What is behavior & Why study it? 
•	Behavior
•	everything an animal does & how it does it
•	response to stimuli in its environment
•	innate = inherited or developmentally fixed
•	learned = develop during animal’s lifetime
•	The “Nature vs. Nurture” debate
•	Why study behavior?
•	part of phenotype
•	acted upon by natural selection
•	lead to greater fitness?
•	greater reproductive success?
•	greater survival?
What questions do we ask?
•	Proximate causes
•	immediate stimulus & mechanism
•	“how” & “what” questions
•	Ultimate causes
•	evolutionary significance
•	how does behavior 
contribute to survival 
& reproduction
•	adaptive value
•	“why” questions
Ethology
pioneers in the study of animal behavior
The heart of Ethology…….
1. What is the mechanistic basis of the behavior, including chemical, anatomical and physiological mechanisms?
2. How does development of the animal, from zygote to mature individual, influence the behavior?
3. What is the evolutionary history of the behavior?
4. How does the behavior contribute to survival and reproduction?
Developed by Tinbergen in 1963
Types of behaviors
•	Innate behaviors 
•	automatic, fixed, “built-in”
•	despite different environments, all individuals exhibit the behavior
•	triggered by a stimulus
•	Learned behaviors
•	modified by experience
•	triggered by a stimulus
•	variable
Innate behavior
•	Fixed action patterns (FAP)
•	sequence of behaviors 
essentially unchangeable 
& usually conducted to completion once started
•	sign stimulus
•	the releaser that triggers FAP
Fixed Action Patterns (FAP)
Directed movements
•	Taxis
•	change in direction
•	automatic movement toward (positive taxis) or 
away from 
(negative taxis) a 
stimulus
•	phototaxis
•	chemotaxis
•	Kinesis
•	change in rate of 
movement in 
response to a stimulus
Migration
•	Complex behavior, but still innate
•	“migratory restlessness” seen in birds bred & raised in captivity
•	navigate by sun, stars, Earth magnetic fields 
Imprinting
•	Learning at a specific critical time forming social attachments
•	both learning & innate components
Conservation
Critical period
•	Sensitive phase for optimal imprinting
Learned behavior
•	Associative learning
•	learning to associate 
one feature of the 
environment (stimulus) with another 
•	operant conditioning
•	trial & error learning
•	associate behavior with reward or punishment
•	classical conditioning
•	Pavlovian conditioning
•	associate a “neutral stimulus” with a “significant stimulus”
Operant conditioning
•	Skinner box
Classical conditioning
•	Ivan Pavlov’s dogs
•	connect reflex behavior (salivating at sight of food) to associated stimulus (ringing bell)
Habituation
•	Loss of response to stimulus
•	“cry-wolf” effect
•	learn not to respond to repeated occurrences of stimulus
Thinking & problem-solving
•	Do other animals think?
Social behaviors
•	Interactions between individuals
•	develop as evolutionary adaptations
•	language
•	agonistic behaviors
•	dominance hierarchy
•	altruistic behavior
Language
•	Honey bee communication 
•	dance to communicate location of food source
•	waggle dance
Communication by song
•	Bird song
•	species identification & mating ritual
•	mixed learned & innate
•	critical learning period
•	Insect song
•	mating ritual & song
•	innate, genetically 
controlled 
Social interaction requires communication
•	Pheromones
•	chemical signal that stimulates a response from other individuals
•	alarm pheromones
•	sex pheromones
Pheromones
Pheromones
Human pheromones?
Social behaviors
•	Agonistic behaviors
•	threatening & submissive rituals
•	symbolic, usually no harm done
Social behaviors 
•	Dominance hierarchy
•	social ranking within a group 
•	pecking order
Social behaviors
•	Altruistic behavior
•	reduces individual fitness but 
increases fitness of recipient
•	kin selection
Social Behavior
•	Reciprocal altruism.
•	“tit for tat” 
•	Not closely related.
Social behaviors
•	Cooperation.
•	predation
•	defense

Colonial mammals
•	Naked mole rats
•	underground colony, tunnels
•	queen, breeding males, non-breeding workers
•	hairless, blind