This document discusses proximate and ultimate questions in animal behavior. Proximate questions focus on the physical mechanisms and causes of behavior, while ultimate questions examine the evolutionary advantages provided by a behavior. It provides examples of experiments conducted by Niko Tinbergen to answer both proximate and ultimate questions. Tinbergen studied how beewolves locate their nests and why black-headed gulls remove eggshells from their nests. The document also outlines several major types of animal behaviors and provides examples, including sexual, maternal, communicative, social, feeding, shelter-seeking, and investigative behaviors.

1. ANIMAL BEHAVIORANIMAL BEHAVIOR

2. Proximate and ultimate questions
• Two basic types of questions asked in
Animal Behavior
• Proximate (focus on mechanics of
behavior).
• Ultimate (focus on advantages of the
behavior)

3. Proximate questions
• Questions about physical mechanisms.
Focus on the genetic-developmental aspects
and the sensory-motor aspects of the
behavior.
• Focus on things that cause or enable the
animal to perform the behavior.

4. Proximate questions
• Examples of proximate questions:
• How mechanically does the behavior take
place?
• What factors in the environment stimulate the
behavior?
• How do the nerves and muscles generate the
behavior?
• How do the animal’s genes affect the behavior?

5. Ultimate questions
• Ultimate questions are questions about the
evolutionary reasons for a behavior. They
are questions about the selective processes
that shape the behavior.

6. Ultimate questions
• Examples of ultimate questions:
• What is the purpose of the behavior?
• In what way does the behavior increase an
individual’s reproductive success?
• Does the behavior increase an individual’s
prospects of survival?

7. How do we answer behavioral
questions?
• Examples from Niko Tinbergen’s work.

8. A proximate question.
• How do beewolves find their way home?

9. Beewolves (type of wasp) nest in sandy areas.

10. Beewolf homing
• When leaving nest to hunt bees, female
beewolf covers nest entrance with sand.
• How does she relocate it?

11. Beewolf homing
• Beewolves circle next before leaving.
• Do they remember landmarks? How would
we test this?

12. Beewolf homing
• Tinbergen cleared objects from around nest
after beewolf left and found she struggled to
relocate it.

13. Tinbergen also set up landmarks around
nest for wasp to use.

14. Then moved landmarks. Result: wasp searched
where landmarks suggested nest should be.
.

15. Beewolf homing
• Tinbergen’s second experiment is more
powerful than his first because it makes a
more specific prediction.

16. An ultimate question: Why do Black-headed
gulls remove eggshells from their nests?

17. Gull egg removal
• Tinbergen hypothesized that broken
eggshells draw attention to the nest and
attract predators.
• Removing the eggshells should reduce
predation risk.

18. Experiment
• Place broken eggshells at different distances
from intact gull eggs.
• Does presence of egg shells affect chance of
intact eggs being found?

19. Yes!
Distance from Pct eggs eaten
eggshell to egg
15 cm 42%
100 cm 32%
200 cm 21%

20. Gull egg removal
• Conclude that Black-headed gulls remove
egg shells because this behavior reduces
egg losses to predators (and ultimately
increase the bird’s reproductive success).

21. TERMS TO KNOWTERMS 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.

22. TERMS TO KNOWTERMS 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.

23. MAJOR TYPES OF ANIMALMAJOR TYPES OF ANIMAL
BEHAVIORBEHAVIOR
• Sexual
• Maternal
• Communicative
• Social
• Feeding
• Eliminative
• Shelter-Seeking
• Investigative
• Allelomimetic
• Maladaptive

24. SEXUAL BEHAVIORSEXUAL 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

25. MATERNAL BEHAVIORMATERNAL 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

26. COMMUNICATIVE BEHAVIORCOMMUNICATIVE 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

27. SOCIAL BEHAVIORSOCIAL 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

28. FEEDING BEHAVIORFEEDING 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

29. ELIMINATIVE BEHAVIORELIMINATIVE 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)

30. SHELTER-SEEKINGSHELTER-SEEKING
BEHAVIORBEHAVIOR
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

31. INVESTIGATIVE BEHAVIORINVESTIGATIVE 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

32. ALLELOMIMETICALLELOMIMETIC
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

33. MALADAPTIVE BEHAVIORMALADAPTIVE 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