1. Unit 2 Lesson 6 Animal Behavior
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2. How Stimulating! What is behavior?
Unit 2 Lesson 6 Animal Behavior
How Stimulating!
What is behavior?
A stimulus, such as hunger, is a type of information that causes a reaction or change in an organism.
Behavior is the set of actions taken by an organism in response to stimuli, which can be internal or external.
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3. Unit 2 Lesson 6 Animal Behavior
What is behavior?
An internal stimulus, such as feeling sick or feverish, comes from within an animal’s body.
When you get sick, your behavior can change.
An external stimulus comes from outside the body. It gives animals information about their surroundings.
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4. How does behavior develop?
Unit 2 Lesson 6 Animal Behavior
How does behavior develop?
Some behaviors develop without depending on learning or experience. These are innate behaviors.
Some behaviors develop through experience or from observing the actions of other animals. These are learned behaviors.
For example, some birds learn their songs by listening to other individuals.
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5. Survival Skills What behaviors help animals survive?
Unit 2 Lesson 6 Animal Behavior
Survival Skills
What behaviors help animals survive?
To survive, animals need food and water, and must be able to avoid danger. Behaviors used to find food are called foraging behaviors.
All animals need food to survive. Getting enough food can take a lot of time.
Animals that eat plants must find and identify the right plants. Predators are animals that eat other animals, called prey.
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6. What behaviors help animals survive?
Unit 2 Lesson 6 Animal Behavior
What behaviors help animals survive?
Many animals must protect mates, offspring, or resources such as food by marking a territory, an area occupied by a group or an individual.
Marking a territory signals others of the same species not to enter the area.
For example, mammals rub the bark from trees or release chemical signals to mark their territory.
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7. What behaviors help animals survive?
Unit 2 Lesson 6 Animal Behavior
What behaviors help animals survive?
Many animals must defend their food, mates, and offspring from competition.
Sometimes animals will fight to defend resources. However, animals usually have behaviors that help them avoid fighting, which can be dangerous for both the winners and losers.
A common strategy to avoid fighting is trying to look bigger. This can convince the competition to give up.
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8. What behaviors help animals survive?
Unit 2 Lesson 6 Animal Behavior
What behaviors help animals survive?
Avoiding danger is important for an animal’s survival. Some animals are fast and can run to escape predators.
Some animals change color to blend into the environment.
Some animals release toxic chemicals.
Some animals trick their predators by appearing too big too eat.
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9. A Success Story What behaviors help animals reproduce successfully?
Unit 2 Lesson 6 Animal Behavior
A Success Story
What behaviors help animals reproduce successfully?
Many bright colors and complex calls of animals are used to help find a mate.
Males use a variety of behaviors to attract females, such as building eye-catching nests or bringing gifts of food.
Some females participate in courtship behaviors, too. For example, male and female sandhill cranes dance together and run, jump, and flap their wings.
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10. What behaviors help animals reproduce successfully?
Unit 2 Lesson 6 Animal Behavior
What behaviors help animals reproduce successfully?
Parents help their young survive in many ways.
For example, young killer whales learn to hunt by watching adults. Mother killdeer birds pretend their wings are broken to lure predators from the nest.
Parents may help their young for a short time or for quite a while. Not all animals exhibit parenting behaviors.
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11. What behaviors help animals survive seasonal change?
Unit 2 Lesson 6 Animal Behavior
What behaviors help animals survive seasonal change?
Seasonal changes can make survival difficult. A change in temperature can make it hard to find food or raise young.
Both daily cycles, or circadian rhythms, and seasonal cycles of behavior are controlled by biological clocks.
A biological clock is an internal control of an animal’s natural cycles.
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12. What behaviors help animals survive seasonal change?
Unit 2 Lesson 6 Animal Behavior
What behaviors help animals survive seasonal change?
When seasonal weather changes make it hard to survive, some animals migrate.
Migration is a seasonal movement from one place to another.
Many kinds of invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals migrate. They depend on a biological clock to signal when to move.
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13. What behaviors help animals survive seasonal change?
Unit 2 Lesson 6 Animal Behavior
What behaviors help animals survive seasonal change?
Animals that do not migrate can become inactive until seasonal conditions improve.
Hibernation is a period of inactivity and decreased body temperature that some animals experience in winter.
Estivation is a period of inactivity experienced during hot and dry summers. A biological clock signals when to begin and end seasonal behaviors.
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14. Social Structure What are some social animal behaviors?
Unit 2 Lesson 6 Animal Behavior
Social Structure
What are some social animal behaviors?
Animals have many social behaviors, such as communicating, hunting, and reproductive activities.
Social behavior is the set of interactions that occur among animals of the same species.
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15. What are some social animal behaviors?
Unit 2 Lesson 6 Animal Behavior
What are some social animal behaviors?
Many animals live in groups. A group of lions is called a pride. A group of geese is called a gaggle.
Living in groups has advantages. A group can spot a predator more quickly than an individual can spot a predator. Groups can also coordinate hunting and foraging.
Living in a group also has disadvantages. Individuals in groups compete for mates and food. Close contact can also spread disease.
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16. What are some social animal behaviors?
Unit 2 Lesson 6 Animal Behavior
What are some social animal behaviors?
Animals communicate to influence the behavior of others. Many signals relate to danger, mating, and food. Some animals communicate by sound, sight, and touch.
Some animals communicate with chemicals. Pheromones are chemicals released by one animal that affect behaviors of other animals and can signal danger.
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17. What are some social animal behaviors?
Unit 2 Lesson 6 Animal Behavior
What are some social animal behaviors?
Groups that have clear dominant individuals have a social hierarchy. For example, wolves have a dominant male and female, called the alpha pair.
In a social hierarchy, individuals can sometimes fight to change their status.
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18. What are some social animal behaviors?
Unit 2 Lesson 6 Animal Behavior
What are some social animal behaviors?
Some animals have a social structure determined from birth, such as a honeybee colony where one individual is the queen.
The queen is the only bee that lays eggs, and her position lasts her entire life. The queen’s offspring clean, feed larvae, build, and find food.
A bee colony is an example of a set social structure. Several closely related insects have this type of social organization.
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