Biology 1030
Winter 2009
Biology of Behaviour
Chapter 51
(51.1–2)
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What is a Behaviour?
• Actions animals do
– How they do them
– Why they do them
• Causes of behaviours
– Genetic?
– Learned?
• Nature versus Nurture
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Biology 1030
Winter 2009
Nature versus Nurture
• Lovebird nesting behaviour
– Strips of vegetation or paper
– Fisher’s Lovebird
Peach Faced Lovebird
• Hybrid lovebirds
– If learned then …
– If genetic then …
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Innate vs. Learned
• Complex causes
– Genes and experience
• White crowned sparrow
– Ability to sing
– Song that is sung
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Biology 1030
Winter 2009
Instinct
• Innate behaviours
– ~ same in all
• The essentials
– Feeding,
F di
Defence
D f
– Mating, Parenting
• Fixed actions
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Innate Behaviours
• Kinesis – Random movement
• Taxis – Directed movement
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Biology 1030
Winter 2009
Fixed Action Patterns
• The instigating (sign)
stimulus
• The response:
– Automatic and
unlearned
• Genetically
predetermined
– Immutable
– Unstoppable
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The Graylag goose
Fixed Action Patterns
• The three-spined stickleback
• Nest defence
– Aggression to males
• Sign stimulus?
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Biology 1030
Winter 2009
Learning
• Experiential modification
•
•
•
•
•
Imprinting
Associative learning
Habituation
Spatial learning
Cognition
– Problem solving
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Imprinting
• Both learned and
innate
• A sensitive period
p
– Food
– Migration
• Maintained
• The whooping crane
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Biology 1030
Winter 2009
Imprinting
• Chemical imprinting
• Sockeye
S
S
Salmon
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Associative Learning
• Stimulus linked to
an effect
– Positive
– Negative
– Reinforcement
– Punishment
• Conditioning
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Biology 1030
Winter 2009
Classical Conditioning
• Stimulus is encountered
– Positive or negative
• Pavlov’s dogs
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Operant Conditioning
• Animal’s own behaviour
– Trial-and-error learning
• The Monarch butterfly
– Easy to see
– But …
• Naïve
a ep
predator
edato
– Wrong choice
– Colour association
– Mimicry by others
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Biology 1030
Winter 2009
Habituation
• Simple learning
– Frequent stiumulus
– Decreased responsiveness
• Perception
• Okanagan Starlings
– Sound machines
– Works initially
• Focus on important
stimuli
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Spatial Learning
• Environmental cues
• The digger
gg wasp
p
– Nest location
• How does the wasp
remember her nest sites?
– Ring of pinecones
– Objects or arrangement?
• Moving in our environment
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Biology 1030
Winter 2009
Cognition
• Most advanced
learning
• Complex
integration
– Problem solving =
intelligence
• Novel applications
with no experience
• The Chimpanzee
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Social Behaviours
• Interactions
– Aggression, courtship, cooperation
– Communication
• Agonistic
– Food, mates, territory
• Coope
Cooperative
at e
• Courtship
• Signalling
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Biology 1030
Winter 2009
Agonistic Behaviours
• Competition for resources
–
–
–
–
Threats
Posturing
g
Tests of strength
Combat
• Dominance Hierarchies
–
–
Pecking orders
Evolutionary pressure
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Agonistic Behaviours
•
Territorial behaviour
– Gannets
– Grouse
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Biology 1030
Winter 2009
Cooperative Behaviour
• Dancing worker bees
– Round dances
– Waggle dances
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Courting Behaviours
• Phenotypes with greater reproductive
success
– Behavioural
• Intersexual selection
– Mate choice
– ‘Popularity contest’
• Female Choice
• Male-Male competition
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Biology 1030
Winter 2009
Female Choice
• Usually the female is
the choosey one
– Choice of sperm donors
• Preference of
phenotypic
characteristics
– Courtship dances
– Courtship songs
– Physical appearance
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Male-Male Competition
• Females choose
• Males want to be chosen
• Compete with each
other
– Agonistic behaviours
• Physical
• Psychological
– Brightest, biggest
plumage
–…
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