1. Pioneering Experiments
Animal Behavior
Designing behavior
Pioneering Experiments
Thoughtful studies
Conclusive remarks

2. Behavior
What an animal does
How it does it

3. Pet Activity On a separate sheet of paper:
1. Write the name of one of your pets. Is it a bird, dog, or cat? Other?
2. What behaviors do you think about when you think of your pet? Give a list of behaviors. Indicate if the behavior was genetic “innate” or learned.

4. Behavioral Ecology
Behavioral ecology emphasizes evolutionary hypothesis: science as a process
Based on expectation that animals behave in ways that will increase their Darwinian fitness (reproductive success)

5. Stimuli
Certain stimuli trigger innate behaviors called fixed action patterns
A fixed action pattern (FAP) is a highly stereotypical, innate behavior that continues to completion after initiation by an external stimulus

6. Learning Learning is experience based modification of behavior
Some learning is due mostly to inherent maturation
Habituation is learning involving loss of sensitivity to unimportant stimuli
Associative learning involves linking one stimulus with another

7. Rhythmic Behaviors
Rhythmic behaviors synchronize an animal’s activities with daily and seasonal changes in the environment
Governed by endogenous clocks, which in turn require exogenous cues to keep the behavior properly timed with the external environment

8. Foraging Behavior
Ecologists are using cost/benefit analysis to study foraging behavior
Species may be generalists or specialists as foragers
Animals modify behavior to favor a high ratio of energy intake to expenditure

9.                                                        
Social Behavior
Sociobiology places social behavior in evolutionary context

10. Competitive Social Behaviors
Agonistic behavior: competitor gains advantage by getting a limited resource like food or a mate
Natural selection: survival of the fittest
“Pecking order”: dominance hierarchies with differently ranked individuals permitted options according to their status

11. Mating Behavior Promiscuity – having many random mates
Monogamy – having only one mate
Polygamy – having a few, selected mates

12. Social Interactions
Social interactions depend on diverse modes of communication
Some animals communicate with smells
Honeybees communicate through “dancing”

13. Altruistic Behavior
Inclusive fitness accounts for most altruistic behavior
Best explained by a “kin” theory, animals try to maintain the survival of others who share their genes

14. Reciprocal altruism
Some animals behave altruistically toward others who are not relatives. A wolf may offer food to another wolf even though they share no kinship.
Such behavior can be adaptive if the aided individual returns the favor in the future.
This sort of exchange of aid is called reciprocal altruism.
Commonly used to explain altruism in humans.

15. Sociobiology
Human sociobiology connects biology to the humanities and social sciences

16. Self-quiz
Bees can see colors we cannot see and detect minute amounts of chemicals we cannot smell. But unlike many insects, bees cannot hear very well. Which of the following statements best fits into the perspective of behavioral ecology?

17. Possible answers A. Bees are too small to have functional ears.
B. Hearing must not contribute much to a bee’s fitness.
C. If a bee could hear, its tiny brain would be swamped with information.

18. Possible answers D. This is an example of a fixed action pattern
E. If bees could hear, the noise of the hive would distract the bees from their work

19. Challenge question
Starting with the very first time a bee leaves the hive, it always flies in a circle around the hive before heading out on a foraging trip.
If it is prevented from seeing the hive when it leaves or if the hive is moved while the bee is gone, the bee is not able to locate the hive when it returns.

20. Challenge Question
For this reason, beekeepers know that a hive should only be moved …….when? Why?
What part of the bees “orientation flight” behavior appears to be innate?
What component shows learning?