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Animal Behavior

Behavior refers to how an organism reacts to changes in its internal condition or external environment.

A stimulus is any kind of signal

that carries information and

can be detected.

A response is a single,

specific reaction to a stimulus.

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Animal Behavior-Innate

Innate Behavior refers to behavior that animals are born with or have through instinct.

Examples include the following:

spiders making their webs,

suckling of a newborn mammal,

& weaver birds making their nests.

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Animal Behavior-Learned

Animals can also alter their behavior as a result of experience and this is known as learning.

1) Habituation is a process by which an animal decreases or stops its response to a repetitive stimulus that neither rewards nor harms the animal.

2) Classical Conditioning refers to any time an animal makes a mental connection (association) between a stimulus and some kind of reward or punishment. Ex. Pavlov’s Dog

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Section 34-1

After ConditioningWhen Pavlov rang a bell in the absence of food, the dog still salivated. The dog was conditioned to salivate in response to a stimulus that it did not normally associate with food. During Conditioning

By ringing a bell every time he fed the dog, Pavlov trained the dog to associate the sight and smell of food with the ringing bell.

Before ConditioningWhen a dog sees or smells food, it produces saliva. Food is the stimulus and the dog’s response is salivation. Dogs do not usually salivate in response to nonfood stimuli.

Figure 34–5 Pavlov’s Experiment

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Animal Behavior-Learned

3) Operant Conditioning occurs when an animal learns to behave in a certain way through repeated practice, in order to receive an award or avoid punishment. (Trial & Error Learning)

Ex. Skinner Box

4) Insight Learning refers to reasoning or when an animal applies something it has already learned to a new situation, w/o a period of trial & error.

Ex. Chimps stacking boxes to get bananas

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Animal Behavior-Innate & Learned Combined

Imprinting is learning based on early experience and it also involves innate behavior. Once imprinting has occurred, the behavior can’t be changed.

Ex: Young ducks and geese

searching /following first

moving object and try to

determine if it is their mother

Ex: Young salmon know the

smell of the creek they were

born in and learn to get back

to it through the scent

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Patterns of Behavior

Migration- the periodic movement from one place to another then back again . Usually influenced by seasons.

Courtship- individuals sends out stimuli in order to attract a member of the opposite sex.

Social Behavior-Hunting or grazing or working together to survive. Ex. Waggle dance of bees

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Section 34-2

Figure 34–8 Migration of Sea Turtles

Click the image to play the video segment.

Video

Travelin’ Along

Go Online

Links from the authors on remote sensing and animal behavior

Interactive test

For links on animal communication, go to www.SciLinks.org and enter the Web Code as follows: cbn-9342.

Interest Grabber Answers

1. The word you are to brainstorm is behavior. Behavior is the way an organism reacts to changes in its internal condition or external environment. On a sheet of paper, make a list of as many behaviors as possible. You will have two minutes.

2. After you have finished this section, revisit your list. Write the letter “I” next to any words that describe innate, or unlearned, behaviors. Write the letter “L” next to any words that describe learned behaviors.

Student answers may include the following: Blinking eyes (I), Tapping pencil (L), Rubbing your eyes (I), Crying (I), Building a spider web (I), Migration (I and L), Hibernation (I), Newborn suckling (I), Writing with a pencil (L)

Interest Grabber Answers

1. Think of a behavior that you can picture yourself doing. What behavior did you choose?

2. When do you think you first exhibited this behavior?

3. What process was involved in the development of this behavior?

4. Do you think this behavior is innate or learned? Explain your answer.

Student answers will depend on the type of behavior chosen. Make sure that students understand the difference between innate and learned behaviors, as well as the types of learned behavior.

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