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39 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Behavior |
- what an animal does and how it does it - assumed to increase fitness - two causations: (1) ultimate, evolutionary reason (2) proximate, immediate cause (internal processes or envi stimuli) - proximate causation limits behaviors upon which natural selection can act -> proximate mechanisms are behaviors that evolved |
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Ethology |
- descriptive science based on studies of animals in their natural environment - discovered many behaviors were innate |
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Fixed-action pattern |
- highly stereotyped, innate behavior - sign stimulus -> FAP until completion, even in the presence of other stimuli ;) or if behavior is inappropriate ;)) - adaptive responses to natural stimuli - e.g. turkeys FAP mothering behavior to cheeping sound, so deaf turkey kills chicks - simplistic because animals will display variable responses to stimuli |
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Sign stimulus |
- external trigger to FAP - may be specific choices from an array of posssibilities - supernormal stimulus: artificial stimlus that may elicit stronger responses, e.g. greylag goose will retrieve volleyballl over egg - sensitivity to general stimuli -> behavior - optimal behavior: behavior that maximizes individual fitness |
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Foraging |
- way for animals to feed (generalists or specialists) - natural selection favors foraging strategies that maximize gains and minimize costs - costs: energy needed to locate, catch, and eat food; risk of being caught by predator; opportunity cost for courtship and breeding - gains: calories, nutrients - tradeoffs: density and size of prey vs. foraging distances and catchability (i.e. more energy to catch big prey) |
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Search image |
- ability of a generalist feeder to learn key visual characteristics of prey item - short-term specialization: if item is scarce, new search image is developed |
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Learning |
- experience-based modification of behavior, results in increased foraging efficiency |
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Maturation |
- development of neuromuscular systems as animals mature, results in increased foraging efficiency |
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Kin selection |
- mechanism for increasing inclusive fitness - may be rare or nonexistent in species that are not social or disperse widely |
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Imprinting |
- irreversible learning limited to a specific time period in an animal's life - not always fixed - e.g. greylags have no innate sense of gooseness, but prefer first object they encounter - imprinting stimulus: movement of object away from young |
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Critical period |
- limited time in which imprinting can occur - may occur at different ages - e.g. adult herring gulls must imprint on their young - e.g. sexual imprinting |
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Associative learning |
- ability of animals to associate one stimulus with another |
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Classical conditioning |
- type of associative learning in which arbitrary stimulus is associated with reward or punishment - e.g. Pavlov dog |
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Operant conditioning |
- trial-and-error learning - type of associative learning in which animals learn based on reward or punishment - e.g. animals in a box with levers learn to only choose levers which yield food |
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Play |
- no apparent goal, but uses movements closesly associated with goal-directed behaviors - predators playfully stalk and attack each other -> similar to prey - potentially dangerous: e.g. young vervet monkeys at higher risk of being caught and eaten by baboons - two selective advantages: (1) practice for perfection of survival behaviors (2) exercise |
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Cognition |
- ability of an animal's nervous system to perceive, store, process, and use information gathered by sensory receptors |
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Cognitive ethology |
- study of animal cognition - connection of nervous systems to animal behavior |
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Cognitive maps |
- internal representations of spatial relationships among objects in animal's environment - no internal representation: kinesis, taxis |
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Habituation |
- learning to ignore irrelevant stimuli |
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Reciprocal altruism |
- altruism: reduces individual fitness and increases fitness of recipient (e.g. parents sacrificing for offspring) - reciprocal altruism towards nonrelatives: adaptive, if there is a chance of aid being returned |
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Migration |
- most common type of oriented animal movement - regular movement of animals over relatively llong distances - use 1, or combination of mechanisms: (1) piloting: from one landmark to another, short distances (2) orientation: movement along compass line, straight line path (3) navigation: ability of animals to determine their location in relation to their destination - animals may use celestial points for orientation and navigation -> lack internal clock! or orient to Earth's magnetic field using magnetite |
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Social behavior |
- any interaction between two or more animals, usually same species - aggression, courtship, cooperation, deception - potential for conflict arises from shared niche; even iin cooperation, participant usually tries to maximize own fitness |
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Sociobiology |
- study of social behavior with evolutionary theory as framework - asks: do taboos evolve from innate or learned behavior (e.g. incest) |
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Agonistic behavior |
- contest of threatening and submissive behavior that determines which competitor gains access to resource - e.g. canines baring teeth, loser tucks tail and looks away - favors immediate establishment of winer, usually still winner in future interactions |
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Ritual |
- ensures that participants in agnostic behavior are not seriously injured - in courtship, ritualized acts evolved from more direct actions - e.g. dance flies spin silk balloons and present to females, in other species, insects are presented in silk balloon to help subdue or make it look larger (insects -> insects in balloons -> balloons) |
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Dominance hierarchy |
- top-ranked member of social group controls behavior of members - second-ranked: everyone except top, and so on - top-ranked: assured resource access - e.g. in wolf packs, mating controlled by top females based on food availability |
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Territory |
- defended area used for feeding, mating, or rearing young - may be defended during breeding season, but social groups formed at other times of year - may overlap with home ranges - ownership continually proclaimed: bird song, bellowing, scent marks, etc. |
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Parental investment |
- time and resources an individual expends to produce offspring - females more discrimnating dcurb because eggs are larger and more costly to produce + females must carry young - basis: (1) if other sex gives parental care, choose most competent (2) if no parental care, choose genetic quality - differential mating success can be due to competition, female choice, or both |
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Kinesis |
- change in activity rate in response to a stimulus - e.g. sowbugs more active in dry areas |
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Taxis |
- semiautomatic, directed movement toward or away from a stimulus - e.g. housefuly negatively phototactic after feeding |
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Monogamous |
- one male mates with one female - most birds, because young birds require significant parental care - but exclusive male parental care is rare in birds and mammals, because of lack of certainty of paternity |
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Polygamous |
- individual of one sex mates with several of other |
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Polygyny |
- one male, multiple females - common in birds where young can care for themselves - parental care given by males when multiple females lay eggs in nest tended by male |
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Polyandry |
- one female, multiple males |
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Pheromones |
- chemical signals emitted by animals that communicate by odors - releasers for specific courtship behaviors, but also used by an scouts to guide other ants to food - in honeybees: round dance for food <50m away; waggle dance for food farther away, distance determined by variations in speed at which bee wags abdomen |
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Inclusive fitness |
- total effect an individual has on proliferating its genes - determined by: producing offspring and assisting reproductive efforts of relatives |
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Coefficient of relatedness |
- proportion of genes that are identical in two individuals because of common ancestry - higher -> more likely to aid relative |
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Lek |
- have communal area where males display - females visit and choose a mate based on most vigorous courting and most extreme secondary sex characteristics - THEY HAVE A STRIP CLUB |
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Promiscuous |
- mating system with no strong pair-bonds or lasting relationship |
