Animal Behavior Notes
Chapter 33
NCSCOS – 4.05
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•
Behavior is anything an animal does in response to a stimulus
Two categories –
– Innate – behaviors with a genetic basis that animals inherit
– Learned – behaviors that change through practice or experience, acquired
during an animal’s lifetime
• Can be automatic responses or instinctive behaviors
Innate Behavior – Automatic Responses
• Reflex – simple, involves no conscious control
• Fight or Flight – reaction to sudden danger – increased heart rate, circulation,
respiration, adrenaline
– Your body is preparing you to fight or flee from the danger
• Instincts are complex patterns of innate behavior
– Courtship behavior – behaviors carried out by males and females of the
same species prior to mating
– Territoriality – territory is the physical space an animal defends against
other members of its species
– Contains feeding, bedding areas
– Reduces competition except when new males come into an area, or during
breeding season
– Marked in a variety of ways
– Aggressive behavior – used to intimidate another animal of the same
species
– Used to defend young and establish mating privileges
– Usually stopped prior to serious injury
– Establishes a dominance hierarchy (pecking order)
• Certain behaviors rely on internal and external cues
– Circadian rhythm – pattern of behavior in a 24hr. period
– Migration
– Hibernation
– Estivation – reduced metabolism during extreme heat conditions
(33.2) Learned Behavior
• Takes place when behavior changes through practice or experience, many
examples • Habituation – animal continually presented with a stimulus not associated with a
punishment or reward, eventually it stops responding to the stimulus
• Imprinting – occurs during a critical time in life, animal forms close social
attachment to another object (ducks, geese – imprint on 1st moving object seen
after birth)
• Bird songs also an example
• Trial and error – trying multiple solutions in the course of obtaining a reward
• Happens more quickly when animal is motivated (hunger, thirst, etc.)
•
Conditioning –
animals associate a
secondary stimulus
with a primary
stimulus and elicit the
same response
• Classical –
Pavlov’s dog
• Operant –
B.F. Skinner
Insight – using previous
experience to respond to a
new situation
Animal Communication
• Exchange of information that results in a change in behavior
• Combination of innate and learned
• Sounds, sights, touch, smell
– Growling lion, posturing bird, etc.