Responses

Innate and Learned

Stimuli

Taxis and Kinesis

Navigation

Environmental Cues

Biological Clocks

Controlling Rhythm

Actograms

Human Biorhythms

ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR US 8933 Relate aspects of

animal behaviour to

environmental factors

AND

AS 90716 Describe animal

Behaviour and Plant

Responses to Environmental

factors

Human Responses• Humans have 5 senses. They are:

• Sight• Hearing• Touch• Taste• Smell (olfaction)

Do all species in the animal Kingdom share the same senses

STIMULI

Light (photo)

Chemical (chemo)

Temperature (thermo)

Touch (thigmo)

Sound (audio)

Gravity (geo/gravi)

Animals may respond to the following things…

What was our little ‘gator responding to?Touch!

RESPONSESAnimals exhibit behaviours, which are a response to a stimulus.

Stimulus

Receptor

CNSCentral Nervous system

Effector

Response

Nerve (electrical) impulse

BANG!

Neck muscles

Nerve (electrical) impulse

INNATE AND LEARNEDResponses may be INNATE (genetic) or LEARNED.

INNATE LEARNED

responses include:- Taxis (directional) - Kinesis (non-directional) - Reflex reactions (short-

circuits the brain)

Click to view ‘gator responses

responses include:- Conditioning (Pavlov's dogs)

- Habit (response wanes with no effect)

- Operant (youtube – OC using my cat)

- Imprinting (animal behaviour.net)

TAXIS AND KINESIS

TAXIS

• Positive or Negative – towards or away- (e.g. “negative phototaxis”)

• Animals must be able to detect the direction!

KINESIS

• Non-directional.

• Random movement where activity depends on intensity of stimulus.

• If it involves speed = orthokinesis

• If it involves turning = klinokinesis

These are both types of movement that are an innate and stereotyped (always the same) response.

Lab Manual pg 173/4

NAVIGATIONMigration

A periodic movement that may involve going to an unfamiliar area, or movement of over 10,000km. It may even take multiple generations.

Uses environmental cues such as magnetism, sun compass, wave direction, etc.

Homing

Returning to a home base. Often uses visual cues.

The stimuli are environmental cues (day length etc) and the response is a rather impressive movement. This may be over 10,000 km, unfamiliar territory, and may take several generations.

 Lab Manual pg 182-4, 180, 176-7…

ENVIRONMENTAL CUESAnimals respond to many numbers of environmental cues.

These include astronomically caused cycles, such as...

• The earth orbiting the sun (seasons) “circannual”, e.g. - hibernation (inactive through winter) and

- aestivation (inactive through summer)

• The Moon orbiting the Earth (phases of the moon) “circalunar”

• The Earth spinning on its axis (day/night) “circadian”, e.g.

- diurnal (active during the day)

- nocturnal (active during the night), and

- crepuscular (active at dusk and dawn).

The Earth spinning on its axis also causes the tides “circatidal”

Lab Manual pg 188/189

BIOLOGICAL CLOCKSRegular behaviour patterns need to be reset.

Exogenous rhythms are controlled by external stimuli

Endogenous rhythms are controlled by an internal mechanisms

Most behaviours are controlled by a combination of both.

A zeitgeber (“time giver” – such as sunrise or high tide) is used to reset the biological clock.

This is known as entrainment.

How can we test if it is endogenous or exogenous? 

Remove external stimuli and see what happens…

•Endogenous rhythms will continue to operate at pretty much the same time.

•Exogenous rhythms will appear quite random.

CONTROLLING RHYTHMSSo... how does it work?

Your pacemaker (timekeeper) lies in the hypothalamus in your brain.

Light entrains the hypothalamus which signals the pineal gland to release melatonin at night - makes us drowsy.

There is less light in the winter, therefore more melatonin is released... may cause S.A.D. in humans!

Lab Manual pg 190

ACTOGRAMS

A phase shift is where an animal is shifted to another time zone. 

Lab Manual pg 193/4/5

An actogram shows activity through the day.Note: the data is plotted twice to make the patterns more obvious.

Is this endogenous or exogenous?

Endogenous! It continues even without stimuli.

What is it’s free running period?

= about 23hr 35min

HUMAN BIORHYTHMSHumans display a number of Biological rhythms:

• Our sleep/wake cycle (24hrs 11minutes ± 16 minutes) - tested using students (tee hee) who were confined to permanent lighting conditions.

• We process alcohol better depending on the time of day (really bad in the early hours of the morning).

• The hypothalamus controls production of many hormones, as in urinary, cardiovascular and immune systems.

• Learning ability goes like this:  

Lab Manual pg 191/2