Ecological behaviours

• Biologie
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

Ecological behaviours

Ecology: the study of the interaction of living things with each other and with their environment.

Today

- Explanation Ecological Behavior

- Work on assignments (Biozones/ Glencoe)

- Review research question Behavioral research

Learning Objectives

- Describe different types of competitive behaviors and give examples of each.

- Identify types of communication, nurturing, and cooperative behaviors.

- Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of behavior in terms of survival and reproductive success.

Agonistic Behaviour

• Threatening or combative behaviour that usually does not result in serious injury or death.

• It ends when one individual gives up.

Question

What are the advantages and disadvantages of this behavior in terms of survival and reproductive success?

Dominance hierarchies 

• Some animals that live in groups have a dominance hierarchy.

The top ranked individual gets access to the resources without conflict.

• It reduces hostile behaviour in the group. 

For example in: baboons, wolves, chickens

Question

What are the advantages and disadvantages of this behavior in terms of survival and reproductive success?

Territorial behaviour 

• A territory is a specific area that contains resources like food, mates etc.

• A territorial animal will defend the territory against others.

• Includes verbal signals – singing of birds, chattering of squirrels, yowling of cats and chemical signals e.g. 

boundaries marked with urine by big cats.

Question

What are the advantages and disadvantages of this behavior in terms of survival and reproductive success?

Foraging behaviours

• Finding and eating food.

• Avoid predators and harmful food.

• It is a trade-off between the quality of the food and the cost of finding, pursuing and eating it.

• The most successful strategy is to get the maximum amount of energy while expending the least amount of energy to obtain it.

Migratory behaviours                                                     

• Some animals – Birds, grazers like zebras and wildebeest, fish like shad and also some insects like the monarch butterfly move long distances seasonally to new locations increasing their chance of survival. I.e. better food /climate.

• May be vulnerable to predators along the way.

• Migrations can cover thousands of km, for example: swallows can travel 8000 km to SA in about 10 days.

Question

What are the advantages and disadvantages of this behavior in terms of survival and reproductive success?

Biological rhythms

• Many animals repeat behaviours in a rhythmic cycle.

• There are daily /circadian rhythms, seasonal cycles or yearly cycles.

• Influenced by environmental factors e.g. temperature, food availability, daylength.

• Many animals have an internal clock / biological clock that maintains the sleep wake cycle of about 24 hours.

• Humans have a cycle length of about 24 hrs and 11 mins + 16 mins. Kept isolated and without a way of telling the time, the cycle gradually shifts.

Communication behaviours

Pheromones

• Highly specific chemicals – Specific to the species and thus undetectable by predators.

• Travel less far than auditory or visual cues

• Often relays messages between males and females of a species.

• Can be used as an alarm response during an attack.

            Auditory communication

• Animals can sing, howl, growl, hoot, bark, whistle, chirp etc. etc.

• Used to transmit information about …. Food, mates, territories, danger etc. etc.

• Making a noise warns /alerts others about their presence.

• Language is a form of auditory communication in which animals use vocal organs to produce sounds that have a shared meaning.

Courting and nurturing behaviours

• Courting happens in order to attract a mate. 

Video of a Peacock spider

• Nurturing happens when parents provide care to their offspring.

Videos of Crocodile and African Bullfrog

Question

What are the advantages and disadvantages of these behaviors in terms of survival and reproductive success?

Cooperative behaviours

• Can exist in members of the same species.

• It can benefit all the members of the group.

• Or individuals may sacrifice themselves for the benefit of the group.

• Called altruistic behaviour.

For example in naked mole rats.

Question

What are the advantages and disadvantages of this behavior in terms of survival and reproductive success?

Learning Objectives

- Describe different types of competitive behaviors and give examples of each.

- Identify types of communication, nurturing, and cooperative behaviors.

- Analyze the advantages and disadvantages of behavior in terms of survival and reproductive success.

Work to be done

- Biozones 168 (Animal communication) and 325 (Social Organization) and 173 (Cooperation and survival. 

- Assessment Questions Glencoe pg 928: Q 17-39