Assignment #2: Behavior Lab and Lab Report
Background Information
Ethology, the study of animal behavior, involves observing an organism’s behaviors and interpreting what is observed.
Ethologists study and observe an organism’s reaction to the environment around them.
Biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) factors are limiting factors that control the maximum size of a given population.
Organisms desire favorable conditions for their home environment. Because of this, an animal must search for the right
environment to fit its structure and lifestyle. This is called habitat selection.
Orientation behaviors place the animal in its most favorable environment. In taxis, the animal moves toward or away from
a stimulus. Taxis is often exhibited when the stimulus is light, heat, moisture, sound, or chemicals. Kinesis is a movement
that is random and does not result in orientation with respect to a stimulus. If an organism responds to bright light by
moving away, that is a taxis. If an animal responds to bright light by random movements in all directions, that is kinesis.
Agonistic behavior is exhibited when animals respond to each other by aggressive or submissive responses. Often the
agonistic behavior is simply a display that makes the organism look big or threatening. It is sometimes studied in the
laboratory with Bettas (Siamese Fighting Fish).
Mating behaviors may involve a complex series of activities that facilitate finding, courting, and mating with a member of
the same species.
In this laboratory, you will observe the behavior of an insect and design an experiment to investigate its responses to
environmental variables and/or observe and investigate mating behavior.
The Lab Report
For this assignment you will be constructing a lab report that consists of the following sections. Remember, this is a
report, therefore proper spelling and grammar count, especially in an AP course.
Purpose:
Your purpose is stated in one or two sentences. Usually it takes on the form below:
The purpose of this experiment is to investigate ___________ (orienting behaviors (kinesis/taxis), agonistic, or mating
behaviors) in __________ (your choice animal).
Introduction (prelab questions):
Your introduction will consist of a few paragraphs that answer the following questions (as appropriate, not all questions
apply to all experiments).
1. What Phylum and Class does your animal belong to? What are some typical features of organisms that belong to this
phyla/class?
2. Where would you expect to find these animals? Why?
3. Will there be a resource gradient (areas of high and low concentration of a resource) for your animal to choose from in
your experiment? If so, what type of resource gradient will you provide for your animal? How do you expect the animal
to behave in your resource gradient and why?
4. How does your resource gradient (or ingredients in your resource gradient) relate to an environmental factor in the
animal’s natural environment? Why would the orienting behavior you expect to see in your shoebox be of any value
to the animal in its natural environment?
5. Identify and describe the different orienting behaviors (kinesis/taxis) that your animal demonstrates in nature.
6. Why does the animal exhibit such orienting behavior (relate it to specific body structures/functions)?
7. Do you expect to see orienting behaviors (kinesis and/or taxis) during your experiment? If so, when and how?
8. What other kinds of social or cognitive behaviors do you expect to see?
9. Describe briefly what you will do in this lab. How you set it up to reduce experimental errors?
**Provide a reference for ALL material that is not your original thought.**
Hypothesis:
Don’t forget to include a hypothesis. In other words, what do you think will happen in your experiment?
Data:
Your experiment and lab report must include the following.
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Resource gradient must be clearly quantifiable. This means the variable you choose must have a quantitative
measure (can be measured in numbers).
Three trials of the same experiment must be run.
Each trial will be at least 10 minutes long (for some experiments you may need quite a bit more time).
For each trial you need to have at least 6 data collection times (probably many more) – so observe and record at least
every 1 min or so. Use the same recording times for each trial! Record on a data table (see end of instruction sheet
for sample table).
You need to include a 24-hour data point in your experiment. This means you leave your experiment undisturbed and
come back and check the next day. You may make additional recordings if you so desire.
Results/Analysis:
You must follow these guidelines when presenting and analyzing your data.
 Your raw data is presented in well-organized tables with headings.
 Your raw data has units as appropriate.
 Analyzed/summated data must be recorded in separate tables and graphs.
 Qualitative data (personal observations) must accompany quantitative data whenever possible
 Insert your charts/tables into the document for upload to turnitin.com. If you don’t know how to do this, google it.
Google knows everything.
 Choose correct intervals for your axes so data is not ‘squished’ and data points do not lay outside the axes. Be sure
to include a title, labels on the axes, and the units of measurement on all graphs.
 Show ALL calculations
Conclusion and Discussion:
Your conclusion and discussion section is written in paragraph form and includes answers to the questions below (as
appropriate, not all questions apply to all experiments).
1. SUMMARIZE your results in clear statements free from opinions. Don’t recount in words a long list of data points
recorded, but integrate and make inferences from your data. What can you generalize from your results? Any
conclusions must include evidence from your results.
2. Explicitly state what additional trends and relations can be noted between your independent (the variable you
changed) and dependent variables (what happened as a result of what you changed) in statement form. Use your
graphs as the basis and not your opinions. [Ex: We noted that there was a trend for students to perform poorly (set at
<20% of average) in the second half of the test with caffeine intake of more than 600g. This conclusion is based on
the observation that 90% of these high caffeine group members received a score of 60% or less in the second half of
the test (see table 2)]
3. Is your data reliable based on the sample size and number of trials you ran? How can you make it better? Did you run
controls for your experiment? Did you have one independent variable? If not, how are you able to make any
conclusions about the preferred animal environment?
4. Discuss deviations from the expected result/hypothesis. Provide scientific explanations based on internet research for
these deviations (make sure these are not opinion based).
5. Why did you obtain the results you observed? Give a physiological explanation (based on their body structurefunction relationship) for ALL results expected or otherwise!
6. Is the animal behavior best classified as kinesis or taxis? Why?
7. Did you see any other types of behavior during this experiment? Describe them and their benefit to the animal.
Possible Experiments:
Below is a list of the possible experiments you can do. If you would like to do a different one, you MUST get permission!!
Pill Bugs Environmental Preferences "roly-poly bugs"
Roly-poly bugs (Armadilidium vulgare) make ideal test animals for a whole class-full of studies. The best places to look for
isopods (roly-poly bugs) are underneath rocks and vegetation in semi-damp areas.
A useful "cage" is a two or more chambered device that has narrow passageways between the chambers. Thus, if
different environments are made in each container, the scientist can observe where the pill bugs prefer to be. A simple
type of multi-chambered cage can be made from shallow butter dishes. Cut a half-centimeter wide piece out of the sides
of two bottoms and two tops. Use tape to hold the two plates together with their doorways aligned. A scissors and tape is
all that is required for this construction. Now consider these questions:
o light vs. dark
o moist vs. dry
o various foods
o uphill or downhill
o Can thec see colors? (put different colored plastics over the different chambers)
Betta Behavior (Siamese Fighting Fish)
Male Bettas are extremely territorial and aggressive towards each other. When males are placed together their colors
deepen, and they spread their fins and gill covers. This behavior can be considered innate (inherited) as well as agonistic
(aggressive). Besides changing appearance, they will also approach each other either in a frontal approach, a broadside
display, undulating movements, and/or increased swimming speed.
Observe your male Betta. Be sure you can identify the fins indicated in the diagram above. Look for a collection of
bubbles floating at the surface of the tank. This is the bubble-nest that the male has created in which a female would lay
her eggs. Note that the fish’s mouth is directed upward. What do you think is the purpose of the upward-pointed mouth?
Take notes on the behavior of your Siamese fighting fish when he is alone in the tank. Consider at least the following
behaviors: position of fins, gill covers, color of fins & gill covers, is he swimming around or staying in one location, where
is he staying, how often does he gulp air, does he have a nest?
Also make note of physical factors like water temperature. Carefully lower a mirror into the aquarium and leave it in place
for 10 minutes. If there is a nest, lower the mirror close to the nest. Turn the mirror so your male Betta can see himself.
Briefly describe what occurs when your fish became aware of the mirror. Include a description of aggressive and
submissive behaviors that you saw. (Be sure you can identify aggressiveness and submissiveness). Animal behaviorists
are often interested in determining the variables (stimuli) that trigger certain behaviors.
Use your imagination to think of three (3) stimuli that may either increase or decrease the frequency of aggressive
behavior in male Siamese fighting fish. (Note: there are no wrong answers here, so be creative!). Choose one of these
ideas and develop an experiment to test your ideas.
Food Preferences of Slugs/Snails
Investigate the food preferences of garden slugs (Arion subfuscus) using simple equipment including margarine tubs,
graph paper, scissors, and common plants, both wild and cultivated. Try to feed the snail different types of plants and see
which one they prefer. Plants include different flowers, grasses, leaves, trees, herbs, etc from your front or back yard.
Put the snail in the box with a food type and see how long it takes him to find it. Or, put the snail in a box with different
food types and see which one it goes to (and how long it takes).
Ants
Sugar Concentration Preference
Solutions of table sugar (sucrose) can be made in several ways. The most straightforward is to add about 30 grams of
sugar into 100 ml of water. This can then be diluted to form 0%, 7.5%, 15%, 22.5% and 30% solutions by placing 0 ml, 7.5
ml, 15 ml, 22.5 ml and 30 ml into five different containers. Then enough water is added to make each up to 30 ml total.
(Obviously the 0% is only water, and the 30% is only the concentrated sugar solution already made.) These should then
be placed in small containers in an area where ants are frequently seen. They could be placed in a circle around the
opening to the ants' underground nest. Don't forget that there are many different kinds of sugar to test: sucrose, glucose,
fructose; and other sweet things such as honey, molasses, and maple syrup.
Testing Various Repellants
One of the neat ideas to consider here is to give the ants something that they would normally really like, such as their
favorite sugar concentration discovered in the previous experiment, and then put various substances in it that you might
think that would be repulsive to ants. Thus the ants would only go to the "control" (what is it?), and not to the repellant
one(s). What would be especially good would be to find something that is repellant to ants, but has no toxicity nor flavor or
taste for humans. This could then be added to such foods as flour so as to prevent food spoilage during storage.
Food Particle Size Preference
This experiment would require that you have available several different meshes of sieves. You might consider crumbling
some dried bread. Sift it through the coarse sieve. Smaller pieces would go through, and those could be sifted through a
finer sieve, and so on. Little piles of each size could be placed near the opening of an ant bed. Soon it should become
apparent to which pile the ants flock.
pH Preference
This is a bit harder to do well, but a crude experiment can easily be done. Capture a few ants and place them within a
"fence" of Vaseline. Inside that fence are various pieces of paper, each dampened with some acidic or basic liquid.
Vinegar is a readily available and safe (acetic acid), and household ammonia is a safe base. Various dilutions should be
tried so as not to overwhelm the ants with fumes!
Now explore your environment for where ants live. Do they prefer to live in grassy areas, or in areas where acid-loving
plants live? Is your experiment supported by reality?
Preference of Proximity of Food Source
This is very much like the first experiment above, except that in the first one all the containers were set out in a circle
around the opening to the ants' home. In this experiment you should set the containers in a line leading directly away from
the opening. In one trial, make the line such that the most dilute is closest to the opening, and in the second trial make the
most concentrated first. Do the ants go the closest one only, or do they still seek out the favored concentration discovered
in the first experiment?
Can Ants See Colors?
In this experiment, place containers of the optimum sugar concentration in a circle around the opening, and then make
little tents of different colored cellophane over each one such that the color under each is different. Food coloring might
also be tried, but remember that it might have a special flavor for ants.
Flavor Preferences
Again this is set up as a circle of sugar solutions around the opening of an ant-bed. Each little container should contain
the same concentration of sugar, but not the optimum concentration. AND then a drop of different flavorings can be added
to each container - vanilla, chocolate, lemon, etc.
Worms
Can Worms Taste Things?
Some worms are captured from outside (or purchased in a bait shop). These are rinsed with water and then placed on a
damp paper towel (worms like it moist!). Thin strips of filter paper are then moistened with various solutions (vinegar,
ammonia, vanilla, chocolate, etc.), and the worms are gently touched with these strips. How does the worm react? Does it
flinch? Or does it seem curious?
Can Worms See Light?
A rather neat device for this is to mix some coffee grounds with some garden soil. Then add this mixture between two
parallel panes of glass that are about separated by about 1cm using strips of wood. The whole apparatus can be held
together my large clothespins. Cover half of both panes with black paper. Add worms, and, after allowing them to burrow
in and move around for a day, note whether the worms are in the light half or the dark half.
This same device can be used to ascertain whether or not worms really know "up" from "down." As a further check of this
sense of gravity, turn the apparatus upside down. Do the worms move to the lower portion or not?
General Animals
Temperature Preferences of Cold-Blooded Animals
This is a very interesting and photogenic experiment. What is needed is called a 'thermal-gradient' device. It might consist
of a long piece of metal that is at least a centimeter thick. One end of this is placed on a hot plate and the other end in ice.
Soon the metal attains a "steady state" gradient. You can determine this by placing thermometers at various points along
its length. Make a graph of distance from one end versus temperature. See the nice curve? Over the top of this you can
place a long half cylinder of clear plastic with cotton stuffed into the ends. Crickets, or roaches, or even your lab partners
can be put into the 'tunnel' - all depending on how big it is. Do the critters all seek out a preferred temperature, or do they
remain dispersed. What happens if you take the device away from the heat and ice, and allow it to equilibrate? Do the
critters then disperse?
Do Birds Have a Sense Of Smell?
Find something that your type of bird likes to eat. Then add different odors to various batches of that food. Put the piles
out for the birds to find, and see which aromas the birds like best (or maybe they are repelled by the others!).
Do Birds Know That They Are Being Watched?
Approach various birds by either walking front wards or backwards and see how close you can get before they fly away.
Another way is to scatter some seeds around in a large circle. Then sit in the middle, and look only in one direction. Do
the birds eat the food nearer to you when they are behind your? (Both of these methods require that you have an
observer off to the side some distance away).
Cause and Effect: which can more quickly determine the source of the point of light emitted by a laser pointer dogs or cats?
It is known that both cats and dogs will chase after the small point of light given off by a laser pointer. But how long does it
take the animal to determine that it is from you that it comes? (A safety consideration: do not point the light into the face of
the animal. You don't want your pet blinded!)
Do Cats Have Longer Memories Than Dogs?
This can be tested in several different ways. While the pet watches, put a favorite food under one of three opaque
containers so that the pet can no longer see it, but do not let the pet approach until 15 seconds or some other longer
period of time has elapsed. Of course, smell of the food might keep the memory going, so place a portion of the food up
on a table with a fan blowing across it. The whole room now smells of the food.
You will note that your pet will want to continuously stare at the correct hiding place. If this seems to be the case, obstruct
the view with a big box or chair.
What Is Your Cat's Favorite Food?
The last time I asked my cat: "What is your favorite food, Kitty?" It just looked blank at me as she only heard me say:
"Blah, blah, blah, blah, Kitty!" You'll get the same reaction. So what can you do? You know that cats are generally
cautious eaters. Some are downright finicky! BUT you are lucky to be able to use this "behavior" trait to help you answer
the question about your cat's favorite food. Choose small amounts of two foods that you know Kitty will eat IF she is
presented with only one at a time. Place a little of each food in side-by-side bowls. Which one will kitty eat first? Simple
enough, right? (Next consider how cats hunted and ate before they were domesticated. Did they hunt alone or in groups?
Did they eat fast or carefully? What other animals might want to steal their food? Were they able to protect their food?
How do these answers fit in with how Kitty eats today?)
In the previous experiment, Kitty had both bowls the same distance from her. Now put the two bowls at different distances
away. Does she sniff each bowl first and then go to the favorite? Or does she merely eat everything in the first bowl she
comes to?
What Is Your Dog's Favorite Food?
Finding the answer to this question for dogs is much more difficult than it is with cats. First run two small preliminary
experiments on your dog. See what the results are, and then you will see what the problem is! What works with cats
doesn't seem to work with dogs! Here are the two preliminary experiments (be sure to use very SMALL amounts of food or your dog will get "stuffed" and won't happily want to work with you): The dog is tied up at the other side of the room and
able to watch and smell what you are doing. Place a small amount of what you think is a favorite food in one bowl and
another small amount of what you think is a not-so-favorite food in another bowl. Place the bowls about 3 feet apart.
Release the dog, and see which food is eaten first. Do this experiment six or seven times but making sure that the food on
the left is alternated with that on the right. Again start with the dog tied up. This time place the small samples of food in
bowls that are in line with the dog. One bowl is closer to the dog and the other further away. Do this several times, and
record your results…But don't get Pooch fat!
Sample Data Table if doing Pill Bugs and Choice Chambers
Time (Mins)
Number in Wet
Chamber
0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
6.0
7.0
8.0
9.0
10.0
Each Lab Write-up should include:
Purpose
Pre-Lab Questions
Hypothesis
Data
Results/Analysis
Conclusion and Discussion
Number in Dry
Chamber
nnnnOther Notesnnn