Fish/Animal Behavior

Animal Behavior

• Action or re-action to stimuli• Happens in the brain (non-motor) and can be manifested

through muscular response, but often involves both• There can be a temporal component to the actual

behavior (learning, e.g. feed training)• Short-term trigger for behavior, or effect on the organism• Long-term evolutionary significance/adaptation:

behavior is selected for. • Animals behave in ways that maximize their fitness

Genetic vs. environmental factors• Nature/nurture? On-going debate, but tipping

towards nature• Behaviors have phenotypic variation: studies on

problem solving• Due in part to genetic propensity: ‘ability’ to

learn (epigenetics)• Due in part to environmental pressures and

variability• The two: genes and environment, work in concert• Innate behavior: less subject to environmental

variation. Developmentally fixed

Fixed Action Patterns

Fixed Action Patterns: stereotypical innate behavior. The organism will carry it out almost no matter what, even if it doesn’t seem appropriate. These are all part of a category of behaviors very important to survival and/or fitness.

Fixed Action Patterns

Male three spined stickleback: attacks other males with red bellies – attacks anything red

Three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus

Innate behavior• Innate Behavior – a behavior that is hard-wired into the

nervous system of an individual. – Salamanders & swimming

– Baby birds & flying

– Baby Turtles & returning to the ocean

• Brood parasitism (cuckoldry) is a classical example (Cichlid/catfish)

• Ability to confront novel stimuli, learn about them and adjust behavior is indicative of intelligence and self awareness. Intelligence is costly: brain development, parental investment etc.

Innate behavior

• Brood parasitism:

Haplochromis nubilus

Synodontis punctatus

Learning• Change in behavior based on experience

– Maturation is behavior change based largely on ability due to development (eg. Use of tool)

Learning• Change in behavior based on experience

– Maturation is behavior change based largely on ability due to development (eg. Use of tool)

Learning• Change in behavior based on experience

– Maturation is a behavior change based largely on ability due to development (ex. Use of tool)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DoWdHOtlrk

Halichoeres garnotiYellowhead wrasse

Use of a rock as an anvil – for breaking scallops

Learning• Habituation

– Loss of responsiveness due to repetition

• Imprinting– Learning in a critical time period (tightly correlated

with innate behavior) (salmon imprint on stream)

Learning• Conditioning: Pavlov

– Associating a stimulus with punishment or reward (can also be trial and error) (visual experiments)

Cognition (a mental process)

• Problem solving studies

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8631486.stm

Bellwork: 1/10/2013

1. What is “imprinting?” Why is it so important for the development of an organism?

2. What are some biological downsides of intelligence?

Cognition

• Problem solving studies• Consciousness and awareness (mirror studies)• The connection between nervous system function

and behavior (hormones, fight/flight, hunger, attraction, pain)

• Spatial orientation and mapping– Migration: genes, sun,

magneto-reception/geometric pull, olfactory clues.

– The role of learning in migration

Fish Migration

• Fish migrations are usually round-trip • Reasons for migration – Food gathering – Temperature adjustment – Breeding

Timing of migrations

– Annual – Daily – generational

Classification of Fish Migration

• Diadromous – Travel between sea & fresh water

– Anadromous – most of life at sea, breed in fresh water

– Catadromous – most of life in fresh water, breed at sea

Reasons for Migrations

• Take advantage of different habitats – Feeding – Protection • Avoid adverse conditions • Meet requirements for reproduction

Orientation During Migration

• Orientation to gradients of temperature, salinity, and chemicals • Orientation by the sun • Orientation to geomagnetic and geoelectric fields

Disadvantages of Migrations

• Expenditure of energy – Most must store energy before migration • Risk from predation

Adjustments Required Due to Migrations

• Adjusting physiologically to new water conditions – Temperature – Light – Water chemistry • Many migratory species are now rapidly declining due to changes caused by man

Migration

Migration

10,000 Golden Rays migrating from Florida to Mexico

Stop for today

• Sign in for a quiz

Bellwork – 01/18/2012

• Change 10 – 25% of your water

• Scrub all algae from the inside of the glass!

• Once you have taken the pH & the temperature, report those points of data to Mr. Young

• Windex the outside of your tank to clean off any salt, smudges, and debris

Reproductive behavior

• Sexual selection– Courtship/Dominance – hooded seal, bird

of paradise– Female choice– Male aggression

• Leks – a gathering of males for the purpose of competitive mating displays.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGIQxBbYm10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3-Q3x3j6zw&feature=related

Mating strategies

• Why are females, biologically, more important than males?

• Human Examples:– Mrs. Feodor Vassilyev – 27 births, 69 children (16

pairs of twins, 7 triplets, 4 quadruplets) [1707-1782]

– Ismail Ibn Sharif – 867 children (525 sons, 342 daughters) [1672-1727]

Mating strategies

• Promiscuous• Monogamous• Polygamous:

– Polygynous – many females (anything with an alpha male, lions, hippos, many primates)

– polyandrous – many males (pipefish, honeybees, blue whales)

• Certainty of paternity matters!

Multiple paternity – broods of half brothers & sisters

Kelp Greenling

Symbiosis

Hippocampus barbiganti Pigmy seahorse

Trumpetfish / herbivores

Symbiosis

Clownfishes / Anemones

Vendellia cirrhosa (The dreaded Candiru)

Urinophilus diabolicus (leach-like)

1) What are some reasons for male aggression?

2) How is imprinting different than conditioning?

3) What is biological fitness? What is the ultimate biological goal of an individual within a population?

Behavioral ecology

• Animals behave in ways that maximize their fitness– Reproductive behavior = more successful offspring– Feeding behavior = maximum energy gain

• Research examples:– Sparrows and cuckoldry– Cheetahs and prey selection– Elephant seals and polygyny– Humpback whale songs

Feeding Behavior

• Example - Sunfish, provide predator with prey of different sizes and different densities, fish respond by foraging optimally (taking the most energetically rich prey under the appropriate conditions)