Behavior

The nervous system's response to a stimulus and carried out by the muscular or hormonal system. They can be subject to natural selection.

Behavioral Ecology

The study of the ecological and evolutionary basis for animal behavior.

Proximate Causation

Addresses how a behavior occurs or is modified, such as Tinbergen's questions 1 and 2.

Ultimate Causation

Addresses why a behavior occurs in the content of natural selection, including Tinbergen's questions 3 and 4

Fixed Action Pattern (Innate)

Sequence of unlearned, innate behaviors that is unchangeable.

• One initiated, it is usually carried to completion
• Triggered by an external cue called sign stimulus
• Greylag Goose's Egg retrieval behavior

Innate behavior

developmentally fixed and does not vary amonf individuals

Learning

The modification of behavior based on specific experiences

Imprinting (innate)

A behavior that includes learning and innate components and is generally irreversible.

• Distinguished from other learning by a sensitive period
• A sensitive period is a limited developmental phase that is the only time when certain behaviors can be learned
• Young whopping cranes can imprint on humans in "crane suits" who then lead crane migrations

Habituation (learned)

The ability to learn to ignore irrelevant stimuli that don't provide appropriate feedback

• Gray squirrels will eventually ignore alarm calls if they are not followed by actual attacks

Associative learning

When animals associate one feature of their environment with another

Classical conditioning

A type of associative learning in which an arbitrary stimulus is associated with a reward or punishment

• Pavlov's dog, when they would ring a bell to signal food is coming.

Operant Conditioning

A type of associative learning which an animals learns to associate one of its behaviors with a reward or punishment.

• Also called as trial and error learning
• Predators may learn to avoid specific types of prey associated with a past painful experience.

Spaital Learning

A complex modification of behavior based on experience with the spatial structure of the environment

• Niko Tinbergen showed how digger wasps use landmarks to find nest entrances
• Cognitive map is an internal representation of spatial relationships between objects in animal's surrondings

Cognition

The process of knowing that may include awareness, reasoning, recollection, and judgment

• Problem Solving, the process of devising a strategy to overcome an obstacle

Maturation

Some behaviors that improve over time attributed to learning or maturation

• Development of neuromuscular systems that allows behavioral improvement
• Such as white crowned sparrow memorizing the songs of its species during an early sensitive period
• The bird then learns to sing the song during a second learning phase

Social Learning

Learning through the observation of others and forms the roots of culture

• Culture is a system of information transfer through observation or teaching that influences behavior of individuals in a population
• Young chimpanzees learning to crack palm nuts with stones by copying older chimpanzees
• Vervet monkeys give and respond ti distinct alarm calls for different predators

Behavioral Rhythms

When some animal's behavior is affected by the animal's circadian rhythm, daily cycle of rest and activity

• Behaviors such as migration and reproduction are linked to changing seasons, or circannual rhythm
• Such as daylight and darkness, they're common seasonal cues
• Some can also be linked to lunar cycle that affected tidal movements.

Migration

Environmental cues can trigger movement in a particular direction

• Animals orient themselves using the position of the sun and their circadian clock, that is an internal 24 hour clock that is an integral part of their nervous system
• The position of the North Star
• The Earth's magnetic field
  • Piloting is the movement of animals from landmark to another
  • Orientation is the movement along a compass line
  • Navigation is the animal's ability to orient along a compass line ton determine their location in relation to their destination

Animal Signals and Communication

A signal is a behavior that causes a change in another animal's behavior

• Communication is the transmission and reception of signals
• Animals communicate using visual, chemical, tactile, and auditory signals

Fruit Fly Courtship

A male identifies a female of the same species and orients toward her

• Chemical communication: he smells female's chemical in the air
• Visual Communication: he sees the female and orients his body towards hers
• Tactile communication: he taps the female with a foreleg
• Chemical communication: he chemically confirms the female's identity
• Auditory communication: he extends and vibrates his wing

Waggle dance

Honeybees show complex communication with symbolic language

• Use it to communicate information about the distance and direction of a food source

Phermones

Odors that emit chemical substances

• Used to attract mates
• Honeybee can produce a pheromone that affects the development and behavior of female workers and male drones
• When a minnow or catfish is injured, an alarm substance in the fish's skin disperses in the water, inducing a fright response among fish in the area

Nocturnal animals and diurnal aniamls

Most terrestrial mammals depend on olfactory and auditory communication, while diurnal animals use visual and auditory.

Foraging Behavior

Natural selection refines behaviors that enhance the efficiency of feeding.

Such as recognizing, searching for, capturing, and eating food items

Optimal Foraging Model

Where they see the compromise between benefits of nutrition and the cost to obtain that food.

• The costs of obtaining food include energy expenditure and risk of being eaten while foraging
• Natural selection should favor foraging behavior that minimizes the costs and maximizes the benefits

Mating Behavior and Mate Choice

Seeking or attracting mates, competing for mates, and caring for offspring.

• The base it off of the possibility that the opposite sex will give parental care, best to chose the most competent mate
• Genetic quality is important when males provide no parental care and sperm are their only contribution

Promiscuous

No strong pair-bonds or lasting relationships.

Monogamous relationship

When one male mates with one female, usually monogamous mating systems have similar external morphologies

Polygamous

where an individual of one sex mates with several individuals of other sex, usually sexually dimorphic

• Polygyny, one male mates with many females.
• The males are usually more showy and larger than females
• Polyandry, one female mates with many males
• Females are often show showy than the males

Sexual Dimorphism

Results from sexual selection, a form of natural selection

• In intersexual selection, members of one sex choose mates on the basis of certain traits
• Intersexual selection involves competition between members of the same for mates.

Mate choice by Females

Female choice is a type of intersexual comepetition

• They can drive sexual selection by choosing males with specific behaviors or features of anatomy

Mate choice copying

A behavior where individuals copy the mate choice of others

Male competition for Mates

Male competition for mates is a source of intrasexual selection that can reduce variation among males.

• Such as agonistic behavior, that is ritualized contest that determines which competitor gains access to resource.

Applying Game Theory

Evaluates alternative strategies where the outcome on each individual's strategy and the strategy of other individuals

• Each side-blotched lizard has a blue, orange, or yellow throat.
• Each color is associated with a specific strategy for obtaining mates.

Altruism

Natural selection favors behaviors that maximizes an individual's survival and reproduction

Inclusive fitness

the total effect an individual has on proliferating its genes by producing offspring and helping close relatives produce offspring

Hamilton's Rule and Kin Selection

Natural Selection favors altruism when rB> C

• Kin selection is the natural selection that favors this kind of altruistic behavior by enhancing reproductive success of relatives

Reciprocal Altruism

Altruistic behavior toward unrelated individuals can be adapative if the aided individual returns the favor in the future

Kinesis

undirected change in the speed of an animal's movement in response to a stimulus
-random movement
-animal is no longer in a favorable environment

Taxis

directed movement in response to a stimulus
-not random, towards a stimulus