This document discusses animal behavior and defines it as actions performed by animals in response to stimuli. It describes three main types of behavior: innate behaviors that are genetically determined, learned behaviors acquired through experience, and social behaviors related to communication and interactions within a species. Innate behaviors include reflexes, instincts, taxes, migration, estivation and hibernation. Learned behaviors involve habituation, imprinting, classical conditioning, and trial and error. Social behaviors encompass communication through pheromones, courtship dances, and territorial defense.

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