Vocabulary Vocabulary ReviewReview

Ch 44- Animal Ch 44- Animal BehaviorBehavior

A person who specializes in the scientific study of animal behavior

Ethologist

An action that an individual carries out in response to

a stimulus or to the environment

Behavior

An inherited behavior that does not depend on the

environment or experience

Innate Behavior

An innate behavior that is

characteristic of certain species

Fixed action pattern

The development of behaviors

through experience or

practice

Learning

A type of learning in which an animal learns to ignore a

frequent, harmless stimulus

Habituation

A type of learning in which specific animal

behaviors are deterred or reinforced by

external actions upon the animal; usually

refers to a controlled experimental situation

Operant conditioning

A type of learning in which an animal learns to produce a specific

response to a predictive stimulus in

anticipation of receiving external

reinforcement

Classical conditioning

A type of problem solving that

requires the ability to solve a problem that has not been

encountered previously

Reasoning

Learning that occurs early and

quickly in a young animal’s life and that cannot be changed once

learned

Imprinting

In an animal’s development, the

specific phase during which

imprinting occurs

Sensitive period

A prediction of the ratio of the energy expended to the energy gained as an animal

searches for food; holds that animals tend to behave in a way that

maximizes food intake while minimizing efforts to

find food and avoiding dangerOptimality

hypothesis

Threatening behavior or

physical conflict between animals

Aggressive behavior

An area that is occupied by one

animal or a group of animals that do not

allow other members of the species to enter

Territory

In competitive animal groups, a

ranking of individuals from

most dominant to most subordinate

Dominance hierarchy

An animal behavior that functions to

attract mates

Courtship

A transfer of a signal or message from one animal to

another that results in some

type of response

Communication

In animals, bright coloration that

warns predators that a potential prey animal is

poisonous

Aposematic coloration

A defense in which one organism

resembles another that is dangerous

or poisonous

Mimicry

A substance that is released by the body

and that causes another individual of the same species to

react in a predictable way

Pheromone

The interaction between animals

of the same species that are

not related or are only distant

relativesSocial behavior

A biological daily cycle

Circadian rhythm

A period of inactivity and lowered body

temperature that some animals undergo in

winter as a protection against cold weather

and lack of food

Hibernation

In general, any movement of individuals or

populations from one location to another;

specifically, a periodic group movement that is characteristic of a given population or

speciesMigration