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Animal behavior

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Nafeesa Naeem

This document discusses the development of animal behavior. It covers the history of theories on animal behavior from Lamarck's theories of evolution to modern ethology. Key concepts discussed include innate versus learned behavior, imprinting, instinctive behaviors, and how behaviors change with maturation. Theories on behavioral development such as preformation, epigenesis, and equifinality are also summarized.

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Animal Behaviour Table of Contents: Sr.# Topics Page# 1. History of Animal behavior development 01 2. Theories of Animal behavior development 02 3. Development of Animal behavior 03 4. Types of Animal behavior 04 5. Instinct Behavior 05 6. Imprinting 06
DEVELOPMENTOF ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR Animal Behavior is the scientific study of the wild and wonderful ways in which animals interact with each other, with other living beings, and with the environment. History SCALA NATURAE AND LAMARCK'S THEORIES Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744 - 1829) was the first biologist to describe a complex theory of evolution. His theory substantially comprised two statements: first, that animal organs and behaviour can change according to the way they are used; and second, that those characteristics can transmit from one generation to the next (the example of the giraffe whose neck becomes longer while trying to reach the upper leaves of a tree is well-known). The second statement is that every living organism, humans included, tends to reach a greater level of perfection. When Charles Darwin went to the Galapagos Islands, he was well aware of Lamarck's theories and was influenced by them. Theory of evolution by natural selection and the beginnings of ethology Ethologists have been concerned particularly with the evolution of behaviour and the understanding of behaviour in terms of the theory of natural selection. In one sense, the first modern ethologist was Charles Darwin, whose book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals influenced many ethologists. He pursued his interest in behaviour by encouraging his protégé George Romanes, who investigated animal learning and intelligence using an anthropomorphic method, anecdotal cognitivism, that did not gain scientific support.
Other early ethologists, such as Charles O. Whitman, Oskar Heinroth, Wallace Craig and Julian Huxley, instead concentrated on behaviours that can be called instinctive, or natural, in that they occur in all members of a species under specified circumstances. Their beginning for studying the behaviour of a new species was to construct an ethogram (a description of the main types of behaviour with their frequencies of occurrence). I. DEVELOPMENT OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR  ONTOGENY OF BEHAVIOR Behavioral development is the result of the continuous interaction of genetic and environmental factors. The genetic code is fixed, but an animal will not develop appropriately without the right cues from the environment. Some behaviours are innate, such as suckling, standing, running, pecking, etc. In animal embryos there are two inborn behavioral patterns and accordingly they are classified as precocial and altricial embryos  PRECOCIAL EMBRYO: In various mammals like horse, buffalo, deer, elephant, hamster etc. the embryo behave like a miniature of their parents. Their movements resemble parent as soon as they born. They start walking, feeding, to some extent protecting themselves from enemies etc. e.g. Goat
 ALTRICIAL EMBRYO: In others the embryos do not resemble their parents called as altricial embryos. These embryos have to modify after birth to resemble their parents. Altricial embryos are dependent on their parents for feeding and protection. In some cases they have to be intensively cared. E.g. Kangaroo THEORIES OF BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT:  PREFORMATION: This is an old concept stating that the animal is complete even if it is in form of sperm or egg, so all the behaviour are present in the individual from these stages naturally. This concept is not accepted now.  SYSTEMOGENOUS BEHAVIOR: According to this concept, the movements needed for survival under the particular environmental situation develop before birth, and that the outcome may vary from species to species, depending environmental factors available at birth. But behavior in different species are pre-determined
 EPIGENESIS: According to this theory various characteristics along with the behavior are not present in the initial stages (sperms or eggs) but they are formed during the development and become visible. This concept was first put forth by Needleeem (1959). EQUIFINALITY: It is the phenomenon by which a structure or behavior pattern may develop by different routes. It is believed that there are a vast number of processes ranging from those that may be influenced or uninfluenced by environmental factors and those that are heavily dependent upon experience. The resultant of all these together finally gives rise to particular personality to the individual of a behavioral pattern is known as equifinality. MATURATION AND BEHAVIORAL CHANGES:
In the animals it has been observed that juveniles behave different as compared to their adult parents. E.g. frog and its tadpole behave differently. When alarmed the frog jumps to blue background whereas the tadpole jumps towards the green background. Green Blue INSTINCT BEHAVIOUR  An instinct is a stereotyped, species-typical behavior that appears fully functional the first time it is performed, without the need for learning.  Such behaviors are usually triggered by a particular stimulus or cue, and are not readily modified by subsequent experience.  For instance, a kangaroo rat instantly performs an automatic escape jump maneuver when it hears the sound of a striking rattlesnake, even if it has never encountered a snake before.  Clearly, instinctive behaviors play an important role in survival, but our understanding of the forces that promote and guide their development in living animals is in fact quite limited. IMPRINTING  In another classic study of instinctive behavior, ethologist Konrad Lorenz showed that baby ducks and geese, which are observed to closely follow their mother on their early forays away from the nest, could also be induced to follow a substitute.
 The baby birds would form an attachment to whatever individual was present as they opened their eyes and moved about after hatching, regardless of that individual's species identity.  Young birds that had thus imprinted on Lorenz followed him everywhere as they matured, and as adults, these birds were observed to court humans, in preference to members of their own species.  Lorenz concluded that imprinting represented a kind of preprogrammed learning, guided by a mechanism that under normal circumstances would not be corrupted by individuals of the wrong species.  In the natural situation, imprinting would facilitate the babies' social attachment to their mother, which later allows them to recognize appropriate mating partners. References:  Gray, P. (2007) Psychology (5th Ed.) (pp. 64–66) New York: Worth Publishers.  Mills, C.W. ([1959] 2000). The Sociological Imagination. 40th ed. New York: Oxford University Press.  Naiman, J. (2008). How Societies Work: Class, Power and Change in a Canadian Context. 4th ed. Halifax and Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing.

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Animal behavior

  • 1. Animal Behaviour Table of Contents: Sr.# Topics Page# 1. History of Animal behavior development 01 2. Theories of Animal behavior development 02 3. Development of Animal behavior 03 4. Types of Animal behavior 04 5. Instinct Behavior 05 6. Imprinting 06
  • 2. DEVELOPMENTOF ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR Animal Behavior is the scientific study of the wild and wonderful ways in which animals interact with each other, with other living beings, and with the environment. History SCALA NATURAE AND LAMARCK'S THEORIES Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744 - 1829) was the first biologist to describe a complex theory of evolution. His theory substantially comprised two statements: first, that animal organs and behaviour can change according to the way they are used; and second, that those characteristics can transmit from one generation to the next (the example of the giraffe whose neck becomes longer while trying to reach the upper leaves of a tree is well-known). The second statement is that every living organism, humans included, tends to reach a greater level of perfection. When Charles Darwin went to the Galapagos Islands, he was well aware of Lamarck's theories and was influenced by them. Theory of evolution by natural selection and the beginnings of ethology Ethologists have been concerned particularly with the evolution of behaviour and the understanding of behaviour in terms of the theory of natural selection. In one sense, the first modern ethologist was Charles Darwin, whose book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals influenced many ethologists. He pursued his interest in behaviour by encouraging his protégé George Romanes, who investigated animal learning and intelligence using an anthropomorphic method, anecdotal cognitivism, that did not gain scientific support.
  • 3. Other early ethologists, such as Charles O. Whitman, Oskar Heinroth, Wallace Craig and Julian Huxley, instead concentrated on behaviours that can be called instinctive, or natural, in that they occur in all members of a species under specified circumstances. Their beginning for studying the behaviour of a new species was to construct an ethogram (a description of the main types of behaviour with their frequencies of occurrence). I. DEVELOPMENT OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR  ONTOGENY OF BEHAVIOR Behavioral development is the result of the continuous interaction of genetic and environmental factors. The genetic code is fixed, but an animal will not develop appropriately without the right cues from the environment. Some behaviours are innate, such as suckling, standing, running, pecking, etc. In animal embryos there are two inborn behavioral patterns and accordingly they are classified as precocial and altricial embryos  PRECOCIAL EMBRYO: In various mammals like horse, buffalo, deer, elephant, hamster etc. the embryo behave like a miniature of their parents. Their movements resemble parent as soon as they born. They start walking, feeding, to some extent protecting themselves from enemies etc. e.g. Goat
  • 4.  ALTRICIAL EMBRYO: In others the embryos do not resemble their parents called as altricial embryos. These embryos have to modify after birth to resemble their parents. Altricial embryos are dependent on their parents for feeding and protection. In some cases they have to be intensively cared. E.g. Kangaroo THEORIES OF BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT:  PREFORMATION: This is an old concept stating that the animal is complete even if it is in form of sperm or egg, so all the behaviour are present in the individual from these stages naturally. This concept is not accepted now.  SYSTEMOGENOUS BEHAVIOR: According to this concept, the movements needed for survival under the particular environmental situation develop before birth, and that the outcome may vary from species to species, depending environmental factors available at birth. But behavior in different species are pre-determined
  • 5.  EPIGENESIS: According to this theory various characteristics along with the behavior are not present in the initial stages (sperms or eggs) but they are formed during the development and become visible. This concept was first put forth by Needleeem (1959). EQUIFINALITY: It is the phenomenon by which a structure or behavior pattern may develop by different routes. It is believed that there are a vast number of processes ranging from those that may be influenced or uninfluenced by environmental factors and those that are heavily dependent upon experience. The resultant of all these together finally gives rise to particular personality to the individual of a behavioral pattern is known as equifinality. MATURATION AND BEHAVIORAL CHANGES:
  • 6. In the animals it has been observed that juveniles behave different as compared to their adult parents. E.g. frog and its tadpole behave differently. When alarmed the frog jumps to blue background whereas the tadpole jumps towards the green background. Green Blue INSTINCT BEHAVIOUR  An instinct is a stereotyped, species-typical behavior that appears fully functional the first time it is performed, without the need for learning.  Such behaviors are usually triggered by a particular stimulus or cue, and are not readily modified by subsequent experience.  For instance, a kangaroo rat instantly performs an automatic escape jump maneuver when it hears the sound of a striking rattlesnake, even if it has never encountered a snake before.  Clearly, instinctive behaviors play an important role in survival, but our understanding of the forces that promote and guide their development in living animals is in fact quite limited. IMPRINTING  In another classic study of instinctive behavior, ethologist Konrad Lorenz showed that baby ducks and geese, which are observed to closely follow their mother on their early forays away from the nest, could also be induced to follow a substitute.
  • 7.  The baby birds would form an attachment to whatever individual was present as they opened their eyes and moved about after hatching, regardless of that individual's species identity.  Young birds that had thus imprinted on Lorenz followed him everywhere as they matured, and as adults, these birds were observed to court humans, in preference to members of their own species.  Lorenz concluded that imprinting represented a kind of preprogrammed learning, guided by a mechanism that under normal circumstances would not be corrupted by individuals of the wrong species.  In the natural situation, imprinting would facilitate the babies' social attachment to their mother, which later allows them to recognize appropriate mating partners. References:  Gray, P. (2007) Psychology (5th Ed.) (pp. 64–66) New York: Worth Publishers.  Mills, C.W. ([1959] 2000). The Sociological Imagination. 40th ed. New York: Oxford University Press.  Naiman, J. (2008). How Societies Work: Class, Power and Change in a Canadian Context. 4th ed. Halifax and Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing.