AP BIOLOGY – ANIMAL BEHAVIOR LAB
OVERVIEW – In this laboratory you will observe some aspects of animal behavior.
You will observe pill bugs and design an experiment to investigate their responses
to environmental variables.
Before doing this lab you should understand:
 The concept of distribution of organisms in a resource gradient, and
 The difference between kinesis and taxis
After doing this lab you should be able to:
 Describe some aspects of animal behavior
 Understand the adaptiveness of the behaviors you studied
INTRODUCTION – Ethology is the study of animal behavior. Behavior is an
animal’s response to sensory input, and falls into two basic categories: learned and
innate (inherited).
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 taxis. If an
animal responds to bright light by random movements in all directions, that is
kinesis.
In this lab, you will be working with terrestrial isopods commonly known as
pill bugs, sow bugs or roly-polies. These organisms are members of the Phylum
Arthropoda, Class Crustacea, which also includes shrimp and crabs. Most members
of this group respire through gills.
PROCEDURE PART 1
1 -- Place approximately 10 pill bugs and a small amount of bedding material in a
cup or beaker. Try to make the conditions as close as possible to their natural
habitat. Observe the pill bugs for about 10 minutes. Make notes on general
appearance, movements in the container, and interactions with one another. Notice
if they happen to prefer one area over another, if they keep moving, settle down, or
move sporadically. Note any behaviors that involved two or more pill bugs. Try to
make your observations without disturbing the pill bugs in any way.
Record any observations in your laptop or notebook and include a detailed sketch of
a pill bug.
2 – Prepare a choice chamber according to my suggestions. Line each side of the
chamber with filter paper, one side moist filter paper, the other side dry filter paper.
Transfer approximately 5 pill bugs into each side of the chamber. Determine every
30 seconds, how many pill bugs are in each side of the chamber and record this data
in your lab notebook.
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS IN YOUR LAB NOTEBOOK:
1 – What conclusions do you draw from your data? Explain physiological reasons
for the behavior observed in this activity.
2 – Obtain results from the other lab groups and determine how your conclusions
compare to others.
3 – How do isopods locate appropriate environments?
4 – If you suddenly turned a rock over and found isopods under it, what would you
expect them to be doing? If you watched the isopods for a few minutes, how would
you expect to see their behavior change?
5 – Is the isopod’s response to moisture best classified as kinesis or taxis? Explain
your response.
PROCEDURE PART 2
Determine another factor that you think might influence pill bug behavior and
develop a hypothesis concerning the pill bug’s response to the factor.
Design an experiment to test your factor.
State the objective of your experiment.
List the materials you will use.
Outline your procedure in detail.
Decide what data you will collect, and design your data sheet.
Check out your experiment with me and, if given the go-ahead, run your experiment.
Make any graphical representation of your data that will help to visualize, interpret
and communicate your data.
Apply appropriate statistical tests (eg. Chi Square) to your data analysis
Write a conclusion based on your experimental results and analysis.
Return your pill bugs to the environment.
Write-up:
1.
2.
3.
4.
one paragraph abstract
data
graph (s), stats
one paragraph conclusion