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Animals exhibit a wide range of instinctive and learned

behaviours, such as courtship displays and parental care. These

types of behaviours help them to survive. Animals communicate

with each other in a variety of ways, using sounds, chemicals,

body language and spoken language. Plants communicate too -

they might produce chemicals to warn of attack.

Sexual reproduction

Animals and birds use different ways to attract a mate. Many male animals and

birds use courtship behaviour to attract a female. This is seen in the

spectacular way male frigate birds [inflate: To add air into something.]

their large red throat sacks, in the colourful display of feathers in male peacocks,

and in way that male squirrels prove their fitness to potential mates.

Many animals and birds don’t mate for life. They have several different sexual

partners in their lifetime or during one breeding season. Often there is one

dominant ‘alpha male’ that mates with all of the sexually-mature females in his

group. The alpha male is usually the largest or strongest male. This behaviour

is seen in lions and also sea-lions.

Some animals are [monogamous: Mating with only one

individual.] - they mate with one partner for life. This behaviour is seen in

puffins and albatrosses. It is very unusual in mammals.

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Parental care

Many animals and birds look after their young in a variety of ways. These

behaviours are called parental care. This gives their young the best possible

chance of survival to ensure that the [gene: The basic unit of genetic 

material inherited from our parents. A gene is a section of DNA which controls

 part of a cell's chemistry, particularly protein production.] of the parents are

passed on.

Female mammals carry their young in their [uterus: Also known as a

womb. This is where the fertilised egg (ovum) develops.] before they are born.

An animal that does this – gives birth to living young rather than laying eggs - is

said to be a viviparous animal. Once born, mammals care for their young by

Great frigate bird

Science

Animal and plant behaviour

inflate

monogamous

genes

uterus

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producing milk. The mother’s milk provides the baby with all the

[nutrient: A substance that provides sustenance to living organisms.]

it needs. Suckling from their mother is also a relatively safe place to feed.

Birds also look after their young. Parents [incubate: To keep a sample

of microbes warm so that the cells reproduce quickly.] eggs until the chick is

ready to be born.

An extreme example of this can be seen in the behaviour of the male Emperor

penguins in Antarctica. The male bird stands and incubates the egg for

approximately two months in freezing cold winds – without eating any food -

until his partner returns. The males can lose up to half their body weight in the

process.

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All newborn chicks are fed by one or both of their parents until they are old

enough to leave their parents and live on their own.

The killdeer bird displays an unusual type of parental care behaviour. It nests on

the ground and when predators try to take its eggs or chicks, it lures them away

by pretending it has a broken wing. It’s a risky strategy for the parent bird but

helps to give their young a good chance of survival.

Types of behaviour

Behaviour is defined as the response of an animal to a [stimuli:

Things that set off a reaction in the nervous system, for example, light, heat,

sound, gravity, smell, taste, or temperature. The singular is stimulus.] . Some

responses are [innate: When something (usually a behaviour) is present 

from birth and does not need to be learned.] . They are not learned – they are

instinctive and happen automatically. A newborn pup sucking milk from its

mother is an example of an innate behaviour.

Other behaviours are learned. These are called conditioned behaviours, and

Samoyed with puppies

Killdeer

nutrients

incubate

stimulus

innate

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there are four types: operant, habituation, imprinting and classical.

Operant conditioning

This type of learned behaviour occurs by rewarding or punishing an animal.

Teaching a dog to jump through a hoop by giving it treats is operant

conditioning. This type of conditioning can be used to train:

sniffer dogs to find illegal drugs or bombs

police horses to remain calm in crowds or riots

dolphins (at sea life centres) to jump through hoops

Habituation

Habituation is where an animal becomes steadily used to a [stimuli:

Things that set off a reaction in the nervous system, for example, light, heat,

sound, gravity, smell, taste, or temperature. The singular is stimulus.] or

situation. It is sometimes known as a simple learning or desensitisation

process.

An example of habituation would be the action of prairie dogs which have lived

alongside humans for some time. They have become familiar with the scents of 

humans in their territory and no longer make alarm calls when a scent is found.

Imprinting

Imprinting is the tendency of young animals to follow the first moving object

they see. This is usually the mother. Imprinting usually occurs during a short,

but critical, period of a young animal’s life.

Classical conditioning

This type of learned behaviour occurs without rewarding or punishing. Many dogs

will run towards the door to begin their walk when their owner shakes their lead.

This is classical conditioning.

A Russian scientist called Ivan Pavlov completed a famous experiment into

classic conditioning. He observed that his dog produced lots of [Saliva:

Fluid secreted by glands in the mouth which moistens and softens food. It 

contains the enzyme amylase which digests starch, and a lubricant which makesfood slippery and easy to swallow.] when he showed it food. Every time he fed

his dog, he rang a bell for a short while afterwards. Eventually, just ringing the

bell alone was enough to make his dog salivate. It had been conditioned into

salivating when it heard the bell - and not just when it saw food.

Communication in animals and plants

Animals are able to communicate with each other in many different ways. Some

of the most important ones are given below.

Making sounds

There are many examples of this behaviour. Snakes hiss to warn off an

approaching threat. Rabbits and hares thump their feet on the ground to alert

each other when [predator: An animal that hunts, kills and eats other 

Bottlenose dolphin jumping through hoop

stimulus

saliva

 predators

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animals for food.] are nearby. And one or more meerkats will act as lookout

and make loud noises to warn the rest of their group of danger.

Whales and dolphins are capable of making sounds under water to communicate

with each other. Whale song can be heard over hundreds of kilometres.

Visual displays

A common example of a visual display that mammals exhibit is baring their

teeth. In dogs and cats this is clearly a warning display.

Another interesting example is seen in honey bees returning to their hive after

finding a nectar source. They complete a dance to show the other bees the

location of the nectar. It is known as the waggle dance.

Some animals are even capable of making facial expressions like humans.

Gorillas bare their teeth in a ‘grin-like’ gesture to reassure one another during

play. This is a type of [body language: The non-verbal way in

which a person communicates their physical and mental state through using

facial expressions, gesture and posture] .

Chemical communication

Many animals use chemicals to communicate. Dogs and cats mark out their

territories by urinating on the boundaries. Skunks produce an unpleasant

chemical smell to ward off predators.

[pheromone: A chemical that is released by an animal to

communicate with other members of the same species.] are scent chemicals

produced by some insects and some [vertebrate: Vertebrates are

animals that have a backbone. They include fish, mammals, reptiles, birds and 

amphibians.] . Female dogs produce pheromones from scent glands and in urine

to provide their newborn pups with a feeling of comfort. Some species -

including ants and bees - produce chemicals when attacked to warn others away

from their colony or hive. Ants also mark their paths with chemicals.

Language

Humans have evolved extremely complex ways in which we communicate

through language. There are over 5,000 different languages spoken around the

A Gray Wolf protecting a deer kill

body language

Pheromones

vertebrates

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world - including sign language, which uses hand patterns and facial gestures in

place of words. The most widely-spoken language is Mandarin Chinese.

Communication in plants

Plants also communicate with each other - and with other animals (particularly

insects).

some plants release chemicals to warn nearby plants of attack

others have brightly-coloured flowers or flowers with bold patterns to attract

insects for [pollination: The process by which plants reproduce,

as male gametes (pollen) are transferred (typically by insects or the wind) to

female gametes (ova) in the flowers of another plant of the same species. ]

other plants attract pollinating insects with enticing scents

Famous ethologists

An ethologist is a scientist who studies animal behaviour. There are four

famous ethologists you need to know about.

Jane Goodall (1934- ) is a British ethologist who has spent her life studying

chimpanzees in Africa. She famously observed that they have distinct

personalities and are capable of behaviour like hugging and tickling each other.

Perhaps her most famous observation was that they are capable of using tools.

Dian Fossey (1932-1985) was an American ethologist who studied mountain

gorillas in Africa. She lived very closely with them and they became

[habitat: The physical space in which a given species lives. ] to her.

Fossey famously became the first person to be recorded making peaceful contact

with a wild gorilla. A photograph (taken in 1969) shows a young male named

Peanuts touching her hand. She spent her later years working to prevent

[poaching: Illegal hunting or fishing.] .

Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989) was a German ethologist who won the Nobel

Jane Goodall, British primatologist

Rwanda, Dian Fossey's tombstone

 pollination

habituated 

 poaching

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Prize with Nickolaas Tinbergen (see below). He is most famously remembered for

his work on [imprinting: The process by which very young animals

come to recognise their parents.] . This is when young animals - often birds -

copy their parents. If newly-hatched chicks first see another animal they can

imprint on them instead of their own parents.

Nikolaas Tinbergen (1907-1988) was a Dutch ethologist who also won the

Nobel Prize. He studied gulls and showed that their chicks instinctively knew to

peck at red spots on their parents’ beaks to encourage them to[regurgitate: To bring up food that has previously been swallowed.

This is used by some animals to feed their young.] food.

Choice chambers

Choice chambers are small boxes that have areas with different conditions.

Animals, often woodlice, are put inside and their ‘choice’ for the different

conditions is recorded by counting the numbers in each area after a short period

of time.

Typical experiments involving woodlice have combinations of light, dark, dry and

damp areas. We would expect to see more woodlice in the dark and damp

sections of the choice chamber. This is most like the conditions they like in real

life - we tend to find woodlice under rocks and rotting wood.

Konrad Lorenz

Nikolaas Tinbergen, Dutch zoologist and ethologist

imprinting

regurgitate

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