Behavioral Eco Exam 1

Animal Behavior
1. Migration
2. Reproduction
3. Communication (sing)
4. Socialization
5. Search for food
6. Habitat selection
7. Avoid predators
8. Act aggressively
Proximate Causes (narrow-individual view- how is an animal built?)
1. Genetic: developmental mechanisms, effects of heredity on behavior, development of
sensory-motor systems via gen-environment interactions
2. Sensory-motor mechanisms, nervous systems (detect environmental stimuli),
hormone systems (adjust responsiveness to environmental stimuli), skeletal-muscular
systems for carrying out responses.
Ultimate Causes (broader life history, evolutionary history view, previous generations)
1. Historical pathways leading to a current behavioral trait. Events occurring over
evolution from the origin of the trait to the present.
2. Selective processes shaping the history of a behavioral trait. Past and current
usefulness of the behavior in promoting a lifetime of reproductive success.
Ex: Vole Proximate Analysis of Behavior
Fig 1.1 The monogamous prairie vole (unusual for mammals)
Fig 1.2 Cells in parts of the males brain are loaded with protein receptors that bind a
hormone called vasopressin. It is produced when a vole copulates a number of times
with a given female. These molecules are carries to the ventral pallidum that plays a
role in providing rewarding sensations.
o Neural and hormonal = proximate, environmental = ultimate
o These rewards encourage the male to stay with the female
o The V1a receptors are encoded by the avpr1a gene
Fig 1.3 Males given extra copies of the gene spent more time with a familiar female
Ex: Vole ultimate Analysis of behavior
How did the gene come to be frequent enough, what selective advantage was there?
Another theory suggests that by spending time with females, the males prevent them
from copulating with other males. In the past males that lived with their mates, and
kept them under surveillance, sired the most offspring (especially in low pops).
Fig 1.4 The ancestral spp was polygamous
Fig 1.5 Polygamous males developed infanticidefemales mate with the new male,
and other males benefitted if these males were loath to kill their own offspringin
response to female promiscuity the males began mate guarding, protecting the
femalemales guard their and care for their offspringmonogamy
o Develop a mutation, higher number of vasopressin receptors, positive
feedback loop
Role for Darwinian Theory
Charles Darwin = Victorian Englishman, born into wealth
o Evolution by Natural selection: differential survival and reproduction of
genotypes
o 1859 the Origin of Species
At the level of GENES, evolution tells us
o Animals should evolve behavioral traits that promote individual survival and
reproductive success
Elements
o Genetic variation (diff alleles)

Heredity: allele transmitted

Differential reproduction: some alleles cause their bearer to replicate the
alleles more often than other with diff alleles
Background assumption
o Resource competition
o Only a finite number of gene copies can exist at any one time
o Population cant grow exponentially forever
Behavioral Upshot
o Individuals are survival machines built by and for genes (alleles when diff
make differentially surviving and reproducing machines)
o Reproduction is the biological significance of life
o A chicken is a genes way of making copies of itself
o Fig 1.10. If the differences in the color patterns of ladybird beetles are
hereditary and if one type of beetle leaves more surviving offspring on
average than the other, then the pop will evolve, becoming increasingly
dominated by the successful type.
Tests of Evolution Behavior
All spp meet the conditions for evolution (change in gene frequency)
1. genetic variation in the population
2. It was inherited
3. Differential reproductive success.
Darwin cited evidence for evolution
o Domesticated animals: dogs, cats, pigeons
Fig 1.11 Artificial selection causes evolutionary change in the nesting behavior of
mice
o The most avid cotton collectors were permitted to breed and the amount of
cotton collected increased with increasing generations
Examples of Rapid Evolutionary Change in Diff Taxa
1. Darwins finches
a. Driven by drought, the large beaked medium ground finch showed high
success (food source were large tribulus seeds), the small beaked finches
show low success. As a result, birds developed larger beaks from surviving
parents.
2. Bacterial Resistance: antibiotics kill 99.99% of bacteria, but that 0.1% that do survive
change in gene frequency
3. Pesticide resistance
Evolution of Infanticide
Hanuman langur
Female bands with one socially dominant male
When a new male becomes dominant, he tried to kill all the young that are not his,
but this is risky behavior (the male risks injury why would he do this)
Pathological hypothesis: bands in Indian villages are fed by people which results in
high population densitystress due to overcrowding
o Nonevolutionary hypothesis
Quicker Reproduction Hypothesis: a male can leave more young if he removes infants
that are not his young and mates with newly cycling females (evolutionary)
Population Regulation Hypothesis: infanticide lowers stress on food supplies at high
pop densities by preventing over population for the long term benefit of the band
(altruism, not likely) (evolutionary hyp)
o Group Selection: the process that occurs when groups differ in their collective
attributes and the differences affect the survival chances of the groups.
(animals behave for the benefit of the group)
o
o

Proposed by Wayne-Edwards 1962 and challenged by George Williams

in 1966
Males are taking a risk (altruism)
Individual selection: selfish behavior = higher reproductive success
Value of alternative hypothesis
o Explains a pattern
o Generate alternative hypotheses
o Best hypothesis is the Quicker Reproduction Hyp: new young have the genes
of the new male (enhances fitness)
Females resume sexual cycling and become receptive to the new male
Observed in over 50 spp of mammals, birds, and spiders
Female Infanticide
Water bug
o Males take care of the egg clutches and females compete for sexual access to
males.
o If a female finds the eggs she will destroy them all so they can mate and he
can guard her eggs.
Wattled Jacana water bird
CH. 2 Proximate and Ultimate Analysis of Bird Song
Examples of Bird Song
Bird song has 2 functions
o 1. Repels rival males from a territory
o 2. Attracts females
Both are ultimate explanations
Female bird song is rare
Bird song (complex singing) is essentially restricted to Passeriformes (perching
birds)1/2 of known birds (10,000 spp)
o Suboscines: weak singers, fly-catchers, wood creepers, oven birds, ant birds
o Oscines: true song birds, often complex songs
Finches (canary), thrushes, warblers, orioles, blackbirds (oropendalas,
caciques)
Song Sparrow (SS) and White-crowned sparrow (WCS)
Different dialects between species
How do Birds Produce Sound?
Many air sacs tympaniform membranes vibration and muscles and support
cartilage
Syrinx: tracheal tissues, located at base of trachea, it produces sounds without vocal
chords. The sound is produced by the vibrations of the tympaniform and the pessulus
caused by air flowing through the syrinx. It is located where the trachea forks into the
lungs allowing for lateralization (producing more than one sound at the same time)
Amplitude: loudness
Frequency: number of complete cycles per unit time (wave-form) in hertz or kilohertz.
Glissando: blending of one tone into the next
Harmonic:
Hertz: (Hz) unit of frequency
Pitch: position of a tone
Sonogram: visual display, can use to identity a spp
Trill: very fast
Proximate Causes of Bird Song
White-crowned sparrow (wcs)
Dialect: variation in timing, number, and frequency of notes
Are dialects genetically or environmentally based?

Possible causes:
o 1. Genetic Difference Hypothesis: genetic differences among subpopulations
in ways that affected the construction of their nervous systems
Found little genetic differences among the 6 diff dialect groups
o 2. Environmental Hypothesis: young males listen to the adults and learn their
own regions dialects.
Took eggs from nests, hatched and reared the young in the lab, the
young were kept isolated and never heard adults singing. The young
began singing at 150 days old, but they never sang the full, complex
songs of the adults.
Song Dialect is learned
o Young males 10-50 days old were exposed to tapes of adults singing and at
150 days old the young began singing the exact song the heard from the
tapes
Fig 2.2 Zebra Finch, hearing is critically important for song learning
o Young male that was deafened never sang the full complex song of the adults.
Young must be able to hear themselves sing.
Neural mechanisms of wcs are such that they are restricted to learning within their
species
o Wcs exposed to song sparrow songs as young they produce songs similar to
those who never heard any adult song ever, but if they are allowed to listen to
other species in addition to adults of their own species, they sing the song of
their species.
Fig 2.3 Peter Marler
o Young wcs have a critical learning period 10-50 days after hatching (leave
nest at 10 days). Neural template is open at 10-50 days, this is when their
neural systems acquire info from listening to wcs song, but not to any other
species song. Later in life, the bird matches his own subsong with his memory
of the tutors song
Social Experience and Song Development
Song development follows a particular course. At a very young age, the wcss
immature brain is able to selectively store info about the songs made by wcs adults
while ignoring other species songs. The brain is capable of recording only one kind of
sound input. Months later, when the bird is able to sing, it accesses the file. It listens
to its own songs and compares them to the song files in its brain and gets the right
song.
Social experience has extremely powerful developmental effects on the wcs singing
behavior. Social tutors. Fig 2.4 A white crowned sparrow that has been caged next to
a strawberry finch will learn the song of its social tutor.
The social effects is the strongest at 8 months. A male is more likely to learn
particular songs from a tutor when he overhears the adult interacting with another
bird rather than when he directly interacting with a singing adult himself.
Song (genetic) Development: Genetic, Hormonal, Neural Mechanisms
Male and female birds differ in singing behavior
Male sing full and complex songs, females dont
Males and female brains must develop differently differences could be genetic or
environmental which could influence how the nervous system develops.
Chromosomal sex determination
o Males have two Z chromosomes
o Females have a Z and a W
o The avian W chromosome has many fewer genes than the Z chrom
o Different genes produce difference sex gonads (males have
testestestosterone)

Testosterone is picked up by the cells that have the appropriate protein

receptors, setting in motion a chain of chemical events that alters gene
activity within the testosterone-sensitive cells. This results in the
growth of special neural circuits that will eventually be used by singing
males.
Brain cells have a t-receptor. Genes are altered and the male song
neural circuiting is produced.
The testosterone is converted to estrogen. This self manufactured
environmental signal activates the development of species neural
pathways found in the males brain. These circuits link the network of
neural structures (the song control system).
Fig 2.8 Between 10 and 40 days after hatching, the number of neurons in the
females HVC (higher vocal center), a components of the song system declines, while
the number of neurons in a males HVC increases.
Fig 2. 9
o Timing of gene activity, different genes follow different schedules of activity
over the course of development.
o After development (during learning) male bird hears its own spp
songacoustical receptors in ears send signals to song control centerthere
learning occurs, genes alter cellular protein contents, cells altered, song
system has new abilities.
o Predicts change in gene expression
Fig 2.10
o As a zebra finch attempts to match a tutors song, the activity of a gene called
ZENK rapidly increases in song control neurons, resulting in increases in
cellular amounts of the protein encoded by that gene.
o When a finch listens to itself sing, it generates a sensory feedback that
activates a particular gene in certain cells.
o As the finch gets closer to an accurate copy of the tutors song, the activity of
ZENK falls.
Fig 2.13 Song system components
o HVC (higher vocal center)RA(acropallium)hypoglossal nucleussends
messages to the syrinx, the sound producing structure.
o Song production, full matches spp song, brain controls singing behavior
o RA plays a critical role in song production and is larger in males than females.
Ultimate Analysis of Different Song
Reproductive benefits of producing song
What is the phylogeny of song learning (history)?
o Song learning (not instinct) occurs in 3 of the 23 avian orders
Songbirds (oscines-Passeriformes), parrots (Psittaciformes), and
hummingbirds (Trochiliformes)
o Other birds produce complex vocalizations but they dont have to learn to do
so (deafened early in life and still able to sing normally)
Did song learning evolve independently 3 times?
o Either song learning originated 3 different times ~65 million years ago (3
changes) or song learning originated in the ancestor of all the lineages and
was lost 3 times (4 changes)
o If it evolved independently then there would be major differences in brain
structures.
ZENK gene similarities between the singing birds disfavors
independent evolution.
o Song learning was lost in many groups.
Reproductive Advantages of Song Learning

1. Species Identity Hypothesis: Distinctive vocalization conveys info about spp

membership
o Enhanced deterrence of competitors of their own spp from territories and
mates
o Conspecifics are repelled.
2. Mate-attraction Hypothesis: females are attracted to songs of their own species
Evidence for both fig 2.19 and fig 2.20
Benefits of Learning a Dialect
Song learning takes time, energy, and special neural mechanisms. Since most birds
do not make these costly investments but instead produce good songs instinctively
suggests song learning is not essential for use as a species specific signal
There must be reproductive advantages for learning that are advantageous enough
to outweigh the costs.
1. Male learns songs that resemble the songs of other individuals in that region
o Fig 2.21 Song matches habitat
o Dense forestslow frequency, open woodlandshigh frequencies
o This helps to transmit sound more efficiently through the habitat, travel
further with less degradation.
2. Benefits of song learning centers on the advantages of matching songs to the
singers social environment
o Males can communicate better with rivals.
o Young males learn directly from their territorial neighbors. BY doing so, a new
boy on the block could signal his recognition of that males as an individual
and demonstrate his capacity to learn a new song which could be based on his
health, body condition.
Benefits in terms of song sparrows
o Learns from neighbors and develops a song repertoire (type) which consists of
5-20 songs types
o Fig 2.25
o Males in neighboring territories share song types.
o Can sing diff song type to not indicate aggression
o To indicate aggression, they sing the same song type
o Can convey info about how strongly they are prepared to challenge that
individual
Type match: AA
Repertoire match: AB
o When two males share the same songs, the longer the males live in that
population
More songs=better communication=less aggression
Female Preferences and Song Learning
Ultimate analysis on song learning centered on social environment provided by
females
By learning to sing the dialect associated with their place of birth (genes passed
down for generations), young males could announce their possession of traits (and
underlying genes) well adapted for that particular area.
Could song learning increase male ability to attract a female?
o Stable subpop
o Males inherit genes from successful ancestors
o Dialect learning announces I have good genes (local adaptive success)
o Females gain by choosing males as mates (local dialect)
o Progeny receive well adapted genotype (locally)
o Support:

1. CA WCSP male dialect singers less parasitized than non dialect

singers
2. Dialect singers have a larger number of young (preferred by local
females)
But, females dont prefer fathers dialect
Males move more and change dialect
Locally adopted gene complexes? Probably not
Ch3 The Development of Behavior
Monozygotic: one cell splits into 2 identical embryos
Dizygotic: 2 egg/sperm cells, both implant. Normal siblings
Genetic V Environmental Effects on Behavior
Young white crowned sparrow(wcs) male
o Genes: informational context
o Environmental: songs hears, hormones produced
No behavioral trait is just genetic or just environmental
Interactive Theory of Development: behavioral traits are determined by gene and
environment interactions
Interactive Theory of Development
Colony collapse disorder of honey bees related to new class of pesticide that is
unregulated
o Mite outbreaks due to changed phenotype
Fig 3.1
o Bees produce hexagonal cells, larvae develop within and are fed by workers.
o Tasks that bees perform are linked to their age
o Cascade of genes turning on and off at certain ages for certain tasks
Fig 3.2
o Diff genes are active at diff ages: active component of genotype changes with
age
o Changing environmental signals interacting with genes
Queen bee: produces differing amounts of one pheromone over time
Worker bees: produce pheromones that target the brain cells of worker
bees
Juveniles: produce hormones that change over time
Nature V Nurture Fallacy
Foraging behavior
Thousands of gene-environment interactions construct brain/body
Gene info is expressed only in the appropriate environment
Environment turns on a geneprotein content changesother genes are affected in
cells
Development attributes require: info in genes (1000s) expressing GxE interactions
Learning
Durable modification of behavior
Learning: change in an animals behavior linked to particular experience the animal
has had.
o Often circumscribed
Genetic link to development
Imprinting: early social interactions (with parents) lead to the young learning things
such as what constitutes an appropriate sexual partner (males).
o Greylag goose early social experiences altered brain regions responsible for
recognition of mates
Prepared by gene influence development
(males had a preference to humans for mates as adults)

Fig 3.6
o Great Chickadee and Blue Chickadee
Cross fostering between the two
GC raised by BC: GCs wanted to mate with BCs
BC raised by GC: BCs wanted to mate with BCs
o Interspecific variation in imprinting: evidence for a genetic contribution to
learning
Spatial learning
Chickadees store food in various places remembering where they stored it = spatial
learning
Requires modifiable brain (by sensory stimulation from storing food)
o Brain region involved=hippocampus
Fig 3.8
o Clarks nutcracker related to Jays and Crows
o Very good at spatial learning
o Have 5,000 cache sites, some 25 km apart, stored in the fall
Relocates 2/3 in winter (remembers 2/3 of store sites)
o Ability to store spatial info in the brain (hippocampus) is caused by ability of
brain center to change biochemically and structurally in response to sensory
stimulation associated with storing food.
o Illustrates The Interactive Theory of Development: environment and genes
interact to produce a behavioral phenotype
What Causes Individuals to Behave Differently
Fig 3.9
Black-capped chickadees living in Alaska (harsher environment) remember where
they stored their food, and store more food than the same spp living in Colorado. The
pop in Alaska also do less inspections of their cache sites
o Larger hippocampus
Hand-reared Marsh chickadee in Europe
o Gave some birds the opportunity to store whole sunflowers, gave others
powered sunflower seeds.
o Those that could store the sunflower seeds gained more cells in the
hippocampus.
Fig 3.10
o Paper waspsHymenoptera
o Colonial, nests made from chewed wood pulp
o Each nest has a diff odor
Developing larvae take on the unique odor of the nest
Females can recognize nest mates by their odor as soon as they
emerge
Environmental difference: diff odors on adults leads to a diff in a
behavior
Fig 3.14 Black-capped warbler old world
o Genetic Difference Hypothesis
o Diff pops of same spp have diff migratory routes some spend the winter in
GB, some spend the winter in Africa
o Peter Berthold- testing to see if the offspring of the winter in Britain birds
would inherit their behavior.
o Captured wild birds in Britain during the winter, took to Germany where the
birds spent the rest of the winter indoors. In the spring, they were let outdoors
to breed.

Next fall, took the F1 and parents and put into orientation cages to determine
what direction they would migrate to (west)
Migratory route is genetic
Fig 3.16 Response to artificial selection
o Chickadees bred for late migration timing
o After just 2 generations, the migration timing was a week later than average
Fig 3.19 and Fig 3.20
o Foraging behavior in garter snakes (coastal and inland)
o Coastal snakes eat banana slugs
o Is diet hereditary?
o Bred inland and coastal and exposed them to slug food items
o Diet is genetic
The Adaptive Value of Learning
Instinct: behavior performed in a pattern, completely functional on the 1 st
performance
Learning: adaptive modification of behavior based on experience
Behavioral flexibility: involves development modification of the nervous system (adult
animal)
Learning produces behavioral flexibility in response to unique environmental
circumstances
Selection favors investment in the mechanisms underlying learning only when there
is Environmental unpredictability: has reproductive consequences for the animal
o When present: selection favors proximal mechanisms underlying learning
behavior (has a price tag)
Changes in the brain
Bird songlearns song, useful to him
Long-billed Marsh Wren
Eastern pop
Western pop
# songs/repertoire
30
100
Brain mass
X
1.5x
Expect learning to evolve only when there is a strong benefit
Fig 3.36
o Male thynnine wasps can be deceived into mating
o Wingless females release pheromones (external release) to attract males
o Hormone (internal environmental signal)
o Winged males
o Australian orchids mimic the females, and produce pheromones similar to the
female wasps, orchids have modified carpels (decoy petal).
o Male wasps exhibits spatial learning; when he has been tricked into pollinating
a flower he sometimes learned to avoid the spot where he was tricked
Fig 3.38
o Spatial learning differs among members of the crow family
o Clarks nutcrackers performed much better than the other 3 species where
they were required to retain info about the location of the circle, but when
asked to remember the color of the circle (nonspatial learning), they did not
perform any better.
Fig 3.39
o Male pinyon jays make fewer errors than females do when retrieving seeds
from caches they (or their mates) have made, especially after intervals of 2-4
months. This is expected, because females are the incubators of the eggs
while the males provide the females and offspring with seeds relocated from
caches.
o

Fig 3.40
o Sex diffs in spatial learning are linked to home range size
Polygynous male meadow voles (large home range) made fewer errors
in the maze compared to females of the same spp
Females matched male performance in the monogamous prairie vole
spp (males and females live together on same territory)
Fig 3.42
o Sex differences in the hippocampus size
o Blackbird family=troupials
o Females brown-headed cowbirds have a larger hippocampus size than males
(parasitic spp)
o Female red-winged and grackles do not (nonparasitic spp)
o Cowbirds are brood parasites: lay their eggs in other nests
o Females must search widely for nests to parasitize, and they must remember
where the nests are located in order to return to them to lay their eggs when
theyre ready (spatial learning). Males do not, therefore their hippocampus
size is smaller.
Selective pressures control hippocampus size
CH 4 The Control of Behavior: Neural Mechanisms
Neurons Underlie Behavior
Fig 4.3 Begging behavior by a gull chick
Fed regurgitated food by parents after chick pecks at the adults beak ( visual
stimulus= beak)
Fig 4.4
o Effectiveness of diff visual stimuli
o Chicks ignore everything except the shape of the bill and the red dot at the
end of the beak
o Gull sees stimulisensory signals are relayed by neurons to the
brainneurons generate motor commandschick pecks at stimulus
o Pecking=instinct: behavioral pattern that appears in fully functioning form the
first time it performs, even though the animal has no previous experience with
eliciting cue.
Instinct: fixed action pattern
Eliciting cue: releaser (signed stimulus)
Innate releasing mechanism=neural network that detects cues and activates instinct
Fig 4.5 Instinct Theory
o Instinct is not genetically determined, instead these behaviors are dependent
on gene-environment interactions that took place during development.
o Neural network responsible for detecting the simple cue (releaser) and
activating the instinct, or fixed action pattern, was given the label innate
releasing mechanism.
Code-breaking: spp cheats (brood parasitism)

Fig 4.7
o A visual and acoustic code breaker
o Reed Warbler feeds begging cuckoo chick that recently left its nest
o Reed warbler provides for cuckoo at great cost to itself and wits own offspring
o Cuckoo begs louder and is larger, which the foster parents favor more
Bat and Moth Nervous Systems (sensory receptors and survival)
Bats
o Head size varies among spp, but most have large ears
High frequency sounds

Emit ultrasound: frequency of 20-80 kHz

Used to map a pic of the environment

Griffin
o Suspended piano wires from the ceiling
o Bats flew around in darkness using echolocation to map the location of the
wires to fly around and not make any mistakes and fly into the wires
o When he played a high frequency sound the bats began to collide with objects
and crash to the floor.
o Loud sounds (1-15 kHz) did not affect them this way
o Bats use ultrasound to detect their prey
Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies scale-wings)
2 phased behavioral pattern in Noctuid Moths (must be able to hear
the sounds emitted by bats)
Moth flies along, some suddenly veer in diff directions (sudden
turning away)
Some nose dive down into vegetation
Moth Nervous System
o Fig 4.9
o Moths have ears on dorsal surface, 2 ears, each on one side of the thorax
o Each ear consist of a thin, flexible sheet of cuticle the tympanum lying over
a chamber on the side of the thorax. Attached to the tympanum are two
neurons, the A1 and A2 auditory receptors.
o Receptors respond to energy in selected stimuli by changing the permeability
of their cell membranes to positively charged ions. The stimuli= the
movement of the tympanum, opening stretch-sensitive channels in the cell
membrane. Positively charged ions flow inelectric charge is changed inside
the cell relative to the charge on the other side of the membrane.
o Action potential: the neural signal, a self-regenerating change in membrane
electrical charge that travels the length of a nerve cell.
o Fig 4.10
Stimuli on dendriteselectrical changes trigger action potentialcell
bodyaxonaxon terminal synapsesdendrites of next cell
o Fig 4.11
Neural network of a moth. Receptors in the ear relay info to
interneurons in the thoracic ganglia, which communicate with motor
neurons that control the wing muscles
o Fig 4.12
Properties of the ultrasound-detecting auditory receptors of a moth
Sounds of low or moderate intensity do not generate action
potentials in the A2 receptor. The A1 receptor fires sooner and
more often as sound intensity increases.
The A1 receptor initially reacts strongly to pulses of ultrasound
but then reduces its rate of firing if the stimulus is a constant
sound.
2 forms of moth escape behavior
1. Sudden turning away
2. Power dive into vegetation
The A1 receptor is sensitive to low-moderate intensity
The A2 receptor is sensitive to high intensity
As sound increases in intensityA1 fires more rapidly with a shorter
delay (neural impulses increases)
A1 fires more frequently in response to pulses of sounds (not
uninterrupted sounds)

Deaf to low frequency sounds (sounds we hear)

Moths can detect pulsed ultrasound up to 30 meters away before a bat
can detect a moth
o Fig 4.13 How moths might locate bats in space
Bat approaches moth from left side: left receptor will fire sooner and
more often than the right
Bat approaches moth from above: fluttering of moths wings
corresponding with fluctuation in the firing rate of the A1.
Bat approaches moth from behind: A1 receptors fire at the same rate
(no fluctuation in neural activity)
This is useful only if the bat has not yet detected the moth, if a bat
comes within 3 meters of the moth it cant evade by turning away.
Was initially thought that A2 receptor takes over (when a bat is
about to collide with a moth, the intensity of sound is high and
it is under these conditions that the A2 receptors fireA2
signals shut down central steering mechanism
It was found out later that this behavior was learned
o Notodontid moths engage in diving behavior (PART 2 RESPONSE)
Lack the A2 receptor
A2 is not needed for power dive
In noctuid moths with A1 and A2, increased activity of A1 receptor
could stimulate phase 2 itselft
Both A1 and A2 receptors stop firing the last 150 milliseconds of a bat
attack the cells would keep signaling if either was truly important in
controlling the last-gasp evasive maneuvers
Adaptive Proximate Behavior
Electromagnetic spectrum. Inverse relationship between wavelength and energy
content.
o Shorter wavelength=high energy
Non-humans can see UV radiation
Fig 4.31
o Bees can see UV light patterns on daisyadvertises the central location of
food for insect pollinators
o Male sulfur butterflies have UV reflecting patches on their wings, which help
signal their sex to females
Fig 4.32
o UV reflectance from male stickleback bodies influence female mate
preferences.
o A female could view males in adjacent chambers that were separated from
her compartment by a screen and filters- one filter blocked UV light from one
male. The female preferred viewing the male that did not have UV light
blocked.
Fig 4.33
o Ultraviolet reflections can be used as a threat signal
o When a male collared lizard opens his mouth in a threat display, he unfolds his
mouth in a threat display, he unfolds pale patches that reflect UV light. The
size of these patches is proportional to the strength of the males bite
Fig 4.34
o Bluethroat males reflect UV light from feathers
o Male throat patch
Preen oil only = female preferred
Preen oil + UV blocker = female non-preferred
Navigation: finding ones way between two points often in a 2-D environment (space)

Success requires:
o 1. Compass sense: knowing what direction to move
o 2. Map sense: knowing the location of a goal
Fig 4.40
o The wandering albatross covers 4000 km on a foraging journey
o An ant makes a trip of 592 meters foraging and comes directly home once it
has caught its prey.
Fig 4.41
o Clock shifting and altered navigation in homing pigeons
o Pigeons = models of navigation behavior
o They use the suns position integrated with the time of day to navigate
o Clock shifted the pigeons (environmental chamber)
Lights on read noon (6 hours later than real sunrise)
Lights off- read midnight
~ 1 week later: clock shifted to 6 hour later with natural end
If released at noon, thinks its 6 am, orients appropriately (180 degrees
away from sun) attempts to fly west, but actually is flying north
Map sense indicates location; to fly west at 6 am, normal pigeon will fly
away from the sun, but clock shifted pigeons do this at real noon, they
mistakenly fly north (90 degrees)
Fig 4.46
o Migratory sea routes taken by green sea turtles
o Shuttle between feeding and breeding sites dont need to track suns position
(swim at night)
o They can sense magnetic field
Fig 4.47
o Manipulation of the magnetic field affects the orientation of green sea turtles.
Individuals that experience the magnetic field associated with an area to the
north of their actual location swim south; turtles that sense the magnetic field
of an area to the south of their actual location swim north.

NOVA How Smart are Animals?

Dog
o Random sample of toys, Darwin doll=inference
o CTNND2 gene, border collie selective breeding
o Social intelligence: dog v wolf
Dog rewarded with food, shelter, breeding
Dolphin
o Cost and benefits of curiosity
o 2nd highest brain volume shaped differently
o Creative problem solving: weights on the box
o Rote V. advanced learning
Create a new trick together (coordinated)
o Language: clicks and whistles
Octopus
o Tool use: coconut
o Jar-problem solving, learned not to tighten
o Learning from failures/successes
o Skin reflects neural thinking
Parrot
o Symbols
o Independent ideas with same experience

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5-6 year old child

800 vocab