A. Behavior
➢ Instinct
- Inborn, unlearned behavior
- Sometimes triggered by environmental signals called releasers
- Some only last part of an animal’s life and are gradually replaced by a learned behavior
- Fixed action pattern
■ Not simple reflexes, but not conscious decisions
➢ Learning
- Change in a behavior brought about by experience
- Imprinting
■ Recognize mother and follow her
● If mother is absent, newborns will accept the first moving object as their mother
■ Used to recognize members of same species
■ Occurs during critical period–window of time when the animal is sensitive to certain aspects of the environment - Classical Conditioning
■ Aka associative learning
■ Associates a stimulus with a reward/punishment and acts accordingly - Operant Conditioning
■ Aka trial-and-error learning
■ Animal learns to perform an act in order to receive a reward
■ Of behavior is not reinforced, conditioned response will be lost (extinction) - Habituation
■ Animal learns not to respond to a stimulus
■ If an animal encounters a stimulus over and over, the response will gradually lessen and may disappear
➢ Circadian rhythm=daily internal clock
B. How Animals Communicate
➢ Use chemical/visual/electrical/tactile fro communication, esp. To influence mating and social behavior
➢ Social Behavior
- Agonistic
■ Aggressive behavior as a result of competition for resources - Dominance hierarchies
■ Often The most dominant male will become the leader of the group and will usually have best picking of food and females in the group
■ Once the hierarchy is established, competition and tension within the group is reduced - Territoriality
■ Common behavior when food/nesting sites in short supply - Altruistic Behavior
- Unselfish behavior that benefits another organism in the group at the individual’s expense
➢ Symbiotic Relationships
- Mutualism
■ Both organisms benefit - Commensalism
■ One benefits, other is unaffected - Parasitism
■ One benefits, the other is harmed
➢ Plant Behavior
- Photoperiodism
■ Plants flower in response to changes in the amount of daylight/darkness they recieve - Tropism
■ Turning in response to a stimulus
■ Phototropism
● Bend towards light
■ Gravitropism
● Stems: negative gravitropism (grow away from gravity)
● Roots: positive gravitropism (grow into earth)
■ Thigmotropism
● How plants respond to touch
● Ex. ivy grows around a post