Chapter 35: Animal Behavior
Section 1: Elements of Behavior
Behavior and Survival

The ____________________________________ of an animal is just as important to
its survival and reproduction as any of its physical characteristics

For that reason, animal behaviors have evolved in many different ways, just as
animal physical characteristics have

Behavior is in an organism’s ____________________________________________

Behaviors can enhance an animal’s ability to survive

There are some behaviors that animals must perform _____________________________
in order to survive
o “Know” how to hunt soon after they are born
o Dolphins must know in advance that they have to hold their breath under water

Other
behaviors
must
be
more
flexible
and
capable
of
____________________________________________ by experience
o Hummingbirds must learn to find food in different kinds of flowers at different times
of the year

A variety of automatic and flexible behaviors exist in the animal kingdom
o _______________________________
o _______________________________
Instincts

Instincts are behaviors that can be called ___________________________

Instincts are built into an animal’s nervous system and ____________________________
__________________________ during the animal’s lifetime, even by learned experiences

Instinctive behaviors are ____________________________________________________

Many instinctive behaviors consist of actions that always continue in a certain order once
they have begun

Although some instinctive behaviors are relatively simple, others can be very complex
o _________________________________________________________ in spiders
o _________________________________________________________ in insects,
fish, birds, and mammals
Learning

Learned behaviors are shaped by experience

________________________________ is the way animals change their behavior as a
result of experience

Learning is valuable to an animal because it may enhance the animal’s chances of survival
and its chances of reproduction and passing on its genes to another generation

There are several different ways in which animals learn
o ________________________________
o ________________________________________________
o ________________________________________________
o ________________________________________________

________________________________________ is a decrease in response to a stimulus
that neither rewards nor harms an animal
o One of the _________________________________________ in which animals
learn
o EXAMPLE

Very young ducks and geese are frightened of any shadow that moves
overhead

Within a few days of hatching, however, the young birds find that some
shadows moving overhead – the shadows of adult geese and ducks –
mean nothing

They soon habituate to these shadows and no longer try to escape from
them

______________________________________________________
occurs
when
an
animal makes a mental connection between a stimulus and some kid of good or bad event
o _________________________________

________________________________________________________ is sometimes called
trial-and-error learning
o An animal learns to behave in a certain way in order to _____________________
______________________________ or _________________________________
____________________________

EXAMPLE

A predator learns not to eat a particular prey in order to avoid an
unpleasant experience

In _________________________________________, an animal applies something it has
already learned to a new situation – without a period of trial-and-error
o Rare among most animals
o Common only in ______________________________
Instinct and Learning Combined

Some behaviors cannot occur without some learning on the part of the animal

For example, newborn ducks and geese have a built-in urge to follow their mother

But this instinct to follow does not include a picture of what their mother looks like

This
picture
must
be
provided
by
experience
in
a
process
__________________________________
o The newborn bird will follow the first large slowly moving object it sees
called