Animal Behavior

( BIOL3142)
• Chapter -One
1. Introduction to Animal Behavior
1.1 Definition of animal Behaviour
What is Ethology? Ethos= habit, Ethology is the scientific study of animal behavior,
particularly in natural environments.

-is the study of animal behaviour.

The most famous example for the ethological theory is the so-called filial imprinting. In this
phenomenon, a young animal inherits most of its behavior from its parents.

E.g. Lorenz had utilized the greylag geese as his test subject
• Behaviour can be also defined as an expressed course of action produced in organisms in

response to stimulus from a given situation.

 It could simply be considered as what the animal does.

 The fundamental explanation of behavioural activity must begin with a stimulus

and end with a response.

 Stimulus: Any change in the biotic and abiotic environments capable of causing a

reaction or response in a living organism.

 E.g. temperature, pressure, radiation, gravity etc.

 Or activities of other organisms within the immediate environment.

1.2 Scope of the study of animal behaviour
Animal behavior can be studied at two key levels.
1. At the physiological level we might be interested in the mechanism by which a
behavior actually occurs.
• this means in what way do the biochemistry, nerves, muscles, and senses of an animal
interact to result in a particular behavior?
2. Equally interesting, however, are questions related to the whole animal and the world
external to it.
• At this level we might consider the performance of a behavior in relation to the
environment in which it is performed, to the wider ecology of the animal, or to its
social experiences.
1.3. Characteristics of behavior
A characteristic of some organism, like how it looks
or acts.
Can be passed down from parents to offspring =
(inherited)
Can be learned
Allows organism to survive and reproduce in its
environment in which it lives.
Behavior helps an animal:
Obtain food
Give care to its young
Find a partner for sexual reproduction
Maintain homeostasis
Etc.
1.4. Components (types) of Behaviour
Behaviour

Nature/innate Nurture/learned

Genes determine behaviour Experience and learning

determine behaviour

Inherited (innate) behaviour Learned behaviour

Set at birth Acquired after animal is born
Species characteristic behaviour Individual characteristic behaviour
Largely influenced by genes (inborn) Largely influenced by environment
Inflexible (stereotype patterns of behaviour) Flexible
MAJOR TYPES OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR
Ingestive behaviour
Communicative
Social
Eliminative
Shelter-Seeking
Investigative
Sexual
Maternal
Allelomimetic
Maladaptive
1.5. Why study behavior?
 Possible first science: Our survival dependent on knowledge of other animals
(prey/competitors/predators).
 Control/management of species: Food and game species, agricultural pests, invasive species,
endangered species.
 Understanding/modification of our own behavior: Studies of how birds learn and develop songs
provide unique insights into the development and neural control of speech in humans
 Animals = good models for understanding ourselves
Behavior, neurobiology
 Animal conservation, endangered species
 Practical: farm animals, pest species control, disease prevention, pets
Management of animals in captivity
Curiosity!
Behavior is Controlled by:
 Nervous system
 Endocrine system
Organizational effects
Activational effects
1.6. Founders of the field of Animal Behavior
Konrad Lorenz(1903-1989) examined genetically programmed
behaviors in young and imprinting.
Young geese form an image of “parent” just after hatching. If
the hatchlings first encounter a human, they will imprint on him
and follow him around as if he were their mother
Karl von Frisch(1886 -1982) pioneered studies in bee
communication and foraging. Demonstrated that honey bees have
color vision. Honey bees use a dance language to communicate the
location of resources to other bees.
Niko Tinbergen(1907-1988) formulated a method studying animal
behavior (Tinbergen, 1963)
Demonstrated that digger wasps used visual landmarks to relocate
their nests.
Tinbergen’s Sand Wasp Experiment

Nest finding behavior of wasps responding to the arrangement of the cones

rather than the cones themselves: Spatial Learning
1.7. Approaches to behavioral studies
Vitalistic approach
Mechanistic approach
Ethological approach

Vitalistic approach
Behavioural activities are explained in terms of what animals are seen to do in relation to changes in the environment.
It involves total rejection of any study of the animal outside its natural environment.
The technique is non-scientific since all the observations relate to past events which cannot be tested experimentally.
Mechanistic approach
It is an experimental approach and involves the study of particular aspects of behaviour under controlled conditions in a
laboratory.
It was pioneered by Pavlov and used extensively in psychological study.
It may be criticized on the basis of the artificiality of the experimental conditions and the way in which results are
interpreted.
Ethological approach
Ethology is the scientific study of animal behaviour.
It explains responses observed in the field in terms of stimuli eliciting the behaviour.
This was pioneered by Lorenz, von Frisch and Tinbergen.
1.8. Methods of studying animal behavior
• The ethological approach of Lorenz, Tinbergen, and von Frisch largely focused on the
behavior of organisms in their natural environment.
• At the same time, another group of scientists focused on the mechanistic underpinnings
(laying foundations) of behavior.
This research used model organisms (e.g., Norway rat) in controlled laboratory settings.
Behaviorism B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
Experimental studies of behavior in the laboratory, using manipulation
“universal principles” of behavior
Learning: classical and operant conditioning
Classic work by B. F. Skinner lead to the development of the use of learning paradigms.
The Skinner Box remains an important tool in the field of animal psychology.
Classical conditioning is a process that involves creating an association between
a naturally existing stimulus and a previously neutral one. Sounds confusing, but
let's break it down. E.g. Pavlov’s experiment on dogs.

Operant conditioning (or instrumental conditioning) focuses on using either

reinforcement or punishment to increase or decrease a behavior. Through this
process, an association is formed between the behavior and the consequences of
that behavior.
Cont’d… Methods of studying animal behaviour

• Scientists utilize three main methods for studying animal behavior;

observational, experimental, and comparative.

Observational study: In this method, the researcher physically watches the

subject in the study without manipulating any variables.
Experimental Method includes manipulating a variable and the effects on the
behavior of the animal.
Comparative Method examines similarities and differences between species to
understand the evolution of the behavior.
• Chapter Two: Animal Communication
2.1 . Communication
What is Communication in Animals?

Why do Animal Communicate?

How animal Communicate?

What are the major types of animal communication?

2.2. Animal Signals and Communication
• In behavioral ecology, 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
• The type of signal is closely related to lifestyle and environment.

• Communication behaviors are critical to the survival and reproductive success of

[Link]

• Animals have several types of communication behaviors.

2.3. Why do animals communicate?
• Parental care
– Recognition
– Begging
• Sexual advertisement
• Transfer environmental information
– Predator alarms
– Food location
• Territory defense and conflict resolution
• Social integration - contact calls

• Elicit play

• Alliance (Get helper or mate)

2.4. Types of communication
Communication can be verbal or non-verbal
i. Non-verbal signaling
E.g. body, head, ear, and or tail position, showing teeth, smiling, looking
away, looking directly at, gesturing, thumping, beating chest, raising
hackles or hood, drumming, tail slap, scenting, pheromones and sign
language.

II. Verbal
Vocalizations
Bark, growl, snort, howl, hoot, chirp, whinny, alarm sound and other
language
Pheromones
 Some animals communicate by spreading highly specific chemicals
called pheromones.
 These chemicals are specific to species.
 Pheromones often are used to relay messages between males and
females about reproduction.
 Many animals that communicate through odors emit chemical substances
called
 Pheromones are effective at very low concentrations
 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
Auditory Communication
Howls, hoots, barks, and chirps are just a few examples of auditory communication.
Language is a form of auditory communication in which animals use vocal organs to produce
groups of sounds that have shared meanings
Visual communication
Courtship Behaviors
An animal engages in courting behaviors in order to attract a mate.
Females often choose to mate with males that appear larger and healthier than others.
Tactile communication
Hugging, kissing, caressing and biting may take specialized forms in sexual contexts, and elicit
specialized reactions:
Indeed in many mammals other than primates ovulation and/or the hormonal changes
associated with pregnancy are induced by the tactile consequences of copulation.
Physical contact is also an important element of the social relationship between offspring and
parent in most mammals.
Electrical communication
the production and detection of electrical fields,
which is peculiar to a few species of fish.
Nurturing Behaviors (visual communication)
When parents provide care to their offspring in the early stages of
development, they are engaging in nurturing behaviors.
This includes providing food, protection, and skills needed for survival.
Animal species that spend time nurturing young often produce fewer
offspring than animals that do not nurture.
Altruistic Behavior (visual communication)
Sometimes, an animal will perform an action that benefits another
individual at a cost to itself.
For example, a colony of naked mole rats forage for food, protect the
queen, and huddle around her to provide warmth to the offspring.
Chapter three: Innate and Learned behaviors
There are two forms of behavior
– Innate behavior
– Learned behavior
i. Innate behavior
 Can be performed without prior experience
 Are performed in reasonably complete form the first time
 Appear even if the animal is deprived of opportunity to learn it
Example: Red squirrel nut-burying activities  Can occur immediately after
birth
Example: Egg eviction behavior in cuckoo chicks
is also called Instinctive behavior, is something the animal is born knowing
how to do.
Examples include fish swimming and geese migrating.
• Fixed Action Patterns(FAPs) (innate behaviors)
• A fixed action pattern is a programmed behaviour pattern triggered by a specific environmental
stimulus(releaser)
• It is a sequence of unlearned, innate behavior that is unchangeable
• Once initiated, it is usually carried to completion
• A fixed action pattern is triggered by an external cue known as a sign stimulus

• Once a fixed-action pattern is triggered, the behavior continues until completion even in the presence
of other stimuli or if the behavior is inappropriate.
• Fixed-action patterns are adaptive responses to natural stimuli.
• Strange responses can be initiated by presenting unnatural situations to animals with fixed-action
patterns.
Characteristics of Fixed Action Patterns
• Stereotyped, often complex series of movements
– Response to a specific stimulus = ‘releaser’
– Fully functional 1st time performed
• Completed fully once started
– Not modified by experience
• E.g.: suckling behavior of new borns egg retrieval of graylag goose courtship rituals yawning

• It is innate or unlearned
• It is stereotyped(to repeat without variation)
• Sequence of behaviors that are essentially unchangeable and conducted to completion once it
is started
• It is difficult to disrupt
• Examples of sign stimuli and FAPs include:
Example 1: Niko Tinbergen noticed male three-spined stickle back fish responded
aggressively to red trucks passing by their tank.
• Fixed-action pattern: Male sticklebacks attack other males that enter their territories.
• Sign stimulus: The red belly of the invading male; sticklebacks will attack nonfish-
like models with red on the ventral surface.
Example 2: Parent/young feeding behavior in birds
• Fixed-action pattern: The begging behavior of newly hatched chicks (raised heads,
open mouths, loud cheeps)
• Sign stimulus: Parent landing at the nest
• Fixed Action Patterns
Example 3. Protective behavior in hen turkeys
Fixed-Action Pattern: The begging behaviour of newly hatched chicks (raised heads, open mouths,
and loud cheeps).
Sign stimulus: Parent (mother) landing at the nest.

• Example 4: Greylag goose egg retrieval behavior

• Fixed-Action Pattern: Graylag goose rolls the egg back to the nest using
side-to-side head motions.
• Sign stimulus: The appearance of an object near the nest. If the goose loses the egg during the
retrieval process, it stops the head motion, but continues the "pulling" motion of retrieval.
• Example 5: The human infant grasping response is a fixed-action pattern released by a
tactile stimulus.
Example 6: frogs' retinal cells are sensitive to movement. Movement is the sign stimulus
that releases the tongue-shooting FAP in frogs.
• A frog starves if surrounded by motionless flies
• Yawning is a human “fixed action pattern” (FAP).
Other FAPs shown by humans are:
• Smiling, frowning, many other expressions of emotion
• Eye blink
• Swallowing
• And a great many others! But are these all FAPs, and not “just reflexes”? Is an FAP just
a complex reflex? In the above list, eyeblink and swallowing are usually referred to as
reflexes.
• Other Examples of “Fixed action patterns”
• courtship and mating,
• capturing food,
• socialization, playing, etc
• Courtship
•Ensures the two animals are of the same species
•May be a sign to start nest building
•May trigger ovulation
•Aggression is reduced by dances, call, movements of the body in ritualised sequences, release of pheromones, or touching.
•This allows the pair bond to strengthen, so more intimate behaviours can take place.
•A pair bond is a stable relationship between animals of the opposite sex that ensures cooperative behaviour in mating and
rearing of the young.
• Is behavior consists of patterns that lead to copulation and consists of a series of displays and movements by the male or female.
ii. Learned behaviors
learned behavior is not instinctive.
 Animals are not born knowing what to do or how to do it.
 Learned behavior is learned by experience and sometimes from a parent.
 Examples include lions and leopards learning how to hunt by watching and practicing with their
mothers.
Types of learned behavior
1. Imprinting
2. Non-associative learning
- Habituation
- Sensitization

3. Associative learning
- Classical conditioning
- Operant conditioning
Reinforcement (Positive/negative)
Punishment (Positive/negative)
4. Insight learning
5. Latent or exploratory learning
Imprinting
 Innate behavior that is learned during a critical period early in life
 Both learning and innate components
Ex: Konrad Lorenz was “mother” to these imprinted graylag goslings
 No Sharp Distinctions
 Learning may be governed by innate constraints
 Examples – Robins learn only songs of adult robins  –
Birds imprint only on their “parent” during the sensitive
period in their development
 Seemingly innate behavior can be modified by experience
– Example: Herring gull chicks come to recognize own
parents as they mature
 Some animals form a social attachment to the first object they
see after birth.
 Other animals imprint on the chemical composition of the water
in which they are hatched.

 Imprinting is said to occur when innate behaviors are released

in response to a learned stimulus.
Adaptive significance:
 Enables offspring to rapidly acquire skills possessed by their
parents such as learning to fly in birds, song learning.
 Promotes survival of newborn and shapes future breeding
activities.
Characteristics of Imprinting
Occurs during critical sensitive period.
Imprinting is irreversible because the imprinted knowledge is
retained for life.
It establishes an individual animal’s preference for a certain
species since individuals will prefer to follow a learned
stimulus rather than a member of their own species.
 Some behaviours are affected by imprinting more than
others. E.g. It may have effects upon the animal’s future
choice of a sexual partner.
Stressful stimuli fortify imprinting.
Non associative learning
a. Habituation
 Loss of responsiveness to unimportant stimuli, “cry-wolf” ( many false alarm) effect
 Learn not to respond to repeated occurrences of stimulus
Ex: Brown bear habituation - bear viewing leads to bear tolerating people at close range
 Habituation occurs when repeated presentations of a stimulus causes a decrease in
response .
 The stimulus is not associated with reward or punishment (reinforcement).
 E.g. The animal learns not to respond to irrelevant stimuli such as movements due
to wind, cloud, shadows, wave action etc.
Significance of habituation:
 Helps animals to recognize important cues or signals and adapt to constantly
changing environment.
 Save energy form unimportant stimulus
b. Sensitization
 It is the opposite of habituation in that repeated presentations of the stimulus
cause an increase in response .
 The stimulus has to be unpleasant or aversive.
 In farm animals, increased responsiveness follows a reward or punishment (or
'reinforcement') mainly associated with predator, food and mates.
Associative learning
 is the process by which animals take one stimulus and
associate it with another.
 Learned behavior
Examples: Classical conditioning and Operant conditioning
Classical conditioning
 A stimulus is substituted for one that is already associated
with a behavior
 Animal learns to associate the new stimulus with the reward
 Is passive
 The reward follows the stimulus E.g. Pavlov’s dogs
Operant conditioning
 The animal must perform an act (behavior) in response to a stimulus to
get the reward
 Unlike classical conditioning, the reward follows the behavior, not the
stimulus
 It is an active process; the animal must do something specific to get the
reward is a type of associative learning in which an animal learns to
associate one of its behaviors with a reward or punishment
 It is also called trial-and-error learning
For example:
a rat that is fed after pushing a lever will learn to push the lever in order to
receive food
◦ a predator may learn to avoid a specific type of prey associated with a
painful experience
 Type of associative learning
 Different from classical conditioning, because the association
is made between the animal’s own behavior and a response.
B.F. Skinner
 By trial & error Animal receives a reward for making a
particular response
 Motivation is internal need that causes an animal to act;
necessary for learning to take place
 Usually involves satisfying a need
 Operant conditioning allows animals to learn behaviors to
receive a reward or avoid punishment
 Used to train animals
 Operant conditioning allows one to use reinforcers or punishers that positively or
negatively influence the likelihood of a behavior being repeated.
 Reward strengthens the correct response.
 With selection of appropriate reward, animals could be trained to do remarkable
things if reinforced at the right time.
E.g. By waiting for accidental movement of eye lids, pigeons were taught to blink to
receive food reward.
 must know that a stimulus is aversive for its removal to be reinforcing.
The speed and strength of learning increases with size and attractiveness of the
reinforcer.
 Negative in the context of animal training refers to removal of something in the
animal’s world.
Positive reinforcement refers to addition.
When trainers reinforce a behavior with the removal of something unpleasant, they
make the behavior more likely to occur in the future.
 That is, the response has been negatively reinforced.
•Reinforcement= whether positive or negative make response more likely in the future. •
Punishment=whether positive or negative make response less likely in the future.

Response is more likely in Response is less likely in future

future Positive reinforcement
Positive reinforcement e.g. Tit bit reinforces begging at table
e.g. Tit bit reinforces begging at by dogs.
table Positive punishment
by dogs. e.g. Applying tension on the lead
Positive punishment increases choking and neck pain
e.g. Applying tension on the lead
increases choking and neck pain
Negative punishment e.g. Complete
Negative reinforcement e.g. removal of food extinguishes begging at
Easing tension on the lead reduces table
choking and neck pain in horses.
Insight learning

Highest form of learning (does not result from immediate trial-and-

error learning).
Based on advanced perceptual abilities such as thought and reasoning
from information previously learned.
Insight learning is problem solving without trial and error Sudden
problem solving without prior experience
 May involve mentally manipulating concepts to arrive at a solution
Problem solving is the process of devising a strategy to overcome an
obstacle ◦ For example, chimpanzees can stack boxes in order to reach
suspended food
Insight learning
 Insight learning Is the ability to do something right the first
time with no prior experience.
 It requires reasoning ability – the skill to look at a problem
and come up with an appropriate solution.
 Insight- most complex kind of learning
 Animal uses previous experience to respond to new situation
 Ex. Solving math problems
latent or exploratory learning
 Animals explore new surroundings and learn information
which may be useful at a later stage (hence latent).
 Previous experience of playing with boxes (latent learning)
helped a Chimpazee to stack boxes and reach out to
bananas at the ceiling (Kohlar’s work on chimpanzees).
 This response appeared to follow a period of ‘apparent
thought’. 
Observational learning
Some animals learn to solve problems by observing other individuals
For example, young chimpanzees learn to crack palmnuts with stones by copying older chimpanzees

Is the ability of an organism to learn how to do something by

watching another individual do it first, even if they have never
attempted it themselves.
 chimps would observe the chimp in the cage that had insight
learning and stacked the boxes to get to the bananas, see the
failure, and then see the solution.
When these chimps got in the cage, bang-zoom, they got to the
solution a lot faster, arguably due to modeling effects.
 Young chimpanzees who watch their mothers crack nuts with rock
tools before learning the technique themselves
Chapter four: Animal Social behaviours
• In the broad sense, any interaction resulting from the response of one animal to
another of the same species represents social behavior. Even a pair of rival males
fighting over possession of a female display a social interaction, despite our
perceptual bias as people that might encourage us to label it antisocial. Social
aggregations are only one kind of social behavior, and indeed not all aggregations
of animals are social.
Advantages of Sociality
 defense, both passive and active, from predators.
 It facilitates encounters between males and females, which, for solitary animals,
 helps synchronize reproductive behavior through the mutual stimulation that
individuals have on one another. Among colonial birds the sounds and displays of
courting individuals set in motion prereproductive endocrine changes in other
individuals.
 parental care
social animals provide their offspring increases survival of the
brood
 Social living provides opportunities for individuals to give
aid and to share food with young other than their own. Such
interactions within
 cooperation in hunting for food;
 huddling for mutual protection from severe weather;
opportunities
 for division of labor, which is especially well developed in
the social
 for learning and transmitting useful information through the
society.
Social living also has some disadvantages
 as compared with a solitary existence for some animals. Species
that survive by camouflage from potential predators profit by being
dispersed.
e.g. Large predators benefit from a solitary existence for a different
reason, their requirement for a large supply of prey. Thus there is no
overriding adaptive advantage to sociality that inevitably selects
against the solitary way of life. It depends on the ecological
situation.
Social behaviors
A. Altruistic Behavior, (visual
communication)
 Sometimes, an animal will perform an
action that benefits another individual at
a cost to itself.
 For example, a colony of naked mole
rats forage for food, protect the queen,
and huddle around her to provide
warmth to the offspring.
 Some behaviors benefit other group members at a cost to the
individual performing them.
 Form of social behavior whereby one organism puts itself either at risk
or personal disadvantage for the good of other members of the species.
 E.g. Birds and monkeys call out warnings to others in danger and
female monkeys carry and care for the babies of other monkeys.
 In insects such as honey bees, wasps and ants, sterile female workers
are prevented from producing offsprings, yet they spend their lives
looking after their brothers and sisters.
 The conferring of a genetic advantage on closely related organisms
forms the basis of altruistic behavior.
 Altruistic behaviour is very common amongst primates and
varies from the extremes of social protection which exist between
members of the same troop (monkeys), through acts of mutual
grooming and food sharing (apes) to deliberate acts of self
sacrifice for family.
 The extent of altruistic behaviour appears to be related to close
relatives (kin) such as offspring and siblings (brothers, sisters
cousins) with whom they share certain alleles.
 Thus adaptive significance of altruistic behaviour is to
increase the frequency of those alleles common both to the donor
and recipient(s) of the altruistic behaviour.
Inclusive fitness: Reciprocal altruism:
Represents the overall ability of
 Animals behave altruistically
individuals to pass their own
toward others who are not
genes on to the next generation
relatives, hoping that the favor
as well as providing aid to
will be returned sometime in the
closely related individuals
future.
(related individuals share many
of the same genes) Animals rarely display this
This concept can explain many behavior…
cases of altruism in nature it is limited to species with
stable social groups
B. Territoriality (Territorial behavior)
 Animals defend a physical geographic area against other individuals of
usually the same species
 Area is defended because of benefits derived from it.
 Animal species vary in their degree of territoriality
 A territory is an area defended against other members of the same species.
 It provides food, water supplies, nesting areas, and refuges from danger.
Ownership of a territory is signalled by vocalisations, scent marking, visual
displays.
 Boundary marking warns against accidental intrusion by others of its
species.
 Another animal is only likely to attempt to dislodge the owner of the
territory if it has a chance of being successful.
 Territories help to regulate the population to a size that can be
supported by the available resources. •
 Territorial behaviour varies widely.
 Most animals have a definite home. The area the animal covers
regularly in search of food and mates is the home range. This area is
not defended.
 The part of the home range defended against others of the same
species is the territory.
 Territories are established & defended through agonistic behaviors
 Size of territory is highly variable due to resources available, and
function of the territory
 Territorial behaviors include verbal signals, such as the singing of birds,
as well as chemical signals, such as a male cheetah’s urine.
 Territories usually are defended by males in order to increase their
chance of obtaining adequate food, mates, and places to rear their
offspring.
 Territoriality refers to the control of a specific area, which is called
territory
 A territory is a physical space an animal defends against others of its
species.
 Breeding area
 Feeding area
 Potential mates
Adaptive Features of Territoriality
 Ensures enough space for each animal –if in short supply and needed for
breeding, keeps population down.
 By spreading out reduces the spread of disease and parasites. Also
harder for predators to find them.
 Territoriality reduces competition.
 Most successful males hold best territories and so ensure best genes are
passed on to offspring.
 Once territories are established the resources have been divided. The
losers will spread out and look for food elsewhere rather than go on
fighting.
 In some species males without territories do not attract mates and do not
breed.
 Territories ensure enough food for the animals and their families.
 Territories ensure a safe, protected nest or home for the young or at
least a place to breed in the case of communal breeding grounds.
 Animal now has an area with which it can become familiar, can learn
where food, water and protection from predators is located.
 Generally, territorial behaviour is set defenders and intruders know
their roles.
Drawbacks of territoriality
 uses a great deal of an individual’s energy.
 In addition, an individual might be defending a territory and die or
miss a reproductive opportunity.
Marking and Defending Territories
Vocalisations –e.g. birds singing on boundaries of their areas at dawn and dusk
Scent –e.g. marking with urine (dogs and cats) or faeces
Scent glands –special glands produce chemo markers. e.g. on rump, between horns
(deer), wrists (lemur), behind ears (cats)
Spraying behavior is the deposition of small amounts of urine on vertical
surfaces. In most cases, the spraying cat will back into the area. Although much
less common, some cats will also mark their territory by leaving small amounts of
urine, or occasionally stool, on horizontal surfaces.
Physical gesturing –crabs wave claws at edge of territory.
Pheromones -Mark territories with pheromones
Scuffing=scraping foot against ground for marking
C. Agnostic behaviour
Group of behavioural adjustments associated with fighting, which includes attack, escape,
threat, defense and appeasement.
Continuum of behaviours from threat to aggression to submission.
 Threat-species-specific vocalizations, odours, postures, facial or body movements that
signal the intent to display aggression.
•In stable social systems, threat causes immediate signs of avoidance or submission.
 Submission-species-specific behaviours, vocalizations, postures and odours that signal non-
aggressiveness and reduce further attack by the aggressive individual.
•Submissive behaviour may be objectively measured because they always follow either an
aggressive behaviour or a threat, and because each species has specific submissive postures.
 Aggression-species-specific behaviours associated with attacks with the objective of
causing physical injury.
•Usually directed towards members of the same sex and species.
•Various functions include: displacement of other animals from an area (territory or source of
food), defense of a mate/offspring and the establishment of rank in a social hierarchy.
Reconciliation behavior often happens between conflicting
individuals.
Classification of aggressive behaviours
Behaviouralcategory Definition and Example
Inter-specific aggression:
1. Maternal defense Mother defends young against potential predators. E.g. Ewe with
lamb attacks dog.

2. Defense of territory Animal attacks intruder. E.g. grazing bull attacks man.

3. Predation Animal attacks, kills and eats other animals. E.g. Lion catches and eats
zebra.
Intra-specific aggression:
4. Aggression after grouping Previous unfamiliar animals are brought together, they fight and a
social structure or hierarchy results. E.g. pigs.
5. Inter-male fighting Adult males generally fight to win mates or territory. Eg. Rams or
goats fight during breeding season.

6. Resource defense Aggression increases with limited resources in cattle, etc.

7. Inter-gender fighting Males attempt to mount non-oestrus females, aggressive behaviour

results. E.g. Non oestrus sows (female pigs) attack boar (uncastrated male

pig) who attempts to mount.

8. Aberrant(out of norm) aggression Wool biting in sheep, ear and tail chewing in pigs, cannibalism or killing
of young.
D. Deceptive behavior

WHAT IS DECEPTION?
 It is typically defined as “causing another to believe what is not true;or ensnare”
(Webster’s, 1999).
 Deception aims to deliberately induce misperception in another. •
 Whaley (1982) has defined deception as “information designed to manipulate the
behavior of others by inducing them to accept a false or distorted presentation of
their environment
 It is ubiquitous and enduring in human affairs, and equally prevalent in the
predator-prey relationships of the plant and animal kingdoms.
 For example , If insects or other less powerful animals can trick their predators into
thinking they are a different animal by the sounds they make, or the colors on their
body, they just might survive a little longer.
 Deceptions may therefore include the lure of the angler fish; the brood mimicry of the
cuckoo’s egg; the diverting eyespots of the moth’s wing; the camouflage of the trapdoor
spider’s ambush and the feigned injury of the parent duck.
 Species of all types use deception. Fish, reptiles, birds, mammals: every category of
animal life (and a great many plants) employs deception.
 Many types of deception are employed in nature (camouflage, concealment, diversion,
conditioning/exploit, mimicry).
 Not only are many types of deception used, but within a single type of deception
camouflage, for example—deception is polymorphic. That is to say, camouflage (known
in biology as “crypsis”) can be as simple as green skin coloration for a background of
foliage.
 Deception is present in every environment supporting life (whether terrestrial, aquatic, or
airborne): from desolate Arctic wastes to richly populated equatorial jungles
 Experimental data show that deceptive techniques vary in their
effectiveness by environment.
 Where animal density is high, crypsis offers greater protection from
predation
 Even minor applications of deception can confer selective advantage.
 Experimental data show that even lesser deceptive techniques provide
measurable benefits.
 For example, insects with even slight amounts of crypsis are less likely
to be preyed upon by blue jays.
 Deception is used by both predators (offensively) and prey
(defensively).
 Deception in nature is used both to acquire dinner and to avoid
becoming dinner
 it is among the best methods for both successfully preying and escaping
predation (as opposed to speed or armor, for example).
 The extremely venomous boomslang snake hunts the well camouflaged
chameleon by employing its own excellent camouflage techniques.
 A single species can use deception in both ways. The same methods a
given species uses to facilitate predation are often applied with equal
effectiveness by that species to escape predation.
 Many species of small insects and spiders bear a striking resemblance
to ants, which allows both protection from predators uninterested in ants
as well as unhindered access to ant colonies where they may scavenge.
Mimicry
 Camouflage or mimicry are examples of unknowingly deceiving, a deceptive behavior
can include seemingly more intentional misinformation.
 By mimicry the animal can go about its daily life without extra protections.
 Mimicry allows one animal to look, sound, or act like another animal to fool predators
into thinking it is poisonous or dangerous.
How Does Mimicry Help Animals?
 Usually, an animal will MIMIC, or imitate, another animals’ behavior to avoid predators.
If it can trick its enemy into thinking it is something less tasty or more dangerous, it will
survive. For example, some insects have bodies that look like the body of a wasp. Birds
often leave wasps alone. They don’t want to be stung. To a bird, the insect that mimics a
wasp looks the same as a wasp, so birds leave it alone too. Some kinds of hooverflies
even mimic the buzzing sound a wasp makes.
There are several described forms of mimicry utilized by both predator and
prey:
Batesian Mimicry
Muellerian Mimicry
Wasmannian Mimicry
Peckhamian Mimicry
Self-mimicry

Batesian Mimicry
 refers to two or more species that are similar in appearance, but only one
of which is armed with spines, stingers, or toxic chemistry.
 The second species has no defense other than resembling the unpalatable
species and is afforded protection from certain predators by its
resemblance to the unpalatable species, which the predator associates
with a certain appearance and a bad experience.
Muellerian Mimicry
 Refers to two unpalatable species that are mimics of each
other with conspicuous common coloration.
 All mimics share the benefits of the coloration since the
predator will recognize the coloration of an unpalatable
group after a few bad experiences.
 Since several species have the same appearance to the
predator, the loss of life will be spread out over several
species, reducing the impact on each individual species
 An example of such Muellerian mimicry in Collembola is
the mimicry of Sminthurus viridis and an aphid species
Wasmannian Mimicry
 This is when the mimic resembles its host in order to live within the same nest or
structure.
 For example, several jumping spiders closely resemble ants. This works well in order to
get "lost(hide) in the crowd" and thus avoid predators.
Peckhamian Mimicry
 This is also known as aggressive mimicry, in which the predator mimics its prey to
capture it.
Self-mimicry
 This refers to species that have one body part that mimics another to increase survival
during an attack
 helps predators appear innocuous to allow the prey extra seconds to escape. Self-
mimicry is a misleading term for animals that have one body part that mimics another to
increase survival during an attack.
For example, countless moth, butterfly, and freshwater fish species have "eyespots"? large
dark markings that when flashed may momentarily startle a predator and allow the prey extra
seconds to escape. "Eye-spots" also help prey escape predators by giving predators a false
target. A butterfly has a better chance of surviving an attack to the outer part of its wing than
an attack to the head.
 Less often predators utilize self-mimicry to aid in catching prey by appearing less
threatening or fooling the prey as to the origin of the attack.
For example, several turtle species and the Frogmouth Catfish (Chaca sp.) of Southeast Asia
have tongue extensions that are used as a sort of lure to attract prey to a position where they
become an easy catch.
 One of the most interesting examples of self-mimicry is the so-called "two-headed" snake
of Central Africa which has a tail that resembles a head and a head that resembles a tail. The
snake even moves its tail in the way most snakes move their heads.
 This adaptation functions to trick prey into believing the attack is originating from where it
is not.
OTHER SOCIAL BEHAVIOURS
Courtship
 Ensures the two animals are of the same species
 May be a sign to start nest building
 May trigger ovulation
 Aggression is reduced by dances, call,
movements of the body in ritualised sequences,
release of pheromones, or touching.
 This allows the pair bond to strengthen, so more
intimate behaviours can take place.
 A pair bond is a stable relationship between
animals of the opposite sex that ensures
cooperative behaviour in mating and rearing of
the young. Pheromones are chemicals released by
BOWER BIRD
an individual that bring about mating and other
behaviors. • Examples include bees and ants.
Play behavior
• Play has no apparent goal but uses movements • Practice and exercise may explain the ultimate bases
closely of play
• associated with goal-directed behaviors • Play as a behavior has no apparent external goal,
but may facilitate social development or practice of
• Young predators playfully stalk and attack each certain behaviors and provide exercise.
other using
• Sometimes, however, Play is potentially dangerous
• motions similar to those used to capture and kill or costly.
prey.
• Young vervet monkeys are at higher risk of being
• • Play occurs in the absence of distracting external caught and eaten by baboons when they are at play.
stimuli
• In a study of young goats, 1/3 sustained play
• • What is the selective advantage of play? injuries that resulted in limps.
• Play is a type of learning that allows the perfection
of survival behavior
Foraging Behavior and food capturing
Process of locating food resources
Optimal foraging:
• Larger foods may contain more energy but may be harder to capture and
less abundant. In addition, some types of food may be farther away than
other types.
• Animals those who choose best foraging strategies that maximize the
differential between costs and benefits.
• If the effort involved in obtaining food outweighs the nutritive value of the
food, forget about it.
• Hence, foraging for these animals involves a trade-off between a food’s
energy content and the cost of obtaining it.
Cost vs. benefit analysis should include:
– Handling time – Nutritional value – Status value – Concentration/density
Migration behaviour
• Migration is a regular, long-distance change in location
• Migration is the most commonly known type of oriented animal
movement.
• Migrants generally make an annual round trip between two regions (e.g.,
birds, whales, some butterflies, some pelagic fish)
• Migrating animals use one of three mechanisms or a combination of
these mechanisms to find their way.

1. Piloting = Movement of animals from one landmark to another

2. Is used over short distances
2. 0rientation
3. Navigation
 To get from one place to another, animals must have a “map” (that is, know where to
go) and a “compass” (use environmental cues to guide their journey).
 Orientation requires following a bearing such as a source of light,
 but navigation is the ability to set or adjust a bearing, and then follow it.
 The former is analogous to using a compass, while the latter is like using a compass
in conjunction with a map. The nature of the “map” animals use is unclear.
 Birds and other animals navigate by looking at the sun during the day and the stars
at night.
 The indigo bunting is a short-distance nocturnal migrant bird.
 It flies during the day using the Sun as a guide, and compensates for the movement
of the Sun in the sky as the day progresses.
 These birds use the positions of constellations around the North Star in the night sky
as a compass.
Many migrating birds also have the ability to detect Earth’s magnetic field and to orient
themselves with respect to it when cues from the Sun or stars are not available.
In an indoor cage, they will attempt to move in the correct geographic direction, even
though there are no visible external cues.
However, the placement of a magnet near the cage can alter the direction in which the
birds attempt to move.
Researchers have found magnetite, a magnetized iron ore, in the eyes and upper beaks
of some birds, but how these sensory organs function is not known.
The first migration of a bird appears to be innately guided by both celestial cues (the
birds fly mainly at night) and Earth’s magnetic field.
When the two cues are experimentally manipulated to give conflicting directions, the
information provided by the stars seems to override the magnetic information.
Recent studies, however, indicate that celestial cues indicate the general direction for
migration, whereas magnetic cues indicate the specific migratory path (perhaps a turn
the bird must make mid-route).
Experiments on starlings indicate that inexperienced birds migrate by orientation, but
older birds that have migrated previously use true navigation.
Dominance Hierarchies:
Ranking of power among group-living animals
(subject to change)
Member with most power “alpha”
Second in command “beta”
Benefit: Less energy wasted over conflicts over food
and resources
• A submissive chimpanzee lets the dominant
(alpha) chimpanzee know that he or she is not a
threat through nonthreatening postures such as
presenting their back, crouching and bowing
Pecking Order behavior
• Dictates social position an animal has in a culture
• Alpha male & female in a population
• Beta is next in line in social position
• Alpha is assured of first choice of any resource –
Food after a kill – Best territory – Most fit mate
Specializations in a social group
• All ants, some bees, some wasps, and all termites are eusocial (truly social):
• they have a division of labor in reproduction (a fertile queen and sterile workers
• Social insect colonies are composed of different castes of workers that differ in
size and morphology and have different tasks they perform, such as workers and
soldiers.
• In honeybees, the queen maintains her dominance in the hive by secreting a
pheromone, called “queen substance,” that suppresses development of the ovaries
in other females, turning them into sterile workers.
• Drones (male bees) are produced only for purposes of mating. When the colony
grows larger in the spring, some members do not receive a sufficient quantity of
queen substance, and the colony begins preparations for swarming.
• Workers make several new queen chambers, in which new queens
begin to develop.
• Scout workers look for a new nest site and communicate its location to
the colony.
• The old queen and a swarm of female workers then move to the new
site.
• Left behind, a new queen emerges, kills the other potential queens,
flies out to mate, and returns to assume “rule” of the hive.
THANK YOU