EcD4: Animal Behavior and Ethograms

An ethogram is a study of a particular animal and their unique patterns of behavior. Check out this webpage for more information on how and why an ecologist might create an ethogram. Check out this video on animal behavior. Match the vocabulary from the video Innate Behavior Instinctual behavior that is genetically pre-programmed for survival Fixed Action Pattern A series of actions that is always continued to completion after a stimuli Imprinting An innate behavior that occurs during a critical period -such as following a mother figure Associative Learning Association of stimuli with an effect... like Pavlovs dogs. Operant Conditioning Trial and Error learning Habituation Learning to ignore a repeated stimuli Observational Learning Watching and mimicking another organism Insight Higher level problem solving / "thinking outside the box" Let's put it into context Match the example with its type of learning Innate Behavior A baby instinctively grabbing onto an object Imprinting A rat that only sees one person and now follows it thinking it's their mother Associative Learning Learning to do something more often based off earning praise Operant Conditioning Learning where to jump in a video game so your character survives. Habituation Ignoring when someone is yelling at you to clean your room Observational Learning Orcas in aquariums sometimes teach each other to spit out their food and eat the seagulls that come for it. Be the Ethologist For this assignment you will get to engage in ethology, the study of natural animal behavior. Ethologists spend time making field observations. The result of these observations is a catalog of behaviors and activities exhibited by an animal, also known as an ethogram. For this project, you will conduct independent ethological research observing the behavior of an animal species of your choice (e.g., a family pet) at least two or three times and then construct a basic ethogram. This will allow you to design a mini ecological research project to apply basic data collection and observational skills, and develop an understanding of the potential role your chosen species plays in their ecosystem. Through this research experience, you will be able to scaffold your understanding of these ecological concepts while putting yourself in the shoes of an ecologist.If you don't have a pet or animal you can watch please tell your teacher to get options that will work for you. Introduction to your species: Choose an organism What kind of creature did you pick? What is its common and scientific name? What does it look like like...etc. Behavioral Descriptors Type of behavior- look at the ethogram link at the top for ideas - see example below Description of behavior - just describe what your critter is doing - see example below Type of behavior - use the lists above from the video - see example below Example: Social Example: Cat gently and persistently bites owners fingertips in the morning when the alarm goes off Example: Trial and Error because Cat has learned that human will get out of bed and feed her if annoyed properly.