Quick Tour Through Animal Behavior

Like I said in class (sorry juniors – you were taking the ACT)

Behavioral ecology is my true love when it comes to biology. If I could have figured out how to make a living and make a positive impact on the world by pursuing this area, I would have.

So it breaks my heart a little to know that I can’t spend the kind of time on this topic that I would like…

• But due to time constraints, we need to move quickly and effectively through the AP standards that cover this area…

The transition

• Realize that animal behaviors are responses made by organisms…responses to stimuli detected by nerves.

• And those responses are the result of signaling cascades.

•

Chapter 43

– Behavior: any action that can be observed and described

– Behavioral ecology: studies how behavior is controlled, how it develops, evolves, and contributes to survival and reproductive success.

Take a prairie dog for example…

• Prairie dogs live in colonies (called towns)• When a predator is sighted, a prairie dog will

stand on top of its mound and start vocalizing (give an alarm call)

• Essentially, alerting the predator to its presence and exact location.

• Why would an individual do this? This behavior seems counterintuitive…

Behavioral Ecologists design experiments to test hypotheses

• http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/boa_ambushesrat?source=relatedvideo

• So why do they do it?

• How does it increase the fitness of the individual?

• Sacrificing yourself “for the good of the group” (altruism) does not work as an explanation unless there are genetic relationships…and strong ones at that…

AP Standard:

• Natural selection favors innate and learned behaviors that increase survival and reproductive fitness.

Innate behavior

• What you are born knowing how to do• developmentally fixed • under strong genetic control• Exhibited in the same form in a population despite

external and internal environmental differences

Examples:

• Kinesis: change in activity in response to a stimulus

• Taxis: automatic, oriented movement toward or away from some stimulus

• Migration: timing specifically seems to be under genetic control – the “where to” seems to be learned

learning

• Behavioral change resulting from experience

• Examples:– Habituation– Spatial learning– Trial and error– Conditioning

Back to the standard…

• Organisms are going to behave in ways that favored by natural selection– Benefits MUST outweigh the costs– Sometimes its not so obvious…

AP standard

• Cooperative behavior tends to increase the fitness of the individual and the survival of the population.

– Benefits must outweigh costs

Pack Behavior

• http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/life/videos/cheetahs-hunt-ostrich/

– Benefits?

Predator Warning

• http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/wild-kingdom/videos/prairie-dogs-sound-the-alarm/

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcB5kySUxWA

– Benefits?

Herds, flocks, and schools

• What’s the benefit?

Swarming Behavior

• http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/adaptations/Swarm

• http://io9.com/this-video-of-a-honeybee-swarm-reveals-why-humans-cant-1522411422– This article highlights bee social structure

AP standard

• Living systems have a variety of signal behaviors or cues that produce changes in the behavior of other organisms and can result in differential reproductive success

Example: territorial marking

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ebTTQoAmDU

• Lions mark territory with scent and vocalizations

• Interspecific (with hyenas and leopards) and intraspecific (with neighboring lion prides) competition deterred

What is this elephant saying?

• How does this behavior improve the success of this elephant?

AP Standard

• Animals use visual, audible, tactile, electrical and chemical signals to indicate dominance, find food, establish territory and ensure reproductive success.

examples

• Bee dances (tactile – for finding food)• Fireflies (visual – for mating)• Bird songs (territory and mating)• Territorial marking (scents and vocals)• Pack behavior (dominance vs submissive displays)• Rutting season (competition/sexual selection)

– Animal Minds Video: we watched in class 3/3– http://

www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/inside-animal-minds.html