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Nature vs. Nurture. Animal Behavior. Classical Studies. Fixed Action Patterns External Cues Niko Tinbergen

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Animal Behavior

• 

What is Behavior?

“What” an organism does and how it does it

• 

Why do it?

Proximate

Ultimate causes

Fish example…

Nature vs. Nurture

What controls

behavior?

– Nature (genes) – Nurture (environment)

Innate Behavior

– Why? – Automated- too important to leave to chance…

Ethograms

Ethograms are lists of potential behaviors

– Quantitative description of an animal’s normal behavior

Basic questions about animal behavior come initially from

observations.

A "wolf-to-English dictionary".

Classical Studies

• 

Ethology- 1930s

the scientific and objective study of

function and evolution

of animal behavior,

especially under natural conditions

Fixed Action Pattern (FAP)

Behavior that is “fixed” and triggered by

external stimuli

Examples: moths, wasps, sticklebacks,

birds

Niko Tinbergen, Konrad Lorenz, and Karl von Frisch- Nobel Prize 1973

Fixed Action

Patterns

External Cues…

Niko Tinbergen

The truck…

Behavioral Ecology

Behavior as an evolutionary adaptation

– Natural selection will favor behaviors which enhance survival and reproduction (fitness)

Optimal Behavior Theory – Cost-Benefit analysis – How high? What size? How long?

(2)

Learning-

Imprinting

Konrad Lorenz

Learning limited to a specific time period

Generally irreversible

– Critical Period • Not only when young • Young, Parents, Identity, language

Fixed Action Patterns-

Egg rolling; imprinting,

super stimulus

Learning

Learning

Experience-based

modification of behavior

• Can modify innate behaviors • Vervet Monkeys-3 calls-

Snake, Eagle, Leopard…

Leaning vs. Maturation

Habituation

• Simple learning- loss of responsiveness • “Cry Wolf” • Why?

Dishabituation

Associative Learning

Classical Conditioning

– Linking one arbitrary stimulus with another

– Pavlov’s dogs- 1920s- meat, bell, salivation- what about you?

Operant Conditioning- rewards/punishment

– Trial-and-error – B. F. Skinner’s Box

– Rat maze Electric Blanket… Fencing… Raskoff’s Box… would you like another?

Play

Play

No apparent external goal, but mimics goal-directed behaviors

(i.e. play fighting)

Not without risk

(“all fun and games until…”; “You’ll shoot your eye out!”)

Cost, energy, risk, etc. so why do it?

• Practice Hypothesis- fight, hunt, reproduction (those warm and fuzzies) • Exercise Hypothesis- use muscles needed in adult activity • Raskoff’s Hypothesis…

Simple cognitive mechanisms

Kinesis and Taxis

Kinesis-

random change in activity, or direction in

response to a stimulus

• Photo, Rheo, Chemo, …

Taxis-

automatic directed movement towards or away

from a stimulus

(3)

Simple cognitive mechanisms

Landmarks

– Niko’s wasps, bees

Migrations

– Birds, whales, butterflies, tuna

Migrations

• 

Elephant Seals

Cognition

Ability to perceive, store, process,

and use information

Problem solving behavior is highly

developed

Primates, whales, birds, octopuses,

others…

Is this what we mean by intelligence?

Reasoning

Insight learning

= The

ability of animals to

perform appropriate

behaviors on the

first

attempt

in situations

with which they have

no

prior experience

.

Insight learning is best

developed in primates.

Intraspecies Competition

When do you draw the line between

the ind. And the pop.?

Limited resources

Space, food, mates…

Can be cooperating and still

competing for resources

Agonistic-

Threatening behavior

Often “ritual”- What is it worth?

Competition cont.

Dominance Hierarchies

“pecking order”

Alpha, beta, gamma….

Birds, Seastars, canines, felines, primates…

Territoriality

Defended area for feeding, mating, etc.

Territory vs. home range.

(4)

Mating behavior

Courtship

– Behavior that leads up to copulation – What is the purpose of courtship?

Sexual Selection

– Different amount of Parental investment – Who is the choosey one?

– What do you find “sexy?”

What are you really looking at? Proximate vs. Ultimate

Mating systems

Promiscuity vs. Monogamy

Polygamy

Polyandry

- One female, many

males

Polygyny

- One male, many

females

Factors influencing mating

systems

Needs of young- when two are

better then one

Parental certainty

Internal Fert. Vs. External Fert… which might have more care?

How do animals

communicate

?

Communication- transmutation, reception, and response to

signals

What signals?

– Visual, auditory, chemical, tactile, electrical signals- They are all habitat/lifestyle dependent

– Pheromones- chemical signals specialized for communication

T

he Waggle Dance

Karl von Frisch

v1

The “Altruistic dilemma”

Selfishness reigns in biology- Maximizing your

reproductive success is the name of the game

(fitness)

So, why can we find

altruism

?

– Bees (Evolved over 12 times in Hymenoptera) – Ground Squirrels

– Mole Rats

Altruism- reduce your

fitness and increase another's

Hamilton’s Rule

•  How can this be an evolutionarily stable strategy? – Parental sacrifice

– Sibling sacrifice •  Inclusive fitness

– Total effect an individual has on proliferating its genes, both with own offspring AND with aid to related individuals. -Its all about the genes

William Hamilton

– Proposed quantitative measure for predicting altruistic acts • B= benefit to recipient (average # of extra offspring) • C= cost to altruist (average # fewer offspring)

• r= coefficient of relatedness (prob. Of having genes in common) • Siblings = 50% (or 0.5); aunt = 0.25; cousins = 0.125 – Natural selection favors altruism if:

rB>C

•  Examples: Brother on the cliff, Cousin on the cliff…

(5)

Kin Selection

Kin Selection-

– Inclusive Fitness…

– Natural selection that favors altruism to enhance genetic success of related individuals.

– Kin Selection weakens the further related • Cousin share r =0.125 Does it pay?

What about our bees, squirrels and mole rats?

– For example, in bees: sisters are more related to each other (r=0.75) than they are to their mother (r=0.5) …

Reciprocal altruism- non-related “altruism”

Game Theory- “The Prisoners dilemma” “Tit for tat”

Core Ideas- Behavior

Nature vs. Nurture- genetics and environment

Innate behaviors; fixed action patterns

Evolutionary link to behaviors- who is calling the shots?

Optimal foraging theory, etc.

Learning- how do we modify and alter behaviors

Imprinting; habituation; Associative learning; Play

Cognition; reasoning, and responses

Species interactions- behaviors with others

Competition; mating; communication; cooperation and kin

References

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