Animal Behaviour
Goals:
1. Recognise the importance of survival
and reproduction success when
explaining behaviour.
2. Understand how hierarchies are
established.
3. Consider how communication can be
used in competitions
Survival and reproduction
• All behaviours can be explained in terms of
– Survival of the individual/ group
– Reproductive success of the individual/group
• ALWAYS refer back to these 2 things when
explaining a behaviour
Rhythmic behaviour
• Migration– Allows animals to maximise their survival by
increasing their food/breeding resources
Feeding
Feeding only at night increases chances of survival
by
• reducing risk of predation
• Reducing water loss during the day
Alarm calls
• Alarm calls warn others of predation
BUT
• Responding to an alarm can be cost energy, so
animals may respond to some threats more
than others (habituation)
Courtship V Predation
• Courtship behaviours can be costly in energy
and predation risk
– So why do it????
• Organisms need to reproduce and the
importance of this can outweigh the need to
survive
• Also!! Those colourful male birds that are at
most risk are precisely the ones females will
choose to mate with
Cranes have an elaborate
dance to attract females
Birds of paradise have
elaborate plumage which
would greatly increase
predation risk
Social behaviour
• Acting as a group can increase your survival
– Groups can spend less time checking for predators if
they are in a group and share the job.
• If it doesn’t benefit you, it benefits the species
– Ant, termites, bees all work selflessly for the good of
the colony
• The theory suggests that this is because of a genetic quirk
that an individual will be more closely related to their
brothers and sisters than they would their own offspring
As flock size
increases- time
spent checking for
predators decreases
Intra-specific Competition:
competition within a species
• WAR! What is it good for
– Why would you fight one of you own?
– For resources
– For breeding
• Again it comes back to survival and
reproduction!!!!
Today’s activity
• A game
• Aim:
– Understand how hierarchies are established
– How past experience affects competitions
– How size/ communication/ visual displays affect
competition
• See worksheet for rules
• 10 mins at each station
• Take your record sheet with you and record your
result carefully
• Keep in mind
– Who you choose to challenge
– Who you accept
– What for the outcomes on disputes tell you about
your number value
Exam question example
Can you…..
• Identify innate and learned behaviour?
• Understand behaviour in relation to
reproduction and survival?
– Why do male orb weaver spiders risk copulating
with females when they know they will be eaten?
– Female stick insects signal males with a
pheremone, but after 3 weeks will stop signalling
and start laying eggs (parthenogenetic eggs that
will hatch without being fertilised). Explain why
they stop signalling.
What next?
• Based on what we discussed today and what
you learned in your summaries what would
you like to do next?
– More on courtship behaviour (leads nicely onto
next chapter)
– Focus on learned behaviour
– Other?