Kinds of Animal Behavior.pdf

For Students of BS Zoology

1. Naveed Akhtar
Assistant Professor of Zoology

2. Introduction
Animal behaviorincludes all the ways animals interact
with other organisms and the physical environment.
Behavior can also be defined as a change in the activity of
an organism in response to astimulus, an external or
internal cue or combo of cues
Behavior refers to the varied activities that an animal
performs during its lifetime. Internal physiological
conditions, environmental stimuli, and social situations
influencespecific behavioral responses


3. Proximate factors that influencethe behavior of an
animal include genetics, developmental experiences,
and the current environment, including photoperiod,
season, and temperature
The ultimate factor that influences the behavior of an
animal is natural selection. Animals that possess certain
traits are more successful at surviving and reproducing.
Some behaviors areinnate, or genetically hardwired,
while others arelearned, or developed through
experience. In many cases, behaviors have both an innate
component and a learned component.

4. Individual Behaviour: Individual behaviour
includes those related to movement or physiological
regulation
Social Behaviour: Social behaviour is related to
interactions with other organisms. This includes
behavioursrelated to courtship, reproduction,
parenting, feeding, defencestrategies as well as
communication within and between groups of animals

5. Types of Behaviour
The following the three categories of behavioral
pattern of animals. The categories are:
1. Instinctive Behaviors or Fixed Action Pattern
(FAP)
2.Learning Behaviour
3. ComplexBehaviour

7. Instinctive Behaviors or Fixed
Action Pattern (FAP)
Innate behaviour is generally any behaviour that is not
learned.
Instinct is the innate ability to complete a specific
behaviour pattern with no conscious intention.
A releaser is a specific signal called a sign stimulus that
results in an innate behavioral response
Instinctive Behavioursare genetically inherited
characteristics that impel animals to behave in a certain
fixed way.
It is also referred to as Fixed Action Pattern (FAP)or
Innate Behaviour or Inborn Behaviour or Inherent
Behaviour.

8. Instinct is generally described as patterns of inherited
pre-set behaviouralresponses which develop along
with the developing nervous system.
In the animal kingdom, there are a number of
behaviouralpatterns which are depicted in the genes.
To name a few —the courtship display and mating in
most animals, feeding patterns, nest building, parental
care, singing, wings cleaning, territoriality and
aggression, construction of web by spiders
construction of nest by birds etc..

10. Examples
1. During the breeding season a peacock starts dancing
as soon as it sees a peahen. The dancing act is not
learnt by watching.
2. A weaver bird never learns to construct a nest. It
simply knows it.
3. A tailor bird brings two leaves together and stitches
them with a long flexible grass and then cushions the
bottom with soft grasses, where it lays her eggs. This
vital information were passed on to them through the
genes of their parents.

11. Tailor bird nest building

12. 4. Bees do not learn to build their hive, this property is
acquired genetically.
Another very interesting example of instinctive
behaviour or FAP is provided by the Mason wasp
(Manobiasp). A female wasp, after emerging from her
cell, has a brief moment of interaction with another
wasp when she mates with a male.
Later, totally on her own, she selects a hollow stem and
builds at its inner end, a partition of mud mixed with
her saliva

13. Close to this partition she lays an egg.
Thereafter, she hunts for caterpillars which she lightly
paralyses with her sting.
She carries 5-8 of them to the cell which would act as
future food supply for the larva when it hatches.
After being satisfied, she builds another partition
sealing off the egg with its food supply.
nstinctis understood as an innate behaviour
mechanism that impel animals to behave in a certain
fixed way. The idea of Fixed Action Pattern was
formulated by KonradLorenz (1958).

15. Sign Stimulus or Releaser
FAP is a specific and stereotyped sequence of activities
that are triggered by particular stimulus called sign
stimulus or releaser.
Definite sign stimulus or releaser works and initiates
instinctive acts.

16. Examples
1.The red belly in the males of three-spinedstickleback
fish is one specific sign stimulus, responsible for
releasing territorial defenceand other reproductive
activities.
2. The red spot present on the bill of herring gull is
pecked by its chicks which acts as a sign stimulus. This
induces the parent to regurgitate food called crop
milk.
3. When the parent of song birds alights on the nest
with food in their beak, it creates a jerk. This acts as a
sign stimuli for the begging behaviour of the chicks.

17. Characteristics of Instincts
1. Instincts are behavioursthat are basically
determined and transferred through genes.
2.Instincts are similar in all individuals of a species.
3. Instincts involve complex and highly rigid pattern of
behaviour involving numerous muscles, muscle
groups, organs and systems that function in an entirely
coordinated manner.
4. Instinctive actions are specific and stereotyped
sequence of activities that are triggered by complex
stimuli called sign stimuli.

19. LearnedBehaviors
What is learning?
The modification of behavior through experience
In general, alearned behavioris one that an organism
develops as a result of experience.
Learned behaviors contrast with innate behaviors, which
are genetically hardwired and can be performed without
any prior experience or training.
Some behaviors have both learned and innate elements.
Example# 1, Zebra finches are genetically
preprogrammed to learn a song, but the song they sing
depends on what they hear from their fathers.

20. Example# 1
Young bobcats raised in isolation without the chance
to catch live prey did not attack a white rat placed with
them, unless the rat tried to escape.
At first, their attacks were not efficient, but after some
experience, they were seizing prey by the neck and
rapidly killing them.
Apparently, learning improve inherited components of
this behavior

21. Example # 3
Another example involving instinctive and learned
components to behavior is the nut-cracking
behavior of squirrels.
Squirrels gnaw and pry to open a nut. Inexperienced
squirrels are not efficient; they gnaw and pry at
random on the nut.
Experienced squirrels, however, gnaw a furrow on the
broad side, then wedge their lower incisors into the
furrow and crack the nut open

22. Examples of Instinctive and
Learned Combination

23. Types of Learned Behaviour
Simple Learned Behaviour
Conditioned behaviors
1. Habituation
Habituationis the simplest and perhaps most common type of
behavior in many different animals
Habituation involves a wanin or decrease in response to repeated
or continuous stimulation
This is a form of non-associative learning, meaning that the
stimulus is not linked with any punishment or reward.
An animal learns not to respond to stimuli in its
environment that are constant and probably relatively
unimportant

24. Conti….
By habituating to unimportant stimuli, an animal
conserves energy and time that are better spent on other
important function
Example:
Prairie dogs typically sound an alarm call when threatened
by a predator.
At first, they will give this alarm call in response to hearing
human steps, which indicate the presence of a large and
potentially hungry animal
However, the prairie dogs gradually become habituated to
the sound of human footsteps, as they repeatedly
experience the sound without anything bad happening

25. Prairie dogs Habituation

26. 2. Imprinting
Imprintingis a simple and highly specific type of
learning that occurs at a particular age or life stage
during the development of certain animals, such as
ducks and geese
The attachment usually forms only during a specific
critical period soon after hatching or birth and is not
reversible
Imprinting is a rapid learning process that apparently
occurs without reinforcement.

27. Example
KonradLorenz (1903–1989) an Austrian zoologist,
ethologist, and ornithologist conducted experiments
with geesein which he allowed the geese to imprint on
him.
The goslingsfollowed him as though he was their mother.
In nature, many species of birds in which the young follow
the parent soon after birth use imprinting so that the
young can identify with or recognize their parent
They can then be led successfully to the nest or to water.
Both visual and auditory cues are important in imprinting
systems.

29. Conditioned Behaviors
Conditioned behaviors aretypes of associative
learning where a stimulusbecomes associated
with a consequence
Conditioned behaviorsare the result ofassociative
learning, which takes two forms;
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning

31. Classical Conditioning
A type of learning in which a neutral stimulus comes
to bring about a response after it is paired with a
stimulus that naturally brings that response
Classical conditioning is a type of learning
documented by Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov
(1849–1936).
The “Pavlov’s Dog” Experiment
In his classic experiment on the salivary reflexin dogs,
Pavlov presented food right after the sound of a bell

32. After a number of such presentations, the dogs were
conditioned—they associated the sound of the
bell with food. It was then possible to elicit the dog’s
usual response to food—salivation—with just the
sound of the bell
The food was a positive reinforcement for salivating
behavior, but responses could also be conditioned
using negative reinforcement

33. The “Pavlov’s Dog” Experiment

35. INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING
In instrumental conditioning (also known as trial-
and-error learning), the animal learns while carrying
out certain searching actions, such as walking and
moving about
Example
If the animal findfood during these activities, the food
reinforces the behavior, and the animal associates the
reward with the behavior.
This association is repeated several times, the
animal learns that the behavior leads to
reinforcement

37. Example:
A classic example of instrumental conditioning is that
of a rat in a “Skinner box,” developed by B. F. Skinner
(1904–1990), a prominent psychologist
When placed in the box, the rat begins to explore. It
moves all about the box and, by accident, eventually
presses a lever and is rewarded with a food pellet.
Because food rewards are provided each time the rat
presses the lever, the rat associates the reward with the
behavior.

38. Through repetition, the rat learns to press the lever
right away to receive the reward. In this type of
learning, the animal is instrumental in providing its
own reinforcement.
In instrumental conditioning, providing the
reinforcement (food) whenever the animal comes close
to the lever and continuing to supply reinforcement
when the animal touches the lever “shapes” the
behavior. Finally, the animal learns to press the lever to
obtain food.

39. Young animals’ attempts to learn new motor patterns
often involve instrumental conditioning. A young bird
learning to flyor a young mammal at play may improve
coordination of certain movements or behavior
patterns by practice during these activities.

42. LATENT LEARNING
Latent learning, sometimes called exploratory
learning,involves making associations without
immediate reinforcement or reward. The reward is not
obvious.
An animal is apparently motivated, however, to learn
about its surroundings
Example:
If a rat is placed in a maze that has no food or reward,
it explores the maze, although rather slowly.

43. If food or another reward is provided, the rat quickly
runs the maze.
Apparently, previous learning of the maze had
occurred but remained latent, or hidden, until an
obvious reinforcement was provided.
Latent learning allows an animal to learn about its
surroundings as it explores. Knowledge about an
animal’s home area may be important for its survival,
perhaps enabling it to escape from a predator or
capture prey.

44. Example: 2

45. INSIGHT LEARNING
What is insight learning?
In insight learning or intellectual learning, the
animal uses cognitiveor mental processes to associate
experiences and solve problems
Example:
The classic example is the work of Wolfgang
Kohler (1887–1967) on chimpanzees that were
trained to use tools to obtain food rewards

46. Stages of Insight Learning

47. One chimpanzee was given some bamboo poles that
could be joined to make a longer pole, and some
bananas were hung from the ceiling.
Once the chimp formed the longer pole, it used the
pole to knock the bananas to the cage floor. Kohler
believed that the animal used insight learning to get
the bananas

48. In addition, Jane van Lawick-Goodall(1934–) has
observed chimpanzees in the wild using tools to
accomplish various tasks. For example, they use
crumpled leaves as a sponge for drinking water

50. END OF CHAPTER