Behaviours for Survival

1. Behaviours for Survival Chapter 11

2. Learning Outcomes By the end of this week you should be able to: • Describe innate behaviours in animals • Define Learning and list various ways animals can learn • Describe maintenance behaviours, such as feeding, drinking, washing which can contribute to homeostasis • Give examples of behaviour patterns that are rhythmic or cyclic, including circadian rhythms

3. The Octopus: One of Earth's smartest WATCH IT!!! Octopus Opening a Jar to Get Dinner!

4. What are Behaviours? Behaviour The way that an organism acts or behaves that increases survival. Social behaviour Interacting with others. Individual behaviour Interacting alone. What are some things that affect behaviour?

5. What parts of your behavior are instinctive? Types of Behaviour What parts are learned? Who do you learn from? Name three things you have learnt in the last week…. These are the two categories that we may place behaviours into. A simple way of dividing the two categories is simply by asking yourself this question: • is the behaviour predominately influenced by genetics (Innate) • or is it predominately influenced by the environment (Learned) Eating is a form of innate behaviour Dancing is a form of a learned behaviour

7. Innate Behaviours

8. Innate Behaviours Innate behaviour arises as part of normal development. • Animal is born knowing how to perform this behaviour. • Despite changes in external environment, all individuals exhibit the same behaviour. • This behaviour is developmentally fixed in this way and is called an innate behaviour, e.g. migration, taxis, signals, communication. • Innate behaviour is often vital for survival.

9. INSTINCT: • Is the innate ability to complete a specific behaviour pattern • No conscious intention is involved • RELEASERS : • sign stimuli ‘release’ a particular innate behaviour • Initiate specific behaviour automatically • eg mother hens response to sound of their chick in distress not the sight of it.

10. Some are Rhythmic Organisms repeat behaviours at regular intervals, e.g. eating, sleeping  these are called rhythmic behaviours. They may be daily or seasonal or annual • Feeding • Migrations • Circadian Rhythms

11. Feeding Behaviours • may either be as an individual e.g. spider • may be as a group via cooperation e.g. dolphins

12. Migration • This is a seasonal behaviour. • The movement of a large number of animals from one location to another • Usually due to a lack of food and available resources. • This form of behaviour is very common in birds Birds migrating

13. Circadian Rhythms • Diurnal: animals active during the main part of the day. • Nocturnal: animals active at night. • Crepuscular: active at dawn or dusk. SpinifexHopping Mice

14. Communication Communication can be through touch, posture, sound, visual display and chemical signals • As with all behaviours, communication behaviour occurs in response to a stimulus. • Can be: • Acoustic • Chemical • Visual Frogs communicating

15. Communication Underwater Sound is an important means of communication underwater as it travels long distances. • Whales: whales use sound to identify and locate each other, or during courtship (the male advertises his sexual availability to the female) • Dolphins: communicate information through sounds, and use them for navigation (Echolocation) Sperm whales communicating

16. Social and Territorial Interactions • Social interactions involve two or more individuals and may involve cooperation as in mating or food gathering. • These may also involve aggression or conflict, e.g. fighting for a mate or territory. • Courtship and reproductive behaviours may enable identification of different species that look physically identical, e.g. Ravens.

17. Reproductive • Weedy Sea Dragons - Courtship Dance and Birth • Funny Courtship Dances Of Our Feathered Friends • David Attenborough - Animal behaviour of the Australian bowerbird - BBC wildlife

18. Learned Behaviours

19. LEARNED BEHAVIOURS • Learned behavior is not instinctive. • Animals are not born knowing what to do or how to do it. • Experience & parental guidance is crucial for this type of behaviour.

20. Conditioning • The modification of behaviour in an animal as a result of the association between to stimuli Pavlovs Experiment Can anyone explain Pavlov’s experiment?

21. Operant Conditioning • Alearning procedure in which a reinforcement follows a particular response on Big Bang Theory What are the different types of reinforcements are there?

22. Observational • Also called Modelling. • Observational learning occurs when someone uses observation of another person's actions and their consequences to guide their future actions. Can you think of any behaviours that you have learnt by observation?

23. Imprinting • Imprinting is the process by which young individuals of a species acquire irreversible behaviour patterns of that species. • Learning is limited to a set time period (called critical period). • Generally irreversible, lifelong patterns of behaviour are established.

24. Habituation • A simple form of learning, in which an animal, after a period of exposure to a stimulus, stops responding. Why is habituation important for animals? • Animals come to learn to respond to stimuli, such as particular noise a predator makes. • However, if an animal was to react to every noise it would waste a lot of time reacting to non-threatening situations. • Habituation enables animals to distinguish the unimportant noises and shapes from those that are important.

25. RESEARCH TASK