introduction to animal behavior

1. Animal Behaviour
By
Muhammad Irfan
M.Phil Zoology
University of The Punjab, Lahore
Irfan-888153@pu.edu.pk

2. INTRODUCTION
DEFINITIONS
 All the ways animals interact with Intra and
Inter species members and with their
environment
 The way of living
 Change in the activity in response to a
stimulus.
 Cues: (Internal <Circadian rhythm>
External <Hibernation, Estivation,
Migration>)
 Dog’s drooling

3. BEHAVIORAL
BIOLOGY
It deals with biological and
evolutionary bases for behavior
Modern Behavioral Biology:
Ethology: Focuses on behaviors in
in natural environment
Comparative Psychology: Focuses
on model animals studied in a lab-
setting

4. TYPES OF
QUESTIONS
Nikolas Tinbergen
Dutch ornithologist
Founder of the field of
Ethology
Proposed four questions to
understand animal behavior

5. 1.Causation
or
Mechanism
What causes behavior?
Trigger > Behavior?
What body parts are
involved?
How it functions?
Molecules involved in
carrying it out?

6. 2.
Development
How does the behavior
develop?
It was present in early life?
It changes over the course of
organisms lifetime?
What experiences are necessary
for its development?

7. 3.
Survival/Functio
n/Adaptive
Value
How does behavior
affect fitness?
How it effects an
organisms' chances of
survival and
reproduction?

8. 4.
Phylogeny
How did the behavior
evolve?
How comparison with
related species will be
done?
Why might it have evolved
as it did?

9. Levels of
Analysis
Thousand of studies > undertaken on
each question.
4 Qs can be studied in 2 different
kinds of analysis:
A) Proximate Analysis > focuses >
immediate causes
B) Ultimate Analysis > focuses >
evolutionary force > shape a trait over
time

10. TYPES
Animal Behavior – an action or a group of actions
performed by an animal in response to some
stimulus
There are 3 types of animal behavior:

11. Innate Behavior
1. Innate behavior – genetically determined behavior (animal is
born with the ability to know how to do it)
a. Reflex – simple, automatic response that involves no conscious
control

12. Innate Behavior
b. Instinct – complex innate behavior; ex.: suckling,
nest building, web spinning

13. Innate Behavior
c. Taxis – response made by the
whole organism to an
environmental stimulus
- insects moving away from or
toward light = phototaxis
- moving toward chemical
substance = chemotaxis

14. Innate Behavior
d. Migration – seasonal
movement of animals, usually to
a warmer area

15. Innate Behavior
e. Estivation – a state of reduced metabolism that occurs
in animals living in conditions of intense heat

16. Innate Behavior
f. Hibernation – a deep sleep in which body temperature, oxygen
consumption, and breathing rate decrease (conserves energy)

17. Learned Behavior
2. Learned behavior – obtained through practice or experience
a. Habituation- occurs when an animal is repeatedly given a stimulus
that is not associated with any punishment or reward
- horse not moving when cars go by on a road
- Child keeps misbehaving when there is no punishment
- Deer at Stone Mountain State Park (not camera-shy)
Learned behavior-
squirrel gets food from a
bird feeder
Habituation- deer
checking out a car at a
state park

18. Learned Behavior
b. Imprinting – an animal
forms a social
attachment to an object
during its “critical time”
if you pick up a baby
bird, it might think you
are its mama

19. Learned Behavior
c. Classical Conditioning (stimulus association)- animal learns to
associate one event with another event
 Pavlov’s dog experiments with bell and food

20. Learned Behavior
d. Trial and error – keeps trying until the correct response is made;
there must be a reward
 Mouse in a maze (gets faster each time); basketball

21. Social Behavior
3. Social Behavior
a. Communication within social structure using pheromones (ex. Bees and ants)
 Pheromone = a chemical released by an animal that affects the behavior or development of other
members of the same species through the sense of smell or taste
 Ants leaving a trail to food, bees identifying and defending hive, attracting mates

22. Social Behavior
b. Courtship dances – movements to attract mate
 Spiders, birds, humans 

23. Social Behavior
c. Territorial defense (ex. Fighting fish) – animal defends its physical
space against other members of its species
 Prevents overcrowding and increases survival