Animal Behavior Biology 17 Why Study Animal Behavior??? Animal Behavior History Prehistoric Times • Cave Drawings 40000 BC Ancient Greek Period • Greek Writing • 1700 BC - Head injury and brain function • 340 BC – Aristotle – Anatomist /Philosopher • Historia Animalium • Mutualism • Tool use • Brood Parasitism Native Americans • Southeast Texas - Bonfire • Mass Killings -12000 years ago The Three Foundations • Medical Anatomy and Physiology • Evolution • Human Psychology Medical Anatomy and Physiology • Andreas Versalius (1543) • De humani corporis fabrica libri septem (On the fabric of the human body in seven books) • Paul Broca (1861) • Speech Production The Evolutionary Foundation • Charles Darwin (1859) • The Origin of Species • Natural Selection • Sexual Selection The Evolutionary Foundation • George John Romanes (1884) • Mental Evolution in Animals • Behavior could be studied among different animals and infer relationships • Injective knowledge Human Psychology • Comparative Psychology (Psychologists) • This school of thought advocates the use of strict experimental procedures to study observable behaviors (or responses) in relation to environment (or stimuli) • Ethology (Zoologists) • This school of thought advocates studying behavior under naturalistic conditions. It explores animal behavior in the context of animal anatomy and physiology. Ethologists specifically considered the significance of inherited elements of behavior alongside learned components Comparative Psychologists • Ivan Pavlov (1904) • Noble Prize • Classical Conditioning Comparative Psychologists • John B. Watson (1930) • Behaviorism • Little Albert Comparative Psychologists • B.F. Skinner (1938) • The Behavior of Organisms • Operant Conditioning • Skinner Box Ethologists • Karl von Frisch (1973) • Noble Prize • Bee Dance Ethologists • Konrad Lorenz (1973) • Noble Prize • Imprinting • FAP • Ethograms Ethologists • Niko Tinbergen (1973) • Noble Prize • The Study of Instinct • FAP (with Lorenz) • Four Questions Ethologists • Niko Tinbergen (1973) • Four Questions • Causation • Development • Evolution • Function • Mneumonic • ABCDEF • Proximate vs. Ultimate Questions??? Other famous Behaviorists Proximate and Ultimate Causes of Behavior Proximate Ultimate • Immediate causes • Evolutionary causes • Mechanisms • Adaptive value of the behavior Mastigias paupua • Golden Medusa • Migrates upward during the day and descends at night • Also migrate from the west to the east during the day and return in the evening Proximate Cause • At night – undirected pulsing of bell to “taxis” • This causes them to head east until they hit the shadows on the east from the trees which cause them to move west in the afternoon. • Mechanism – “ocelli” – photosensitive neurons control their swimming behavior and direct them toward the light Ultimate Cause • Get most of their food from zooxanthelle (photosynthetic) • Over millions of years, individuals that behaved in this way received more food and were able to leave more offspring with the ability to coordinate their muscle contratctions to ensure light for the zooxanthelle .