Animal Behaviour

I 5 considered. proper iii . scientific writings. This is also not a scientifically consistent line of enquiry, we can not say that an animal fights be~use it is angry or that it escapes because it is afraid, but the same thitig can be described as : animal attacks to express its aggression and it retreats accepting its failure to face the aggressor. Earlier workers. like Edmund Brehm (1712) in his book titled Brehms Tierleben (Brehm's Animal Life) explained animal behaviour using anthropomorphic terms like clever, mean, sly, gentle and proud. Though anthropomorphic terms make the presentation interesting, yet their use is not recommended. Due to inquisitive human mind, dedication, and elaborate research it has become possible to defme several areas of ethology. Today ethology has many specialized branches and there is much overlap with other areas of biology such as ecology, physiology, and genetics. ## Branches of Ethology ECOETHOLOGY is a comparatively new branch of ethology in which the relationships between the. behaviour of a species and other living and non-living components of environment are investigated. Ecoethology can proceed in one of two ways; it can emphasize or focus either on a group of species or on a particular habitat. In focussing on the habitat, one would be interested in the parallel behavioural adaptations that are found in certain habitats, for example, deserts or tropical rain forests. This is of interest even in species that are not closely related, with an interest in how the various species, differ frQIn one another and how such differences can be considered adaptations to various habitats, i.e., what is the ''biological'' significance of a behaviour or study of similar adaptations by animals of different species living in the same habitat. Especially interesting results can be expected when within a related group of species there is one that lives in an entirely different habitat and whose behaviour deviates substantially from the behaviour typical for the group or study of difference in behaviour within a single species found in different habitats. BEHAVIOURAL PHYSIOLOGY OR ETHOPHYSIOLOGY deals with the physiological basis of behaviour. Two of its main branches 1U'e concerned with the two large COI!.trol systems of an organism that are 'also imporant in the area of behaviour. NEUROETHOLOGY deals with the sensory process and the central nervous system that underlie a particular behaviour. ETHOENDOCRINOLOGY deals with the relations between hormones and behaviour. Behaviour Genetics is called ETHOGENETICS, and it investigates the genetic basis of behaviour, using simple concepts of single or multiple gene inheritence. Its goal is to prove empirically the relationship between genetic factors and their influence on behaviour. Two areas of ethology deal with the change of behaviour over time. The PHYLOGENY OF BEHAVIOUR traces the evolutionary origin and ## Introduction to the Study of Animal Behaviour book "Ethology of Anatidae", his fmdings and dedication fascinated many of his colleagues and students. One of his most devoted students was Konrad Lorenz. Ethology reached its peak of popularity in the works of three great workers Konrad Lorenz, an animal psychologist in Vienna, Niko Tinbergen, a Zoologist in Holland and Karl Von Frisch from Germany. These three shared a nobel prize in 1972-73 for their remarkable contribution in the field of Animal Behaviour. They also got the credit of introducing an absolutely new branch of science to Zoology and making it popular amopg common people. -Konrad Lorenz ; Fig. 1) is regarded as the founder father of ethology, he was a Lecturer in Animal Psychology at the University of Vienna, Austria. He got initial inspiration from his teacher Oskar Heinroth, his close interaction with this great teacher proved to be extremely useful in building up firm basis for future studies. Lorenz used to live in a farm house, where he had many pets (his wife had to keep their son into the cage! ). He observed shrews, frogs, monkeys, dogs, jackdaws and mainly greylag geese on which he carried out extensive studies and developed a theory of Fig. 1. Konrad Lorenz. ## Concepts of Ethology The study of animal behaviour is still in its infancy, nevertheless, considerable research has been done in laboratory and in wild, from which certain basic concepts have emerged. When you read ethology, you will come across new terms, ideas and concepts. It is very essential for a student of ethology t!' get acquainted with these terms before proceeding further. Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen formulated a number of concepts on which the study of animal behaviour has been based. ## Concept of Motivation A hypothetical state of the individual organism that arouses a goal directed activity is motivation. Mood (as called by Oskar Heinroth), drive, urge or readiness of an animal to perform a certain behaviour, is motivation. Each instinctive behaviour has a certain motivational level at all times. This value declines when the act is performed, then rises again. At different times the animals respond in different ways to the same stimulus, for example: a hungry dog would get up, sniff here and there, look around for food, at this time motivational level or the urge for eating food is at the highest level. When it fmdsgoal i.e. food it starts eating and after eating a full meal, the motivational level goes down to its minimum level. This dog will not eat for next few hours. By this time, the motivational level rises gradually and once again after a lapse of few-hours~ when the level rises to its maximum, the dog would start looking for the goal i.e. food once again and all these steps would be repeated (FIg. 1). Thus, dog would respond to food differently when he is hungry or full. This is true not just with food, but almost all instinctive behaviours (determined by genes) are regulated by motivation. There seems to be an urge or internal drive to elicit a particular behaviour at particular time. Motivation to perform a particular behaviour is deduced from the strength and frequency of the behaviour itself, which is called motivational analysis. The majority of behaviour patterns can be assigned to four larger [ 37 success for the sake of its kins or relatives who share some proportion of its genes. In other words, the same genes must be passed on or propagated, either through individual or through a kin. The help is not rendered to related anima)s alone. In the troops of the African olive baboon, quite unrelated males may get together to help each other when predators attack. Baboon males are big in size and often when they get together they may kill a leopard. This kind of cooperation held at the time of need is like "you scratch my back and I will scratch yours". Or "you help me this time and I will help you whenever you need me", therefore, safe guarding their own genes. Organisms without any social tendencies are very rare. We know of few animals that avoid all contact with others of their species, yet they have to come together in order to breed. Oyster bank, swarm of grasshopper, schools of herrings, flocks of starlings, the brood colonies of gulls, pack of wolves, herds of antelopes, pride of lion, and group of monkeys are few examples of social tendencies. The non-social behaviours may have just provided roots for the growth of higher social life. Questions 1. Mention concepts of ethology and describe any four giving suitable examples. 2. Derive correlation between motivation, fIXed action pattern, sign stimulus, innate releasing mechanism and action specific energy. 3. Explain the difference between innate and learned behaviour and write about imprinting. 4. Write notes on : (i) Flush toilet model, (ii) Concept of behavioural genetics, (iii) Stereotype-species specific actions, (iv) Konrad Lorenz.