(DLA) Animal Behavior Lesson

Biology_LessonTopBanner.png

You're Acting Like an Animal!

Watch the video below to find out more about learned behavior.

Baby ducks display imprinting, where they follow their mother (or whomever they attach to at a critical developmental period). Why do they do this
Continue reading to find out.

Ethology

Ethology is the study of how animals behave towards each other and in response to their environment. The stimulus is the cause for the behavior. Behaviors can be inherited and acted upon by natural selection. Often there is an interaction between the organism's genes and its environment that determine behavioral patterns.

Behavior can be classified as innate or learned.

Innate Behavior

Innate behavior is an instinctive behavior and is controlled by genes. The animal will react to a stimulus the first time it encounters the stimulus. Innate behaviors typically involve basic survival needs, such as caring for offspring or locating food.

Examples of innate behavior include a baby loggerhead that knows to head to the ocean and a human baby having a grasp reflex.

Learned Behavior

Learned behavior  occurs when experience influences reaction to a stimulus. This type of behavior does not involve the organism's genes.

There are also a number of forms of social behavior, which involve species-to-species interactions. Examine each in the table below:

Types of social behavior include communication, mating, parental care, cooperation, and competition. Types of social behavior include communication, mating, parental care, cooperation, and competition. 

Cyclical Behavior

Cyclical behaviors are behaviors that occur in a regular pattern. These can be daily (circadian rhythms) or seasonally.

  • Migration is a good example of seasonally cyclical behavior. Birds move to different habitats based on the season.

Challenge and Before You Go

Practice Time! Use the knowledge you learned from the lesson to complete the practice activities below.

  Before You Go - You Need To Know

shutterstock_1109171282.png

The following key points are from the explore section of the lesson. You must know the following information before moving to the next lesson. This is just a summary of the key points.

  1. What is innate behavior?
    • Instinctive behavior and is controlled by genes
  2. What is learned behavior?
    • occurs when experience influences reaction to a stimulus. This type of behavior does not involve the organism's genes.
  3. What is ethology?
    • study of how animals behave towards each other and in response to their environment.

BottomBanner_Bioloby.png

IMAGES CREATED BY GAVS (FREEPIK)