Kanze Ul Eman MSC, Animal Behaviour
Kanze Ul Eman MSC, Animal Behaviour
Kanze Ul Eman MSC, Animal Behaviour
ANIMAL BEHAVIOR
Animal physiology is the scientific study of the life supporting
properties functions and processes of animal or their parts. The
discipline covers key homeostatic processes, such as the
regulation of temperature, blood flow of hormones:
TOPICS
1st: Role of Hormones
2nd: Neurotransmitters
3rd: Animals Pheromones
4th: Activational & Developmental Behavior
By:
Semester: 1st
Hormones are chemical secreted by the endocrine gland, which are carried
by the blood to the respective organs to regulate certain physiological processes,
the organ on which the hormones, act are known as the target organ the target cell
have receptor on their surface that organize respective hormones.
Hormones in animal are secreted through two types of gland namely.
ENDOCRINE GLANDS:
These glands that do not have ducts and transport their secretion directly to the site
of action through the blood for e.g;
Adrenal glands, pituitary glands.
EXOCRINE GLANDS:
These gland have duct to pass their secretion. For e.g; sweat, liver.
• There are about 20 important hormones produced in animal that play a
major role in the different physiological processes occurring in body.
• Hormone in animals are messengers that help in regulating body function
such as temperature, hunger, growth.
CLASSIFICATION OF ANIMAL HORMONS
Here is the list of different hormones along with their function and glands.
Hormones are chemicals that are released into the blood by endocrine glands i.e.
Glands with no ducts. Hormones act on specific target organs that recognize them.
• The main endocrine glands in the body are the hypothalamus,
pituitary, pineal, thyroid, parathyroid and adrenal glands, the
pancreas, ovaries and testes.
• The hypothalamus is situated under the cerebrum of the brain. It
produces or controls many of the hormones released by the pituitary
gland lying adjacent to it.
• The pituitary gland is divided into two parts: the anterior pituitary and
the posterior pituitary.
• The anterior pituitary produces:
• Growth hormone that stimulates body growth
• Prolactin that initiates milk production
• Follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) that stimulates the development of
ova
• Luteinising hormone (LH) that stimulates the development of the
corpus luteum
• Plus several other hormones
• The posterior pituitary releases:
• Antidiuretic hormone (ADH) that regulates water loss and raises blood
pressure
• Oxytocin that stimulates milk “let down”.
• The pineal gland in the brain produces melatonin that influences
sexual development and breeding cycles.
• The thyroid gland located in the neck, produces thyroxine, which
influences the rate of growth and development of young animals.
Thyroxine consists of 60%iodine. Lack of iodine leads to goiter.
• The parathyroid glands situated adjacent to the thyroid glands in the
neck produce parathormone that regulates blood calcium levels and
the excretion of phosphates.
• The adrenal gland located adjacent to the kidneys is divided into the
outer cortex and the inner medulla.
• The adrenal cortex produces:
• Aldosterone that regulates the blood concentration of sodium and
potassium
• Cortisone and hydrocortisone that affect glucose, protein and fat
metabolism
• Male and female sex hormones
• The adrenal medulla produces adrenalin responsible for the flight,
fright, fight response that prepares animals for emergencies.
• The pancreas that lies in the first bend of the small intestine produces
insulin that regulates blood glucose levels.
• The ovaries are located in the lower abdomen produce 2 important
sex hormones:
• The follicle cells of the developing ova produce estrogens, which
controls the development of the mammary glands and prepares the
uterus for pregnancy.
• The corpus luteum that develops in the empty follicle after ovulation
produces progesterone. This hormone further prepares the uterus for
pregnancy and maintains the pregnancy.
• The testes produce testosterone that stimulates the development of
the male reproductive system and sexual characteristics.
Hormone–Behavior Interactions
What sort of evidence would be sufficient to establish that a particular
hormone affected a specific behavior or that a specific behavior changed hormone
concentrations? Experiments to test hypotheses about the effects of hormones on
behavior must be carefully designed, and, generally, three conditions must be
satisfied by the experimental results to establish a causal link between hormones
and behavior:
1) A hormonally dependent behavior should disappear when the source of the
hormone is removed or the actions of the hormone are blocked.
2) After the behavior stops, restoration of the missing hormonal source or its
hormone should reinstate the absent behavior.
3) Finally, hormone concentrations and the behavior in question should be
covariant, that is, the behavior should be observed only when hormone
concentrations are relatively high and never or rarely observed when
hormone concentrations are low
• Hormones control the function of all the organs. They affect the diverse
processes of growth and development reproduction and sexual
characteristics very small amount of hormones can induce very prominent
responses in the body, most of the hormone are derived from proteins.
o However too much or too less of something is always dangerous. When a
hormones produce too much or too little hormones it result in hormonal
imbalance.
NEUROTRANSMITTERS
Neurotransmitter is relatively small molecule which carry information across
synapses from a nerve cell to its neighboring cell are a critical part of internal
machinery controlling animal behavior. Generally speaking the neurotransmitter is
held in membrane bounded vesicle near the synapse.
2. The candidate molecule must be stored within the neuron from. Which it is
thought to be released.
Organization of nervous systems
Nervous systems can be simply described as aggregations or collections of
neurons which are arranged to work in a coordinated function. At the simplest
level, a nervous system need only be formed from one neuron which has a
sensory dendritic function and whose axon terminals synapse with some sort of
effector cell (e.g. muscle cells). This provides the animal with the capability to
respond to changes in either its internal or its external environment. What
follows is a brief description of the arrangement of nervous systems in the animal
kingdom.
The neurotransmitter is able to influence the electrical activity of neuron
associated with the sensory receptor.
For Example:
In vertebrate hearing, where sound waves cause the hair cell of the inner ear to
depolarize and release neurotransmitter into the auditory neuron. The effect of
this is to generate action potential in the auditory neuron:
ANIMAL PHEROMONES
Pheromones are molecules that have evolved as a signal between organisms of
the same species. The signal elicits a specific reaction for example, a stereotyped
behavior (releaser effect) and or development process (primer effect) from a
conspecific membrane of same species.
Most pheromone (including sex pheromones) are not single compound but
rather a species – specific combination of molecule in a precise ratio. This
combination is the pheromone (though sometimes called a multicomponent
pheromone.
• Karlson and Luscher (1959) predicate that most pheromones would act
via the conventional senses of olfaction or taste but that some
pheromones might be ingested and act directly on the brain or other
tissues. We would called these allohormone pheromones.
• However quantities of pheromone can differ between individuals or in the
same individual over time some male mouse pheromones, the farnesenes
are produced only by dominant male territory holders not subordinates.
In ant Dinoponera quadriceps, when an ant become the top (alpha)
female she starts to produce the standard chemical badge of a “top
female” in her species.
Some of our expectation of pheromones have been heavily influenced by
the well‐studied response of male moths to the sex attractant pheromone
of conspecific females. Similarly, male moth enormously enlarged
antennae covered with thousands of olfactory sensible that are tuned
specifically to the pheromone reflect selection for extreme sensitivity to
low concentration of female pheromone necessitated by the scramble
competition to be the first to reach the female.
Differences in response to pheromones
Different individuals may respond differently to the same pheromone stimulus.
While responses to pheromones are characterized by being innate, the
responses can vary according to context, time of day, and many other factors
including the receiver’s genetics, age, sex, hormonal state, dominance status,
and experience.
For example:
Honeybee responses to alarm pheromone may depend on how close to the nest
they are. Honeybee responses to the many other honeybee pheromones also
change with age, as do the tasks undertaken. Different, overlapping, subsets of
the molecules give different messages depending on the receiver (for example
young or older workers) and context. After mating, male Argotic epsilon moths
stop responding to female pheromone for up to 24 hours, the time needed to
replenish their accessory glands, though their antennae still detect the female’s
pheromone. Some changes in response to sex pheromone are mediated by
responses to signature mixtures: animals do not respond to otherwise attractive
sex pheromones if they remember they have mated with that individual,
recognized by signature mixture.
Releaser and primer effects of pheromones
Releaser effects (immediate behavioral responses to pheromones) and primer
effects (longer lasting physiological or developmental changes, sometimes
mediated by hormones). Releaser effects may be accompanied by longer lasting
primer effects: the principal component of honeybee alarm pheromone,
insolently acetate, elicits a quick defensive response from honeybees and also
induces gene expression in the antennal lobes, perhaps underlying the lasting
changes in behavioral response to the pheromone. Similarly, the suckling
response to rabbit mammary pheromone by a rabbit pup is accompanied by
learning of maternal odors, reflected in widespread immediate early gene
activation in the rabbit pup brain.
The male pheromones of mice, dehydro ‐ exobrevicomin and 2‐sec‐butyl‐4,5‐
dihydrothiazole appear to have the releaser effects of eliciting aggression from
other males and attracting females, as well as the developmental (primer) effects
of apparently inducing estrus in mature females and accelerating puberty in
young females. The honeybee queen’s mandibular pheromone attracts males
during her nuptial flight, a releaser effect, but when she is queen of her own nest,
the mandibular pheromone plus additional components have the releaser effect
of attracting her retinue of workers around her. The queen mandibular
pheromone also has a primer effect as a signal to the worker bees, her daughters,
that she is present and laying eggs (with the physiological effect that the workers
do not themselves lay eggs).
The multiple use of a pheromone within a species for different functions is
sometimes termed pheromone parsimony. The multiple effects of a pheromone
may act by different receptors or nerve circuits.
For example: the 1.9 Releaser and primer effects of pheromones 43 modes of
action of various primer and releaser effects of different components of the
honeybee queen mandibular pheromone on worker bees can be differentiated
experimentally. Primer effects can be mediated via chemosensory neurons such
as olfactory sensory neurons or by acting directly on tissues. Though the
physiologies of mammals and insects are very different, primer effects may work
in similar ways.
For example:
In mammals, dominance hierarchies are reflected in blood gonadal hormone
concentrations. In social insects juvenile hormone is often important in
pheromone‐mediated effects. While primer effects may act over days or longer,
some responses to endocrine‐mediated pheromone signals can be rapid.
For example: the odors of estrous female rats cause the release of hormones
into the blood in sex‐experienced male rats, which give them erections and elicit
sexual behaviors within minutes.
ACTIVATIONAL & DEVELOPMENTAL BEHAVIOR
Animal exhibits different behavior at their different ages more or less in orderly
sequence.
Development of a normal behavior pattern requires to genes that code for the
formation of structure and organs involved in the behavior.
For Example:
In some higher animals, normal locomotion movement will not occur without
proper development and growth of the limb. This process requires some
interaction with the animal’s environment because proper nourishment water
balance and other factor must be maintained at some stage for normal
development to occur properly.
The Organizational – Activational Hypothesis state that steroid hormone
permanently organize the nervous system during early development, which is
reflected in adult male or female typical behavior. In adulthood the same steroid
hormone activate, modulate and inhibit these behavior. This idea was
revolutionary when first published in 1959 because no other previous
experiment had demonstrated that adult behavior could be determine a
hormonally during early development.
Causes of Behavior
There are two major causes of behavior namely PROXIMATE AND ULTIMATE
CAUSES
Proximate causation ‐ immediate causes:
This explains how behavior works ‐ what stimulates behavior to occur. It could
be studied by measuring or describing the stimuli that elicit behavior. It involves
Internal ‐ physiological events (hormones, nervous system) and External ‐
environmental stimuli like changes in day length.
Ultimate causation ‐ historical explanations:
This explains why a behavior evolved. It is studied by measuring influence on
survival or reproduction Example ‐ bird migration ‐ birds that migrate have a
selective advantage over birds that don't/didn't, selected for over time, could be
due to long term climate changes, glaciation, disease, taking advantage of food
sources, etc. Behavioral scientists frequently ask, “Why do animals do what they
do?” more immediate ecological and physiological causes of behavior, such as
eating to satisfy hunger, are called proximate causes. Another level of causation
in behavior occurs on the evolutionary time scale and that is of ultimate causes.
For example, a display not only attracts a male, but also increases the likelihood
of passing genetic information to the next generation. Timing of behavior 177
circaannual ‐ behavior occurs on a seasonal/annual basis Examples ‐ hibernation
in bears, frogs, toads, salamanders bury themselves in mud during the winter
Circadian ‐ behavior occurs on a daily basis
Operant conditioning:
Reward/punishment for behavioral response, rats bar press for food
Observational learning ‐ social imitation
Insight Learning:
Chickadees/tits and opening milk bottles All examples of tool‐using Egyptian
Vulture ‐ uses rocks Cocos Finch ‐ uses splinters of wood North American Gulls,
Northwestern Crow ‐ smash clams on sandy beaches
Predatory Behavior
Active pursuit ‐ tarantula, scorpions, wasps, bats Cooperative hunting Wait and
hide ‐ web‐building spiders, trap‐door spider, many raptorial birds Fishing by
Angler Fish Other ‐ deception and camouflage Anti‐predatory Behavior Batesian
Mimicry Mullerian mimicry Camouflage, disruptive, cryptic coloration 189
Warning coloration Maintenance Behavior autopreening allopreening
Behavioral Ecology
Study of behavior in an ecological context, study ecological variables and
relationship to behavior Optimal foraging behavior ‐ do species forage in an
efficient manner that maximizes benefits and minimizes costs
1) Example:
Zach's study of Northwestern Crows dropping shellfish to break the hard outer
shell and make available the clam for food, experimenter dropped shells from
various height to find the optimal height necessary to break shells, observed
crows dropping shells and found their average height of 5.23 m was similar to
the experimenter's optimal height
2) Example:
Sunfish, provide predator with prey of different sizes and different densities, fish
respond by foraging optimally (taking the most energetically rich prey under the
appropriate conditions)