Animal Shape and Behavior

Animal Shape and Behavior

• An animal's shape encompasses its physical characteristics as a biological machine, including its color, skeleton, and organ systems.
• Phenotype (P) is the observable traits/characteristics, and it equals genotype (G) plus the environmental factors (E).
• Body shapes, movement abilities, and specific behaviors are all influenced by genes.
• Genes influence a range of characteristics beyond external shape, such as blood volume, oxygen storage, blood shunting, echolocation, rib cage flexibility, and feeding adaptations.
• Behavior is linked to an animal's shape and is therefore part of its phenotype.
• Behavior as a product of biological evolution is what natural selection acts upon.
• Genetic basis must exist for behavior if it is a product of evolution
• Selective breeding influences behavior, such as aggression in pit bulls or reduced aggression through communication
• Variation in animal shapes leads to variation in behaviors; no two animals are exactly alike in either aspect.
• Intrinsic behavior acknowledges that heritable behavior depends on development and evolutionary history.

Behavioral Research Methods and Ethograms

• Motor (action) pattern defines a "unit" of behavior, which includes discrete and complex muscle movements.
• Ethogram catalogs all behaviors/motor patterns from a study, serving as a behavioral "dictionary."
• Ethogram descriptions should focus on physical "shape" rather than purpose/function.
• Ethologists focus on adaptive motor patterns that increase fitness, taxonomic value, are inherited and are stereotyped
• Not all behaviors in ethograms have to be adaptive, especially in managed situations, this depends on the research question
• Measuring behavior using an ethogram is like defining hormone measurements in an assay so quantification is key
• Motor patterns described using quality, frequency, and sequence based on the research hypothesis.
• Quality describes the movement's shape, frequency tracks behavior occurrence and sequence maps the order of movements.
• State or event categories classify behaviors with states as long durations and events as short durations
• Observation involves describing behavior to develop hypotheses whereas experimentation manipulates variables.

Describing Behavior

• Non-human animals respond uniquely to varied sensory inputs and Umwelt highlights distinct sensory experiences
• Assigning human attributes to animals is anthropomorphism and can be misleading in research.
• Attributing human qualities can create biased hypotheses but also be a powerful teaching tool.

"Guilty Look" in Dogs

• Owners often interpret specific dog behaviors as a "guilty look" when a misdeed occurs.
• These behaviors include constricting posture, head down, averting gaze, ears back, lowering body, tail down, and rapid low tail wags.
• Owners think dogs show guilt when they act badly, but these behaviors are not related compliance of the rules
• Guilt-associated behaviors could be displays of fear, appeasement, or attempts to seek attention.
• Dog "guilt" may be a learned response to avoid/reduce scolding
• Problematic behavior and owner presence can trigger “guilt” learned associations.
• Behavioral machinery involves the physiological, neural, and motivational processes that allow the animal to actually move in space

Tinbergen's Four Questions

• Adaptive significance relates behavior to evolutionary fitness, like survival and reproduction.
• Ontogeny examines individual behavioral development and appearance
• Ethologists can specialize in particular behaviors or levels of analysis
• Mechanism explores causative factors and the "whats" and "hows" of behavior, including frequency/duration, physiology, and mechanisms.
• Phylogeny compares species/breeds to understand behavior's evolutionary history

Applying Tinbergen's Questions

• A comprehensive understanding requires multidimensional, integrated insights on all levels.
• Research on related topics can build field knowledge, and evaluating various factors offers a complete picture.

Q5 Questions

• Focus on causation, development, function, and evolution.
• The dog ancestor needed the sequence of hunting to obtain food.

Gray Seals

• Gray seal behaviors include females birthing, nursing, and breeding, and males fighting to breed
• Seal anatomy suit aquatic movement but limit land locomotion.
• Breeding colonies are limited to haul-out areas, female nursing/spatial behavior ensures pup separation and starvation chances are reduced
• Oxytocin is a hormone promoting parturition and lactation, varying among species.
• Increasing the amount reduces distance bewteen mother and pup
• The nervous system reacts to simple stimuli and creates complex responses that are often intrinsic
• Animals can be tricked by a releaser by a a stimuli similar to the releaser.
• Mother grey seals do not need to follow "rules" just as a dog does not learn to bark from babies
• Variations exists in grey seals pup attentiveness and human postures/gaits
• Body structure, height, oxytocin and weight are variations in humans
• Lactating moms travel to water sources, which are important and grey seals may abandon pups to reach water
• Grey seals become better mothers with age, especially due to learning.
• Moms fast up to 18 days while lactating to deliver 60% of milk to pups from fat and metabolic imbalances mean a resume of foraging
• Moms and pups have simple proximities because of environmental, anatomical, physiological, social and learned behaviours
• Female estradoil controls behavior such as lordosis. Estradiol production is highest during heat
• Grey seal breeding however is highly seasonal.
• Blastocyst lies undifferentiated for 120-160 days with delayed implantation but is impacted by repro hormnes tied to photoperiod.
• Eyes get light and transmit to the brain which release hormones that result in willingness to copulate grey steals
• Males must contend with the long game, and are grumpy.
• Some males keep other transient males away which threatens the pup and impacts male aggression where a female chooses whose pups will survive
• Breeding is impacted by nutrition therefore skinny females are less likely to breed
• Male breeding behaviors occur over 5-20 consecutive days.
• Some males react aggressively to others becuase that type of aggression is linked to testerone
• It is not clear how completely the behavioral changes ultimately occur
• pregnant moms show up at breeding sites.
• Breeding requires enviroment integration
• Everything is mediated by the nervous system

Evolutionary Fitness

• Evolutionary fitness determines an organism's gene spread and is linked to survival

Gray Seal Mothers

• Behavioral phenotypes impact the ability to reproduce and adapt
• Grey seal islands are safe with seal pups.
• This can lead to higher repro rates because they swim poorly
• Being on land prevents them from tiring and drowning
• Proximity, vocalizations, water and more lead to proper metabolic balanace
• lactation however, can cause risks.

Pinnipeds

• Pinniped success is tied to copulation which allows repro success
• Females have to put up with agression and must roar
• Adaptive significance of this choice ensures that pups are trampled or bitten
• The mother wants her genes and offspring to be good.
• males offer better fitness from female's offspring based on fitness
• Behaviors are explained by adaptive significance and mechanism

Proximate Causes

• Variations are what shape determines.
• Ultimate/proximate causes are complementary.
• Genetic/environmental factors affect behavioral variation and adaptation.
• No adaptation can occur if no behavioral variation occurs.
• Production animal breeds tight control
• Being over responsive has impacts on crowding.

Predation

• higher rates have pups calling to save animal
• Can depend on who protects, even on locations such as cape cod and in the environment with varying conditions.

Conclusion

• This can all impact and be linked to repro performances which include weight and nursing. There are disturbances

Behaviors

• Behaviors are consistent across reactive and proactive situations. Two behavioral types have adaptive significance
• Individual differences can be a lay term

Phylogeny

• Behaviors are phenotypes. They are shaped by genetic and environmental factors.
• Adaptive can show evolution. Mammals can also show certain behavior.

Pinnipeds:

• Ancestors showed certain behaviors which created more pressure on land and had an adaptive signficance.
• It can be similar and different among phocides and can stem throught carnivores.
• Pinnipeds can be found and were descending back to land.
• Behavior must be heritable. It can still be tied to development for intrinsic patterns.

Behavior Ecology:

• tied to ecological forces.

Polar Bears:

• Can animals also change, as this impacts and creates light for them, allowing it to also impact animals such as polar bears and geese.

Study Type Exam

• In this, no behavior was measurede.

Q 1-7 are as follows:

• Integration between more with low and high mares
• Authors excited more for relationship dynamics which can be stressful
• Horses grooming allows bonding that has helped in heritability which help those to flee.
• If that happens, how did it become like this.

Domestication

• People select people and this selection allows change.

Belyaev

• Russian geneticist wanted people for a Russian purpose.
• Put in a fox ferm and had the fox people to manage this.
• This was very successful for breeding a manage breed that could be used for people to manage, instead of just the animals themselves.

Traits

• Traits are unexpectedly correlated.
• Incredible integrations can cause great behavior.

Exam themes and concepts are as follows:

• Please study for these themes.

Explore how an animal's shape, encompassing physical characteristics, influences its behavior. Learn how genes impact body shapes, movement, and specific behaviors, all subject to natural selection. Discover how selective breeding influences behavior.