1. Behavioral Ecology Part 1
AP Biology
Behavioral Ecology
Part 1

2. Important concepts from previous units:
DNA is responsible for being the “blueprint information” for making proteins and enzymes.
Enzymes and proteins are the workhorses within cells.
Energy is necessary to carry out all cellular processes except osmosis or diffusion (passive transport).

3. I. Organismal Behavior (What an organism does and how it does it basically.)
A. Behaviors evolve over time based on awareness and survival benefit.
B. Organisms are 50% genetics and 50% experiences. (This is the nature vs. nurture argument.)
C. Behavior can be influenced by an organism’s interactions with other organisms.
D. Outward behaviors (are observable) vs. inward behaviors (are the results of learning mainly).

4. II. Innate Behavior – These are behaviors that an organism is born with. (Behavior is coded in the genes- DNA.)
A. It is said to be developmentally fixed. This is because development is governed by the genes inherited.
B. The behavior is the same among all members of the same species. (Babies crying when hungry or Dogs barking.)

6. Babies Crying

7. Barking

8. Does this experiment suggest that nest building is an innate behavior or a learned behavior?

9. Is there a genetic basis for food preference?
Background: In California, there are two populations of garter snakes.
Coastal snakes eat slugs
Inland snakes eat aquatic organisms such as fish and frogs.
Inland snakes refuse to eat slugs in a lab, hybrids of will have an intermediate acceptance of slugs.
Further experiments showed that inland snakes are not sensitive to a slug’s smell.
Does this support an innate or a learned cause for the behavior?

10. How can you determine whether a behavior is something that is innate or something that has been learned?
In humans, twin studies showed that even in twins that were raised separately, there were startling similarities.

11. Some human instincts….

12. Serial Killer, Ted Bundy
Is a serial killer born that way?

13. III. Ethology (A.K.A. Behavioral Science)
The science concerned with how an organism behaves in its natural environment.
B. Fixed Action Pattern (FAP’s for short)
1. This is a behavior, that once it is initiated, it must be carried through to some fixed conclusion.
2. It is initiated by a trigger “sign” stimulus.
For example: Cardinal attacking red crate paper near it’s nest. (trickery)
Moth hit by bat radar plays dead to avoid capture.
Baby hand grasping an object put in it’s palm.

14. Cardinals

15. Baby Hand Grasping

16. Fixed Action Pattern

17. 3. Survival? (Organisms that survive get to reproduce and pass on those DNA traits to the gene pool.)

18. Jane Goodall & Ethology

19.
Diane Fossey studied gorillas in the natural habitat.
Used mirroring technique-copied the gorillas’ behavior to get close to them

20. IV. Behavioral Ecology
A. The study of behavior as it relates to evolving within an environment.
1. Natural selection plays a huge role in these behaviors evolving.
a. Different rates of reproductive success due to behavior. (Good behavior vs. Harmful Behavior)
b. Strong traits survive and reproduce more to make more offspring with those good traits.
c. Weak individuals die off weeding out the genes that were “weak” or not beneficial.

21. B. Foraging (Organisms Finding food)
1. Optimal foraging theory (This is basically a cost analysis of energy input vs. energy yield.)
2. Crow and Whelk experiment:
Basically Crows that learn to drop the whelk from 5 m get the most energy out of their food vs. energy input (Flight). Those that go below 5m will have to expend more energy by more flights to crack the welk. Those that fly higher are also wasting more energy than need be.

22. Average number of drops
Foraging Theory
125 60 50
100 40 
Average number of drops
Average number of drops 30 75
Total flight height (number of drops drop height in m)
Total flight height 20
Drop height
preferred
by crows = 5.23 m 50 10 25 2 3 5 7 15
Height of drop (m)

23. 3. Reproductive fitness and Energy
3. Reproductive fitness and Energy? (Those organisms that save energy on foraging will mostly use that saved energy in reproducing. So most fit genes get passed on the most.)
a. “Positive” learning is rewarded and promoted by natural selection.

24. Slides 8-12 taken from animal behavior powerpoint on biologycorner.com