BIOL 1102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 28: Fixed Action Pattern, Anisogamy, The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Document Summary
6:45 pm: behavior: what an animal does and how it does it, many behaviors are influenced by both genetic and environmental factors: nature and nurture. Behavior influences an organism"s survival and reproduction; therefore, behavior can and should be shaped by natural selection. We expect animals to behave in ways that maximize their survival and reproduction (fitness) Instinctive behaviors that are developmentally fixed and not modified by environmental factors. These are usually behaviors for which there are no opportunities for learning. An example is cliff-edge avoidance in kittiwake gulls. Another example is baby monkeys holding onto their mother"s fur: fixed action pattern (fap, a sequence of innate behaviors that is unchangeable and, once initiated, is carried to completion. An example is the egg rolling behavior in geese. Once they start, they cannot stop the behavior: super-normal stimulus, when organisms prefer an excessive stimulus to the normal stimulus.
