The Study of Animal Behavior Is Called Ethology

Animal Behavior

•The study of animal behavior is called ethology.

•Animal behavior includes anything and everything that an animal does.

•Have you ever wondered why an animal does that? Ethology is a branch of zoology that tries to understand animal behavior.

•Ethologists have to be objective when observing animal behavior. Many times we want to connect humanlike characteristics to animals.

•While humans and animals share some traits, we have no way of knowing for sure why an animal is doing something.

•Animals behave in certain ways for four basic reasons:

•to find food and water

•to interact in social groups

•to avoid predators

•to reproduce

•Animal behaviors are broken into 3 categories.

•Innate behaviors- These are the behaviors that animals are born knowing how to do. It did not have to be taught to them. It is always the result of some stimulus….or change in the environment that triggers a response.

•All members of the species perform the behavior in the exact same way.

•Examples include when a baby bird reaches up to it’s parent’s beak for food. Another would be when baby sea turtles hatch. They have never seen their parents but understand that they must dig out of their nest and head for the ocean. Baby sea turtles also understand that they must do this at night….probably to give them the greatest chance for survival.

•Do humans have any innate behaviors?

•Learned behaviors are those that an animal develops as it gains life experience.

•Babies and toddlers learn so many skills by just watching their parents and siblings.

•Animals often learn by watching other members of their species and copying what they see.

•Lion cubs practice stalking and pouncing by roughhousing with their siblings. Later in life, lions use these skills to hunt or defend their group.

•Chimpanzee’s learn how to forage for food and also appropriate social behavior by staying close to their mothers.

•The calves of orca whales continually follow their mother. At places like Sea World, when orcas are born they will follow and imitate their mother, including do show behaviors. Trainers at Sea World say that by one year of age a baby orca has learned more than a dozen show behaviors just by copying it’s mother.

•Complex animal behaviors are a combination of both innate and learned.

•They begin with an animal’s instinct which they then perfect through life experience.

•Baby horses and giraffes are born with an instinct to stand up after being born; but it takes time for them to be able to understand how to use their legs.

Animal Intelligence

•The study of animal intelligence is relatively new.

•For a long time, scientists did not pay much attention to understanding how animals brains work.

•Animal intelligence is related to their behavior.

•Remember last week when we talked about how important it is for an animal to regulate it’s body temperature? Just like humans who might seek out an air conditioned room if it’s hot or wear warm coats in the winter, animals also rely on their behavior to keep themselves as comfortable as possible.

•Where does your dog or cat like to sit in the house? Is this different depending on the season?

•The chuckwalla is a lizard found in the desert of the southwest. These animals can be found basking on rocks in the sun to warm up their body temperature. When they are hot, they find shade in a rocky crevice.

•Some animals regulate their body temperatures by hibernation. This is a period of inactivity where the animal’s body temperature drops to just a few degrees above freezing.

•When it is cold, animals bodies need to use more energy to stay warm. Energy requires food which can be difficult to find in the winter.

•Hibernation saves energy because the breathing and heart rate slow down.

•Animals that hibernate include the Arctic ground squirrel, turtles, snakes, and groundhogs.

•If it's late winter or early spring and you find a frog that looks like it might be dead, it might be a wood frog that is hibernating. This hibernation process is pretty amazing because their little hearts actually stop beating and tiny little ice crystals start to form in the blood! Then when the weather warms back up, the ice melts, the heart starts beating again, and off the little frog goes.

•Winter sleep is a less intense version of hibernation. The scientific name is “torpor.”

•When an animal enters winter sleep it’s heart rate slows and body temperature drops but not as much as an animal in hibernation. Sometimes animals that enter torpor do it for months at a time while others do it as needed….sometimes only for a night.

•Hibernating animals wake slowly while animals who enter winter sleep can be woken up quickly if they are disturbed.

•Animals that go into torpor include hummingbirds, ladybugs, and bats.

•Do bears hibernate or go into this winter sleep?

•Migration is another behavior that helps some animals regulate their body temperature.

•Caribou herds travel south for the winter and north for the summer.

•Some animals are known for their ability to problem solve.

•New Caledonian crows can create tools using objects from their natural environment. They use vines and twigs to make hooks that help them catch insects hiding in tree trunks.

•The octopus has been observed collecting coconut shells that it later uses to build a shelter.

•There are some animals that don’t get enough credit for their intelligence.

•Pigeon- is often considered annoying among humans. However, the common pigeon is seriously misunderstood and is actually impressively intelligent.

•Not only do pigeons remember dozen of routes to find their way to familiar places, they can also recognize their faces in the mirror.

•The pigeon’s memory doesn’t stop there however, as they can also remember hundreds of photographs and images.

•Pigs- For reasons unknown, pigs have long been thought of as unintelligent but this couldn’t be further from the truth.

•Known for their social skills, pigs are not only friendly animals but they are easy to train too.

•Unbelievably, scientists managed to train a group of pigs to play video games. Something that had only previously been achieved with primates and the pig study saw better results.

•Pigs are said to have the same intelligence level as a 3 year old human.

•Parrot- are widely known for being smart.

•Known for mimicking the words of humans, not many people know they also understand the meanings of words too.

•A study surrounding the Cacadu parrot found that these stunning birds can remember 90% of what they are told, including full sentences and even parts of songs.

•Rats- are well respected in certain areas of the world including China.

•Rats are used in many scientific studies because of their intelligence.

•A 2011 study in Canada saw some of the world’s top scientists come together to build a special rat maze, designed to test a rat’s critical thinking skills and whether the animal could escape.

•The test, originally planned for 3 days, was over in just minutes, when the rat cleverly mastered an effective escape route and beat some of the greatest scientific minds known to man.

•Dolphins- can communicate with their own special language that scientists have tried to figure out. They can communicate with family members up to 6 miles away.

•In order to sleep, dolphins have to shut down one side of their brain so they sleep with one eye open.

•The gorilla and the chimp are the most intelligent animals in the animal kingdom.

•They use a special sign language to communicate with each other; however they are also able to use standard sign language to communicate with humans.

•The gorillas can remember people, names, places, as well as remembering how to do certain tasks and puzzles.

•Not only do they use tools, they can also make them too and are believed to have impressive problem-solving skills.

Social Skills

•Like humans, many animals have social lives.

•Many animals live in groups. These groups depend on each other to survive.

•Emperor penguins huddle together to keep warm. Termite colonies are highly structured with each member having a specific job. African wild dogs and wolves hunt in packs.

•Why do fish group into schools?

•It helps group members find food and mates but it is also a defensive strategy. Fish swimming in groups confuse predators.

•Sometimes groups of the same species living in the same space have conflicts.

•Competition for food, territory, and mates can be extreme. Male hippo’s will fiercely defend its group and river territory against other hippos.

•Some animals prefer to live alone and only interact when it is time to mate.

•Examples include the red panda, rhinos, koalas, leopards, and polar bears.

•Mating and parenting behaviors are an important part of an animal’s life.

•There are many different versions of parenthood in the animal kingdom.

•Mothers who spend the most time with their babies are mammals. Mammals are warm blooded who have fur or hair, nurse their young, and give birth to live babies.

•Orangutans are long-term parents. Baby orangutans are entirely dependent on their mother and breastfeed up to eight years in some cases. For the first two years of life, baby orangutans cling to their mother's belly, depending on her for all transportation. Orangutans teach their young where to find food, what to eat, and how to avoid predators. Orangutans have such a strong maternal bond that offspring have been seen visiting with their mothers even 15 years after birth.

•Elephants are born into an extended family with all of the female elephants taking care of the young.

•An elephant calf will nurse for about 5 years until the mother has another calf.

•The bond between a baby elephant and its mother can be correctly described as the closest of any animal on earth. If it is a female baby, she will typically remain together with her mother right into her own adulthood and will likely never once be separate from her until the mother dies in old age.

•Male elephants will start to wander away from the herd around the age of 6.

•Male baby elephants also stay similarly close to their mothers when they are young. But in their case, this bond is not for a lifetime. When a adolescent male reaches puberty – around the age of 12 – he gets too rowdy for the others to tolerate. He repeatedly feels an uncontrollable urge to wrestle and fight with other elephants. When this happens, his mother and grandmother clearly become irritated with him and escort him to the edge of the group to get him to stop. This goes on month after month throughout his puberty until the disapproval by the females becomes so intense that he is chased away altogether. He then becomes what is known as a solitary bull elephant.

•All birds have instincts to keep their eggs safe and warm, feed their young and teach them how to get along in the world. This parenting process goes pretty quickly though.

•Emperor penguins are unique in the bird world. They are known to be very attentive parents. The male penguin cradles the new egg in his feet for months on end, protecting it from the elements. He starves himself in sub-zero temperatures to protect the egg. After two months, the egg hatches, and the female returns to feed the chick, keeping it warm and protecting it from the elements until it is old enough to swim and fish on its own.

•Most reptiles do very little in the way of caring for their babies.

•Most will simply deposit their eggs somewhere and try to cover them up.

•Do animals perform selfless acts known as altruism?

•In other words, do the behave in ways that helps another animal, even if it harms itself in the process?

•Scientists have been trying to understand if and why this happens.

•Some animals will help other animals within their group/ family.

•Some will help if the animal may be in a position to help them in the future.

•Common vampire bats will share food but only when there is a history of sharing. If one bat tries to get free food too often, it is cut off from any sharing in the future.

•These cases are all altruism within the same species

•However, animals have been known to show altruism even for animals of different species.

•There have been cases of dolphins helping dogs, and apes rescuing an injured animal. There was even a scientist who was working with chimpanzee’s. When he gave one chimp a treat, the others received a shock. The scientist was surprised when the chimp who was receiving the treat stopped eating and almost starved himself because he was worried that the other chimps would be hurt.

•There are many cases of humpback whales trying to interrupt orcas when they are hunting.

•In 2009, 2 marine biologists were observing orca’s hunting a seal. The seal had found safety on a floating piece of ice.

•Suddenly, the researchers noticed 2 humpback whales getting into the action. Humpback whales eat small animals like shrimp and plankton so this was not a fight for food.

•Eventually the pod of orcas was able to knock the seal into the water. The seal swam over to the humpbacks and one of them rolled onto its back and nudged the seal onto his belly to keep it safe.