1 Introduction to Animal Behavior 2 Essential Questions

1 Introduction to Animal Behavior

2 Essential Questions 1. What is animal behavior? 2. Why do animals behave the way they do? 3. Why do we study animal behavior? 4. What are the major components of the Theory of Evolution? 5. How does the Theory of Evolution relate to the study of animal behavior?

3 Ethology 1. Ethology – study of animal behavior 2. Animal Behavior – 1. The way an animal acts and behaves 2. Anything an animal does involving action and response to a stimulus 3. Stimulus – a thing or event that evokes a specific function; something that causes a response 1. Ex: Change in temperature or weather; A gazelle seeing a lion so it runs 4. Response – a reaction or answer 5. Reflex – automatic response to a stimulus

Blinking 4 Eating Examples of Behavior Fleeing Hunting Spitting Mating

5 Why do animals behave the way they do? 1. To find food 2. To avoid predators 3. To reproduce 4. Animal Behavior - Crash Course Biology #25

6 Why do we study animal behavior? 1. Make use of domestic creatures 2. Humans need for food 1. Horses for riding and pulling 1. Understanding prey behaviors 2. Oxen for farm work 2. Where to find fish and game 3. Dogs for hunting and law enforcement 3. What is safe and what is not 4. Migration and seasonal availability

7 Why do we study animal behavior? 3. Ensure animal welfare 1. Preservation of natural habitats 2. Manufacturing of artificial setting 4. To further develop evolutionary theory

8 Why do we study animal behavior? 5. Knowing how to appropriately encounter dangerous animals 6. Pest control

Why do we study animal behavior? 9 7. Invasive species 1. Not native to an area 8. To satisfy intellectual curiosity 2. Causes changes to the ecosystem 3. Ex: Asian shore crab, Emerald ash borer, zebra mussel Asian Shore Crab Emerald Ash Borer Zebra Mussels

10 Intelligence 1. Intelligence – the ability to learn and understand from experience 1. A sign of high level of intelligence is an animal being self-aware 2. Self-awareness – recognition of consciousness of self 1. Dolphins reacting to mirror underwater 3. Only 10 animals are self-aware Bottlenose Dolphin 1. Humans, Orangutans, Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Bottlenose Dolphins, Elephants, Orcas, Baboons, Rhesus Macaques, European Magpies 2. Primate – omnivorous mammals with highly developed brains Orca Chimpanzees European Magpies

11 Intelligence & Behavior 1. Some behaviors can be grouped as innate or learned 1. Innate behavior – inborn or natural ways of action 1. 2. 3. Instinct – independent of will or as an automatic response Ex: Instinctively putting your hands out to break a fall Ex: Birds hatching from their eggs they do that without being taught and migrating to warmer climates during winter season 1. Clutch – a nest of eggs or a brood of newly hatched birds 2. Migration – movement from one place to another 2. Learned behavior – actions learned through experience 1. 2. 3. Ex: ability to ride a bike, ability to use tools Life – Highly Intelligent Monkey (using tools) Are crows the ultimate problem solvers? Inside the Animal Mind BBC

12 Communication & Interactions 1. As animals live together in a particular territory, it will evoke various behaviors 1. Territory – a defined area of region 2. Population – any group living organisms in a specific area 3. Mode – a way of doing something 1. Ex: Bees communicate by dancing 2. Within the population, animals can exhibit aggressive, submissive, and dominant behaviors 1. Dominant – Exercising authority or influence 2. Submissive – behavior that shows no resistance 3. Aggression – hostile or destructive behavior 1. Ex: a pack of wolves establishes a hierarchy

13 Theory of Evolution Impacts on Animal Behavior

14 Theory of Evolution 1. Over 150 years ago, Charles Darwin published the Origin of Species 2. Scientists realized that the evolutionary theory of natural selection provided a revolutionary way of looking at all living things 1. Theory of Evolution – Change of a species over time (Earth’s present-day species developed from earlier, distinctly different species) 2. Scientific starting point to determining why animals do the things they do and why they have genetic, developmental, sensory, neuronal, and hormonal mechanisms that make these behavioral abilities possible 3. As evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhanskey said “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution”

15 Principles of Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection 1. Overproduction – a population generally produces more offspring than can survive in the environment (ex: fish lay millions of eggs to result in few adult fish) 2. Competition – because of overpopulation, there is competition, or a struggle for survival, between organisms for space, food, water, light, minerals, or other limited resources 3. Variation – members of a population show variations (differences in traits) that make certain individuals better adapt to survive. (ex: differences in structure, size and color)

16 Principles of Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection 4. Natural Selection – since some variations are more helpful than others, there is a natural selection against organisms that cannot adapt. Organisms that cannot adapt die. 1. Natural Selection – traits that help an organism survive in a changing environment are passed on to the next generation 2. Overtime, natural selection causes a change in the inherited characteristics of a population. 3. Nature selects those individuals that have traits that will survive in a changing environment

17 Principles of Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection 5. Survival of the Fittest – survival of the fittest applies to those individuals that have variations that enable them to live and reproduce 1. 6. Inheritance of Variation – Organisms with helpful variations are more likely to survive and to reproduce, passing these variations to their offspring 1. 7. Differences in reproductive success – with some individuals having more surviving offspring than others in their population, thanks to their distinctive characteristics Heredity – parents are able to pass on some of their distinctive characteristics to their offspring Evolution of New Species – Over long periods of time, variations accumulate in a population. Eventually, there are so many variations that the population becomes a new species

18 Testing Evolutionary Ideas 1. For the purpose of testing evolutionary ideas, we can assume that whatever trait exists today must have “won” a reproductive competition that took place in the past 1. If the assumption is wrong, our tests, if they are fair will reveal this point 2. If the assumption is correct and the trait did win out over time, then we are dealing with an adaption 1. Adaption – a characteristic that confers higher inclusive fitness to individuals than any other existing alternative exhibited by other individuals within the population 2. A trait that has spread or is spreading or is being maintained in a population as a result of natural selection 3. Adaptationist– a behavioral biologist who develops and tests hypotheses on the possible adaptive value of a particular trait

19 Darwinian Puzzles 1. Darwinian Puzzles – challenges to evolutionary theory 2. Biologists deal with these puzzles by developing possible explanations based on natural selection theory for how the surprising trait might actually help individuals reproduce and pass on their genes 3. Ex: How can it be adaptive for a male langur to harm the offspring of females in his group, particularly since attacking males can be and sometimes are injured by mothers defending their babies? 4. Potential Explanation: 1. Males will not kill their own progeny but will focus their attacks on the offspring of other males 2. New males could father offspring more quickly if they first kill the infants. Females who lose their infants do resume ovulating and that enables the new males to become fathers of their replacement offspring 3. Since these predictions have been show to be correct for this species as well as other primates, various carnivores, horses, rodents and even bats, we can safely conclude that infanticide as practiced by male langurs is indeed an adaption, the produce of natural selection

20 Summary 1. Evolutionary theory provides the foundation for behavioral biology, the study of animal behavior (ethology) 2. Charles Darwin realized that evolutionary change would occur if “natural selection” took place. 3. Researchers interested in the adaptive value of behavioral traits use natural selection theory to develop particular hypotheses on how a specific behavior might enable individuals to achieve higher reproductive success than individuals with alternative traits 4. Adaptationist hypotheses can be tested in the standard manner of all scientific hypotheses by making predictions about what we must observe in nature. 5. The beauty of science lies in the ability of scientists to use logic and evidence to evaluate the validity of competing theories and alternative hypotheses