Behavioral Biology

Chapter 51

Behavior• Ethology the study of animal behavior in the

wild.

• Behavior: What and How an animal does things.

• Nature vs. Nurture – importance of learned (environment) vs. instinctive (genetic) causes of behavior. Both have important roles.

Table 33.1a

Table 33.1b

What causes behavior?

• Ultimate causation is the ecological/evolutionary reason.– How does it maximize fitness?

• Proximate causation – trigger or signal that causes behavior

• Innate behaviors are genetically determined or developmentally fixed.

• Genetic component: Love Bird Nest Building fig. 51.1– Behavior later

modified by experience

Fixed Action

Patterns

• Complex behaviors performed without ever having seen them performed

• Set of movements, always in sequence

• Proceed without stopping once started.

• Triggered by sign stimulus

http://neuromajor.ucr.edu/courses/egg-roll.gif

Normal Mouse –

FAP:Collect babiesshelter them

Mouse with

mutant fosB allele

• Fixed Action Pattern

• Triggered by sign stimulus, or realeaser– Red underbelly

cause response, even if over-all shape is wrong

Learned Behaviors• Learned Behaviors- behaviors modified by

experience. – Animals respond differently after a stimulus

than before.

• React to environmental stimuli• Niko Tinbergen’s experiments with digger

wasps 51.2– Sense location, size of items around nest.

• Song bird repertoire– older males know more songs, more

experienced– females prefer males that know more songs.

51.5; 51.6

“Learning” the surroundings

• Niko Tinbergen’s experiments with digger wasps 51.2– Sense location, size of

items around nest.

• Bee wolves learn the landmarks each time they leave.

• Remember size and positions, not the objects themselves

Fig. 33.5Heard parent’s song

No song during rearing

Bird Song: Instinctive and learned components

Songs Learned

Learning

• Learning- modification of behavior in response to specific experiences.

• Nature vs. Nurture which input is of primary importance?– We have an innate Language ability– which language due to upbringing.

• Maturation– bird flight is genetic, – “learning” period is maturation. – Language ability greatest while young, then fixed, much

more difficult when older. (ex. deaf returned to hearing)

Learned Behaviors• Habituation-loss of response to unimportant

stimuli.– Hydra stop responding to repeated changes in water

currents. – Squirrels stop responding if no threat perceived after

calls.

• Imprinting - Konrad Lorenz and the goslings during first hours, accept as him as “mother” ignoring other members of species. – Salmon return home by following scent of water.– Critical time period and is irreversible.– Adults imprinted by young in first hours after hatching,

birth

Imprinting • Sensitive

or critical period

Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership

• Establish a new eastern population• Kept separate from native population• Make a new migration route Wisconsin,

Nacedah NWR to Florida, Cassohovitz NWR• Use Sandhill information from Rocky

Mountains area.• Use captive bred birds• Hand raised, inprinted to recognize pilot, and

follow them in ultralight planes.

New Migration Route

Teaching a new route

Ultralight migration

2005 Migration Update

• http://www.operationmigration.org/Field_Journal.html

Associative learning• Classical conditioning:Associate arbitrary

stimulus with reward/punishment.– Pavlov’s dogs, salivate when given meat spray and

stimulus. Then salivate with just stimulus.– Huxley’s fish and pipe whistle

• Operant conditioning: Trial and error learning. Either behavior is rewarded or harmful.

Rats in a box get food or a shock.

Very common in nature - good food with smell etc, or upset digestive tract with another.

Movement• Kinesis- involves a simple change in activity rate.

– Most animals don’t move directly towards or away from stimulus.

– Higher activity in dry areas causes sow bugs to move farther. They slow down in wet habitats, so they spend more time there.

• Nocturnal active at night• Diurnal - active at day.• Taxis a automatic directed movement

– towards (positive) a stimulus– away (negative) a stimulus

• Landmarks – Bee wolves• Cognitive maps- Bird finds stored food

Migration• Butterflies, Plovers - find their way to same spot

some without having ever been there before– program independently or follow magnetic path?

• Piloting using familiar landmarks – Learned behavior

• Orientation -using a compass directions – Use sun, stars follows a line path for mostly short

distances. – Mostly a innate behavior.

• Navigating find location given current location relative to other locations in addition to the compass direction. – Starling experiment, juveniles to Spain , adults to

England. Fig. 51.16

• Birds collected in different sites in Germany and England

• Reared in cages• Then allowed to

“migrate”• Showed genetic

differences

Monarch Butterflies

West of Rockies, Adults over-winter in coastal valleys from Bolinas, to Ensenada.

Eastern Monarchs migrate to central Mexico.

Only known insect that migrates over long distances.

3000 miles to MX

660 miles AZ to CA

Winters• Adults eat nectar- hard to find in winter

inland, easier along coast, Mexico• Adults migrate, basically going extinct in

cold areas over the winter.• Return to same trees as the previous year.

Yet – They are three or four generations removed from previous years monarchs!!– Migration is instinctive, not learned

• In spring they repopulate, laying eggs as they fly back north, west. Offspring then take over repopulation spreading the population back as winter retreats.

Migration Routes

Western Migration

Monarchs protected by Milkweed toxins eaten while

larvae

Larvae (caterpillars) eat Milkweed, and accumulate the toxic cardiac glycosides. The Monarchs are immune but their predators are not.

Monarchs are protected by these compounds from being eaten in general. A few must be lost so birds learn to avoid them.

Predators (birds) learn to avoid adult monarchs by their coloration.

Monarch Sanctuary in Pacific Grove

Social Behavior• Social Behavior- rituals to warn, defense,

appease, court

• Dominance – hierarchies– alpha (hens, dogs) controls pack, – Beta, etc. omega lowest. – Control resource use, access.

• Courtship- rituals, usually no strong continuous attraction, even in long lived species with rearing (elephants)

Territoriality- defend area, harem.

Modes of Communication

• Signals, warning, to other species, within species. – chemical - pheromones– visual– Auditory

• Agonistic –Contests with threatening, submissive- win access to resource

• Ritual-symbolic activity no harm done • Bees- complex tactile dance• Language are we the only ones???

Bee Wiggle Dance

• Speed of wiggle tells how far

• Direction of wiggle tells direction to fly relative to the sun

Learning Behaviors• Observational learning- Vertebrates, mammals

learn from parents other members of sp. – Traditions may be passed down generations -

maternal structure of Elephant pods.

• Play – Practice and exercise

• Cognition- being aware and making judgments about environment.

• Perceive, store and process information for senses.

• Insight- figure things out- Problem solving skills– Birds, primates- helps

obtain food.– Tremendous variation

among individuals within same species.