This document provides an overview of animal behavior, including the aims of studying it, its history as a field of study, key concepts and approaches. It discusses major types of behaviors like sexual, maternal, social behaviors and gives examples. It also defines important terms and concepts in animal behavior studies.

1. ANIMAL BEHAVIOR

2. Aims of the course
• 1. To understand the general concepts that
govern the manner in which animals behave
throughout their lives i.e. maximizing
'fitness' through essentially selfish actions.
2. To appreciate the range of mechanisms
by which animals adapt to their
environmental conditions using behavioural
actions. 3. To achieve competence in the
skills required to conduct scientifically
meaningful studies of animal behaviour

3. Brief history of the study of
animal behaviour
• 1. First ethologists (pre-historic humans)
studied behavior for practical purposes: i. Prey
behaviour was studied for hunting. ii.
Domestication - dogs, cats, ox, cattle,
reindeer, horses, etc. 2. Natural theologians
during the Middle Ages documented
behaviour as part of general biology of
organisms. 3. From early 1900s - animal
behaviour became a formal discipline. 4. From
late 1900s and early 2000 - modern studies of
animal behaviou

4. Introduction
• I Behaviour can be defined as an expressed course
of action produced in organisms in response to
stimulus from a given situation. It could simply be
considered as what the animal does. The
fundamental explanation of behavioural activity
must begin with a stimulus and end with a response.
Stimulus: Any change in the biotic and abiotic
environments capable of eliciting or causing some
sort of reaction or response in a living organism. For
example, temperature, pressure, radiation, gravity, or
activities of other organisms within the immediate
environment

5. Approaches to behavioural
studies
• i. Vitalistic approach Behavioural activities are
explained in terms of what animals are seen to
do in relation to changes in the environment. It
involves total rejection of any study of the
animal outside its natural environment. The
technique is non-scientific since all the
observations relate to past events which cannot
be tested experimentally.

6. • ii. Mechanistic approach It is an experimental
approach and involves the study of particular
aspects of behaviour under controlled
conditions in a laboratory.
• It was pioneered by Pavlov and used
extensively in psychological study. It may be
criticized on the basis of the artificiality of the
experimental conditions and the way in which
results are interpreted.

7. • iii. Ethological approach Ethology is the
scientific study of animal behaviour.
• It explains responses observed in the field in
terms of stimuli eliciting the behaviour.
• This was pioneered by Lorenz, von Frisch
and Tinbergen.
• Ethologists have so far tried to answer
questions about animal behaviour from four
major areas:

8. • 1. The evolutionary history: - How did
various forms of behaviour evolved? i.e.
(Innate/instinctive/genetic or learned?) -
How does the behaviour compare with
similar behaviour in related species?

9. • 2 . Development: -
• - How does behaviour change with age?
• - What are the early experiences necessary for
the behaviour to expressed? - e.g. How does
courtship behaviour develop during the
individuals’s life?
• - Does the male in domestic fowl learn the waltz
dance? –
• Does he practice dancing? - Is he successful in
directing the female?

10. • 3. Causation:
• What are the stimuli that elicit the response?
• How has it been modified by recent
learning?
• 4. Function:
• How does the behaviour impact on the
animal’s chances of survival and
reproduction?

12. TERMS TO KNOW
• Instinct – (reflexes and responses) what the
animal has at birth. Ex. Nursing, searching
for food.
• Habituation – learning to respond without
thinking, response to certain stimulus is
established as a result of habituation.
• Conditioning – learning to respond in a
particular way to a stimulus as a result of
reinforcement when the proper response is
made.

13. TERMS TO KNOW
• Reinforcement – a reward for making the
proper response.
• Reasoning – the ability to respond correctly
to a stimulus the first time that a new
situation is presented.
• Intelligence – the ability to learn to adjust
successfully to certain situations. Both
short-term and long-term memory are part
of intelligence.

14. MAJOR TYPES OF ANIMAL
BEHAVIOR
• Sexual
• Maternal
• Communicative
• Social
• Feeding
• Eliminative
• Shelter-Seeking
• Investigative
• Allelomimetic
• Maladaptive

15. SEXUAL BEHAVIOR
Useful in implementing breeding programs
Examples of Sexual Behavior
o Cows that are in heat, allow themselves to be mounted
by others
o Bulls, rams and stallions smell the vagina and urine to
detect pheromones
o Flehmen – Male animal lifts head and curls its upper lip
o Rams chase ewes that are coming into heat
o Sows seek out boars for mating
o Mares in heat squat and urinate when stallion
approaches and vulva winks

16. MATERNAL BEHAVIOR
Females taking care of newborn and young
animals
Examples of Maternal Behavior
o Mothers clean young by licking them
o Mothers fight off intruders
o Become aggressive in protecting they young
after birth

17. COMMUNICATIVE BEHAVIOR
When some type of information is exchanged
between individual animals
Examples of Communicative Behavior
o Distress Calls – Lambs bleat, calves bawl, pigs
squeal and chicks chirp
o Dams recognize offspring by smell
o Farm animals respond to calls or whistles of the
producer
o Bulls bellow deeply to communicate aggressive
behavior

18. SOCIAL BEHAVIOR
Includes “fight or flight” and aggressive and
passive behaviors between animals
Includes interactions with other animals, humans
and behavior during handling and restraint
Examples of Social Behavior
o Males of all farm animals fight when they meet other
unfamiliar males of the same species
o Cows, sows and mares develop a pecking order, but
fight less intensely than males
o Cows withdraw from the herd to a secluded spot just
before calving
o Almost all animals withdraw from the herd if they are
sick

19. FEEDING BEHAVIOR
Exhibited by animals when eating and
drinking
(Ingestive Behavior)
Examples of Feeding Behavior
o Cattle graze 4-9hrs/day, ruminate 4-9hrs/day,
regurgitate 300-400 boluses of feed per day
o Sheep and goats graze 9-11hrs/day, ruminate 7-
10hrs/day, regurgitate 400-600 boluses of feed per
day
o Cattle usually don’t go more than 3 miles away
from water
o Sheep may travel as much as 8 miles a day

20. ELIMINATIVE BEHAVIOR
Elimination of feces and urine
Examples of Eliminative Behavior
o Cattle, sheep, horses, goats and chickens eliminate feces
& urine indiscriminately
o Hogs eliminate feces in definite areas of a pasture or pen
o Cattle, sheep, goats and swine defecate while standing or
walking, urinate while standing, but not walking
o Cattle defecate 12-18 times/day, urinate 7-11 times/day
o Horses defecate 5-12 times/day, urinate 7-11 times/day
o Animals defecate & urinate more when stressed or
excited
o Animals loose 3% of their live weight when transported
to & from market points (Shrink)

21. SHELTER-SEEKING
BEHAVIOR
Examples of Shelter-Seeking Behavior
o Animals crowd together in snow and cold winds
o Animals seek shelter of trees when it rains
o Cattle and sheep seek shady area for rest and
rumination if weather is hot
o Hogs find a wet area if weather is hot
o In extreme situations, animals pile up to the extent
that some get smothered

22. INVESTIGATIVE BEHAVIOR
Examples of Investigative Behavior
o Pigs, horses and dairy goats are highly curious,
investigate any strange object, approach carefully,
slowly, sniffing and looking as they approach
o Sheep are less curious and more timid

23. ALLELOMIMETIC
Animals of a species tend to do the same thing at
the same time.
Important in that a producer may observe the
herd with little difficulty, also useful in driving
groups of animals from one place to another.
Examples of Allelomimetic Behavior
o Cattle and sheep tend to graze at the same time and
rest and ruminate at the same time
o Range cattle gather at the watering place about the
same time each day because one follows the other

24. MALADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR
Animals that cannot adapt to their environment,
exhibit inappropriate or unusual behavior.
Examples of Maladaptive Behavior.
o Chickens and swine in extensive management
(confinement) systems resort to cannibalism, removal
of tails is a prevention method
o Buller-steer syndrome – steers that have been castrated
before puberty demonstrate masculine behavior