Nature versus Nurture

Nature Nurture
Behaviors are: Behaviors are:
• Innate • Learned
• Hard-wired • Flexible
• Instinctual • Not genetically
• Genetically determined determined
Behavior results from both genes and
environmental factors

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 Inherited behavior
• Includes two types:
1. Behavior of maintenance
– Constant behavioral patterns needed to maintain
animal life (self-maintenance) such as ingestion,
elimination, rest and sleep
2. Reproductive behavior
– Behavioral patterns occurring during
reproduction needed to maintain animal species
– Sexual behavior
– Maternal behavior
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Foraging = feeding
e.g. locate, obtain
& consume food

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Courtship

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Parental Care is ensuring survival of young
e.g. carrying, nursing, cuddling, holding
young

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 Communication behavior
– Grooming (bonding,
alliances,
keeping clean)
– Group hunt
( e.g. hyenas, lions)

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 Vocalizations
e.g. bark, growl, snort, howl, hoot,
chirp, whinny, alarm sound,
other language

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Resting = apparent inaction
e.g. lying down, sitting, basking,
sleeping, loafing

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Play
Purpose = training for life
(defense, hunting,
etc)

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 Acquired Behaviors
• Domestic animals have ability to learn
• They adopt new useful methods for survival
within their environment
• Animals acquire many behavioral patterns
through learning
• Learning
– Development of behavior through experience
– Determine final shape of innate behaviors
– There are 7 types of learning

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 Types of learning
Habituation
• Is waning of a new response to a repeated stimulus
• Simplest form of learning
• Occur rapidly if stimuli are given close together
 Importance of habituation
– Filtering large amounts of information received from
surrounding environment
– Waning of the responses of farm animals to handling
procedures and housing conditions
• Animal learns to ignore frequent, harmless stimulus
E.g scarecrow, habituation to observer
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 Associative learning
• Animal learns to associate unrelated response with a
stimulus
• Two types of associative learning:
 Classical conditioning (Pavlovian conditioning)
• In which animal associate a response with a certain
stimulus as a result of reinforcement
• E.g. Pavlov’s experiments
– Bell ringing, food salivation
– Bell ringing salivation (even if no food is
given)

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Pavlov’s experiment

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How dog training works

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• Classical conditioning
– E.g. 1. suckling by calf, squeezing of teat
release of oxytocine
– 2. Jangling of milking equipments, sight of calf
release of oxytocine

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 Reinforcement
• In conditioning animals modify their behavior in
such way to obtain maximum reward and avoid
punishment
• Positive reinforcement…. Giving animal favorite
food
• Negative
• reinforcement…. Punishment

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• Positive reinforcement
–Used for strengthens a response
–Giving animals favored food
e.g. grains
• Negative reinforcement
–Used for removing unwanted
response
–Punishment such as hitting
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 Operant conditioning (trail and error)
• In which animal learn to behave in a certain
way through repeated practice
• Trail and error learning- animal tests
conditions for desired response
• In which animal is motivated by thirst, hunger,
fear but no UCS
• E.g. Skinner box (B.F. Skinner)
• Animal learns that a behavior gets a certain
response. E.g. rat presses lever to get food

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 Operant conditioning…..
• Because the animal uses behavior as
instrument in getting a reward, it is
usually called instrumental
conditioning
• Operant used because the animal
response in some way operates on the
environment
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 Imprinting
• A process that occurs when an animal
learns to make a particular response to
only type of animal or object
• Both innate and learned
• Occurs during a definite critical time
period (within first 36 hr)
• Irreversible (once learned, can’t be
changed)
• Conard Lorenz with duckling
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 Imprinting…
• Animals learn to follow their mothers just after
parturition or hatching (attachment behavior)
• Lambs and colts are most ones can be
imprinted to other animal, human, objects

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 Insight learning (Reasoning)
• Highest form of learning
• The immediate understanding, and response to
new situation without trail and error
• Was identified by Wolfgang kohler while
studying the behavior of chimpanzee
• Insight learning is the abrupt realization of a
problem's solution
• insight learning is often at the root of creative, out
of the box, thinking (Inventions and innovations)

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 Kohler hung a
piece of fruit
just out of the
reach

The second Provided the

scenario
chimps with
stacking the boxes
on top of each
either two sticks
other or three boxes

The first scenario Chimp. had a

placing the
smaller stick into
seat, and
the longer stick start thinking 

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 Imitation (observational learning)
• Animal learns by observing another animal
• Albert Bandura, a Canadian-born
psychologist, gets credit for developing and
popularizing observational learning theory
• observational learning can be understood
via four distinct concepts:
• attention, retention, motor reproduction,
and reinforcement

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 ADAPTATION

BEHAVIORAL PHYSICAL

ENVIRONMENT GNETICS STRUCTURAL

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There are three major types of environment. What are they?

marine

land freshwater

How do organisms survive in such different environments?

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 E.g. shark’s general adaptations

streamlined shape to reduce

friction when moving through
water

gills have a large surface

area so that oxygen can be
extracted from the
surrounding water
fins provide stability,
power and control

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specialized sense organs can detect the sound,
movement and electrical fields of other organisms highly sensitive sense of smell
that can detect drops of blood
from miles away

lots of very sharp teeth that

are constantly replaced

silver colouring underneath

acts as camouflage

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 Camel
• Has long legs to keep
body away from hot sand
• Can store fat in hump.
• Can go for long periods
without water.
• Can close nostrils to
keep out sand.
• Has long eyelashes to
keep out sand.
• Many blood vessels just
under the skin to cool the
blood.

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 Polar Bear
• Has white fur for
camouflage.
• Each hair is hollow for
extra insulation.
• Has sharp teeth and
claws to catch and eat
prey.
• Has ridged foot pads
to prevent slipping.

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 Penguin
• Has thick layer of fat
to keep warm.
• Produces oil to keep
feathers waterproof.
• Stream lined body for
swimming.

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 Golden Eagle
• Large wing span for
gliding.
• Sharp talons for catching
and holding prey.
• Hooked beak for tearing
meat
• Large eyes for spotting
prey from great
distances

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 Ostrich
• Long legs to run fast.
• Large eyes to see long
distances.
• Long feathers to
provide more shade to
eggs and to keep body
warm at night.

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 The importance of adaptation
Why is it important that organisms are adapted to their environment?

The better adapted an organism

is to its habitat, the more
successful it will be when
competing for resources such as
food and mates.
This increases the organism’s
chance of survival and so
increases its chance of
reproducing and passing on its
genes.

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