Animal Behavior Final Study Guide

Animal Behavior Final Study Guide

• Niko Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz are considered founders of the field, focusing on evolutionary processes in herring gulls (sign stimulus for chick pecking behavior).
• Ivan Pavlov discovered conditioned reflexes through dog salivation experiments.
• B.F. Skinner developed a "box" for studying operant conditioning in psychology.
• W.D. Hamilton developed the "Red Queen" concept explaining animal altruism in helping rear sisters' offspring.
• John Maynard Smith introduced Evolutionary Stable Strategy (ESS) to understand why some species have males.
• Robert Trivers studied altruism and parent behavior, searching for Darwinian explanations for human cooperation.
• Robert Hinde mentored Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, emphasizing structural processes in animal behavior and adaptation/natural selection.
• G.C. Williams and E.O. Wilson researched adaptation and natural selection in relation to behavior, and extended evolutionary principles to medicine.
• Sociobiology attempts to apply genetic theory to social behavior.
• Cybernetic behavior views animals as input/output machines.
• Displacement behavior is out-of-context behavior.
• Estivation is summer hibernation.
• Ethogram is quantitative behavioral analysis,
• Fixed Action Pattern (FAP) is a series of related acts by an animal.
• Flehmening is a facial expression related to smells.
• Grooming is a common social behavior for submission and self-care.
• Habituation is getting used to a stimulus, lacking a reaction.
• Secondary localized defecation is defecation connected to another activity.
• Tidal rhythm is a biological cycle connected to tides.

Vocal and Visual Communication

• Vocal communication examples such as frog croaking.
• Visual communication with fiddler crab claws.
• Bioacoustical communication through stridulation.

Other Behavioral Processes

• Drinking behavior varies, often nocturnal or early morning for desert animals. Osmoregulation or social displays may influence drinking.
• Predator avoidance (e.g. alarm calls, distress calls, flushing, sentries).
• Avoidance distance is the optimal distance a prey animal will approach a predator.
• Aposematic coloration warning predators of toxicity or danger.
• Commensalism is a symbiotic relationship where one organism benefits while the other is unaffected.

Animal Behavior Study Methods

• Focal animal sampling observes one individual over time, while scan sampling observes multiple individuals at the same time.

Reproduction and Behavior

• Lek is an area defended for breeding purposes, usually by males.
• Territorial behavior is when an animal defends a space.
• Sexual selection involves costly adornments or displays for attracting mates.
• Aggressive mimicry is an animal mimicking harmless behaviors to lure prey.
• Altricial young are born dependent on parents.
• Anisogamy is differing sizes of reproductive cells (gametes).
• Batesian mimicry involves copying the appearance or behaviors of a dangerous species, and Competitive exclusion principle means that two species cannot share the exact niche forever.
• Home range is the whole area an animal roams, including zones visited during migration or seasonal changes.
• Indirect drinking from indirect water sources.
• Mutualism describes beneficial interactions between two species.
• Polygyny is when one male mates with multiple females.
• Withdrawal distance is the space a prey animal will go to before a predator.

Animal Behavior - Additional Topics

• Positive phototaxis is a movement toward light.

• Vertical migration is when fishes swim up or down in water.

• Echolocation is used by bats for navigation and hunting.

• Communication signals must be clear, intense, and relevant.

• Bird songs attract mates, defend territories.

• Bird calls warn of impending danger and alert others to locations containing food.

• Thigmotaxis is the response to tactile stimuli.

• Optimality in foraging means choosing food based on energy value compared to the cost of obtaining it.

• Information centers are gathering places for foragers.

• Lapping is when the tongue briefly touches water.

• Predator avoidance behaviors influence flight distance

• Aposematic markings warn predators of harm and danger.