see patterns and landmarks in their environment. This
makes it easy to find their nest (or whatever) after an excursion to find food. If
environments were completely uniform, spatial learning could not occur. This is
similar to what are called “cognitive maps.”
Associative learning: Classical and Operant conditioning: Animals learn to
associate a behavior with either a positive or negative experience. If a bird eats an
orange monarch butterfly larva, it will taste nasty (it’s toxic too). The bird
associates orange (not the species) with nasty, and avoids it. If a certain type of food
is eaten and an electric shock (ouch) is administered, then no matter how tasty the
food is, the animal will leave it alone. This is classical conditioning, and a type of
associative learning. Operant conditioning involves “trial and error” learning and
can be associated with either positive or negative consequences. I had a dog one
time that tried to take a bite out of a porcupine. I had to take him to the vet to get
the quills removed from his mouth. I don’t think the slow-moving porcupines left
the area, but that dog never tried to bite one again.
Others:
Agonistic behaviors: Usually males. The classic example is fighting over a female.
This happens all the time. The tough guy gets the female…most of the time.
However, sometimes the nice guy gets the female. In a study of orangutans, it was
observed that the dominant (most aggressive) male would not always get the
female. Some males who were inclined to avoid or walk away from a fight would
retreat to the periphery of the group, where he would find a receptive female to
mate with, while the macho male was showing off by banging on his chest. It
appears that such behaviors have made it all the way into the human population.
Altruism is selflessness. Altruistic behaviors are those that have survival value to
others within the population. Such as alerting others of impending danger, like
predators. Picking ticks off your buddy’s back is altruistic.
Insight (reasoning): This is mostly a human thing. We have the mental ability to
adjust our behavior as a result of thinking ahead of the consequences. Some
humans learn this earlier in life than others.