ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR (ABG 503) 2 Units

Martha N. Bemji
Department of Animal Breeding & Genetics
University of Agriculture
Abeokuta
Course requirements:
CAT: 30%
Exam: 70%
Class attendance compulsory
*Contact Lecturer ahead of time if any cogent reason will keep you
away from lectures.
*Present medical reports if absence from lectures/CAT was due to ill
health.
Aims of the course
 To understand the general concepts that govern the manner in
which animals behave throughout their lives i.e. maximizing 'fitness'
through essentially selfish actions.

 To appreciate the range of mechanisms by which animals adapt to

their environmental conditions using behavioural actions.

 To achieve competence in the skills required to conduct scientifically

meaningful studies of animal behaviour.
Introduction
 Behaviour can be defined as an expressed course of action produced in
organisms in response to stimulus from a given situation. It could simply
be considered as what the animal does.

 The fundamental explanation of behavioural activity must begin with a

stimulus and end with a response.

 Stimulus: Any change in the biotic and abiotic environments capable of

causing a reaction or response in a living organism.

 E.g. temperature, pressure, radiation, gravity etc.

 Or activities of other organisms within the immediate environment.

 Ethology: Scientific study of animal behaviour. It explains responses observed in
the field in terms of stimuli eliciting the behaviour. Ethologists have so far tried to
answer questions about animal behaviour from four major areas:

 The evolutionary history:

- How did various forms of behaviour evolved?
-Innate/instinctive/genetic or learned?)
- How does the behaviour compare with similar behaviour in related species?

 Development:
- How does behaviour change with age?
- What early experiences are necessary for behaviour to be expressed?
- e.g. How does courtship behaviour develop?
- Does the male in domestic fowl learn the waltz dance?
- Does he practice dancing?
- Is he successful in directing the female?

 Causation:
-What are the stimuli that elicit the response?
-How has it been modified by recent learning?

4. Function:
 How does the behaviour affect the animal’s chances of survival and
reproduction?
Components (types) of Behaviour
Behaviour

Nature/innate Nurture/learned
Genes determine Experience and learning

behaviour determine behaviour

Inherited (innate) behaviour Learned behaviour

1. Set at birth Acquired after animal is born
2. Species characteristic behaviour Individual characteristic behaviour
3. Largely influenced by genes (inborn) Largely influenced by environment
4. Inflexible (stereotype patterns of behaviour) Flexible
Types of learned behaviours
 1. Imprinting

 2. Non-associative learning - Habituation

 - Sensitization

 3. Associative learning - Classical conditioning

 - Operant conditioning

 Reinforcement (Positive/negative)

 Punishment (Positive/negative)

 Shaping

 Extinction

 4. Latent or exploratory learning

 5. Insight learning
Imprinting
•Imprinting is said to occur when innate behaviours are released in
response to a learned stimulus.

Adaptive significance:
•Enables offspring to rapidly acquire skills possessed by their
parents such as learning to fly in birds, song learning.

•Promotes survival of newborn and shapes future breeding

activities.
 Characteristics of imprinting
 Occurs during critical sensitive period.

 Imprinting is irreversible because the imprinted knowledge is retained for

life.

 It establishes an individual animal’s preference for a certain species since

individuals will prefer to follow a learned stimulus rather than a member of
their own species.

 Some behaviours are affected by imprinting more than others. E.g. It may
have effects upon the animal’s future choice of a sexual partner.

 Stressful stimuli fortify imprinting.

Non-associative learning
1. Habituation
 Occurs when repeated presentations of a stimulus causes a decrease in response .

 The stimulus is not associated with reward or punishment (reinforcement).

 E.g. birds learn to ignore scare crow. The animal learns not to respond to irrelevant
stimuli such as movements due to wind, cloud, shadows, wave action etc.

Significance:
 Helps animals to recognize important cues or signals and adapt to constantly
changing environment.

2. Sensitization
 It is the opposite of habituation in that repeated presentations of the stimulus cause
an increase in response.

 The stimulus has to be unpleasant or aversive.

 In farm animals, increased responsiveness follows a reward or punishment (or

'reinforcement') mainly associated with predator, food and mates.
 Associative learning
1. Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning

Classical conditioning is the acquisition of a response to a new

stimulus by association with an old stimulus.

2. Operant conditioning (trial-and-error learning):

An operant response is a voluntary activity that brings about a

reward.

Classical conditioning Operant conditioning

1. Acquisition of a response to a new stimulus by It is a voluntary activity that brings about a
association with an old stimulus. reward.
2. Enables animal to associate events over which it Enables animal to associate events over which
has no control. is has control.
3. Animal gains prediction over events. Increases animal’s ability to control
environment.
4. Rewards are associated with stimuli. Rewards are associated with responses.
Operant conditioning (trial-and-error learning) Cont…
 Reinforcement (positive/negative) and punishment (positive/negative)
 Operant conditioning allows one to use reinforcers or punishers that positively or
negatively influence the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated.

 Reward strengthens the correct response.

 With selection of appropriate reward, animals could be trained to do remarkable

things if reinforced at the right time.

 E.g. By waiting for accidental movement of eye lids, pigeons were taught to blink to
receive food reward.

 The speed and strength of learning increases with size and attractiveness of the
reinforcer.

 Negative in the context of animal training refers to removal of something in the

animal’s world.

 Positive reinforcement refers to addition.

 When trainers reinforce a behaviour with the removal of something unpleasant, they
make the behaviour more likely to occur in the future.

 That is, the response has been negatively reinforced. An animal must know that a
stimulus is aversive for its removal to be reinforcing.
 Reinforcement (positive/negative) and punishment (positive/negative)

Reinforcement, whether positive or negative make response more

likely in the future.

Punishment, whether positive or negative make response less likely in

the future.

Response is more likely in future Response is less likely in future

Positive reinforcement Positive punishment
e.g. Tit bit reinforces begging at table e.g. Appling tension on the lead
by dogs. increases choking and neck pain.
Negative reinforcement Negative punishment
e.g. Easing tension on the lead reduces e.g. Complete removal of food
choking and neck pain in horses. extinguishes begging at table.
 Animal training
 Refers to development of desirable responses and deletion of unwanted
responses.

 It reflects the principle of learning theory.

 Studying animal responses allows one to improve the timing of cues and
rewards.

 Top trainers know when and how to reward their subjects.

 - Frequent rewards prevent development of improved responses.

- Stinginess causes animals to loose interest and motivation.
- Removing reward brings about extinction of unwanted responses.

*Assignment/term paper: Write on

“Reinforcement schedules in animal training”.

 Shaping
 Technique of reinforcing successive approximations to the final response .

 The concept is applicable in animal training.

 Could reinforce a desired response which has never occurred to one where
it is occurring and increasing in reliability.

 Requires patience to monopolize each tiny improvement as the only way to

moving towards the final response.

 Behaviour should be rewarded as soon as it happens.

 E.g. Send away exercise in dog training

Extinction

 It results when learnt response occurs but no longer followed by

reinforcement.

 Behaviours will drop out (extinct) when an animal no longer receives a

reward for a correct response.
Latent or exploratory learning

 Animals explore new surroundings and learn information which may

be useful at a later stage (hence latent).

Insight learning

 Highest form of learning (does not result from immediate trial-and-

error learning).

 Based on advanced perceptual abilities such as thought and

reasoning from information previously learned.

 Previous experience of playing with boxes (latent learning) helped a

Chimpazee to stack boxes and reach out to bananas at the ceiling
(Kohlar’s work on chimpanzees).

 This response appeared to follow a period of ‘apparent thought’.

 References

 Blackshaw, J.K. and Allan, D.J. 1986. Animal Behaviour. Third Edition.
http://animalbehaviour.net/AppliedAnimalBehviourTopics.htm

 Taylor, D.J., Green, N.P.O. and Stout, G.W. 1998. Biological Science.
Third Edition. Cambridge University Press. pp 984.
Innate behaviour
 Involves a collection of responses that are predetermined by the inheritance.

 As a result of these ‘built-in’ pathways a given stimulus will produce

invariably, the same response.

 Primary adaptive significance lies in their survival value to the species.

 Include orientations (taxes and kinesis), simple reflexes and instincts.

 Instincts - complex, inborn, stereotyped behaviour patterns produced in

response to sudden changes in the environment.

 Include biological rhythms, territorial behaviour, courtship, mating,

aggression, altruism, social hierarchies and social organization.

 Can be considered as ‘unlearned species-specific motor patterns’ or species-

characteristic behaviour.

 Instinctive behaviour patterns are not completely inflexible due to constant

influence of varying environmental factors acting on the genetic framework.

 Hence, some behavioural patterns may not be purely instinctive (genetic) or

purely learned (environmental), but influenced by a combination of the two.
Motivation
 Encompasses a variety of factors that modify the extent and nature of any
behavioural response.

 At any given moment in time, an animal usually has a range of behaviours

which it could exhibit.

 What is it that determines which behaviour an animal decides to conduct?

 No animal exists in isolation from its external environment which may

change, E.g. food may appear or disappear, a predator may attack, the
temperature could fall, or offspring may start begging for food.

 The same stimulus does not always evoke the same response in the same
organism.

 The signals used to bring about a change in behaviour are known as sign
stimuli.

 Depending on their origin or function, they are classified as motivational,

releasing or terminating stimuli.
 Motivation and welfare
 Welfare is a measure of how well an animal copes with its environment.

 Can also be considered as absence of suffering. Welfare is poor if animal

fails to cope or its coping efforts have detrimental effects on the
productivity.

 How can an understanding of motivational systems be important

to our understanding of animal welfare?

 Can give insights into causes of behaviours that are potential welfare
problems.

 Many housing systems for husbandry restrict space, foraging ability and
prevent natural behaviours, leading to development of abnormal
behaviours.

 Some abnormal behaviours are indicative of reduced welfare in that they

act as a ‘coping mechanism’ to allow the animal deal with a stressful
environment.

 Animals may be strongly motivated to conduct a behaviour, but unable to

do so. Or, animals may be able to perform a behaviour, but be prevented
from reaching the functional consequences of that behaviour.
Motivation and welfare cont…
 Two models give different predictions from a welfare perspective:

 Lorenz’s model states that it is the performance of the behaviour itself that is
important.

 Homeostatic model suggests that the goal of the behaviour is important.

 By understanding the motivational system, we can alter our husbandry

systems so that the behaviour itself can be conducted, or so that the goal
can be reached.

 Summary:
 Study of motivation looks at how internal and external causal factors
interact to produce behaviour.

 Motivation must be considered as we do not know the exact mechanisms

as to why a behaviour occurs.

 Animal welfare and hence productivity is likely to be compromised when

highly motivated behaviours cannot be expressed, or when a functional
goal is not achieved.

 An understanding of motivation allows us to make predictions about

when welfare will be compromised.
Innate behaviour patterns or types
 1. Agonistic behaviour

 Group of behavioural adjustments associated with fighting, which includes attack,

escape, threat, defense and appeasement.

 Continuum of behaviours from threat to aggression to submission.

 Threat - species-specific vocalizations, odours, postures, facial or body movements

that signal the intent to display aggression.

 In stable social systems, threat causes immediate signs of avoidance or submission.

 Submission - species-specific behaviours, vocalizations, postures and odours that

signal non-aggresiveness and reduce further attack by the aggressive individual.

 Submissive behaviour may be objectively measured because they always follow either
an aggressive behaviour or a threat, and because each species has specific
submissive postures.

 Aggression - species-specific behaviours associated with attacks with the objective

of causing physical injury.

 Usually directed towards members of the same sex and species.

 Various functions include: displacement of other animals from an area (territory or

source of food), defense of a mate/offspring and the establishment of rank in a social
hierarchy.
 Classification of aggressive behaviours

Behavioural category Definition/Example

Inter-specific aggression:
1. Maternal defense Mother defends young against potential predators. E.g. Ewe
with lamb attacks dog.
2. Defense of territory Animal attacks intruder. E.g. grazing bull attacks man.
3. Predation Animal attacks, kills and eats other animals. E.g. Lion catches
and eats zebra.
Intra-specific aggression:
4. Aggression after Previous unfamiliar animals are bought together, they fight
grouping and a social structure or hierarchy results. E.g. pigs.
5. Inter-male fighting Adult males generally fight to win mates or territory. Eg.
Rams or goats fight during breeding season.
6. Resource defense Aggression increases with limited resources in cattle, etc.

7. Inter-gender fighting Males attempt to mount non-oestrus females, aggressive

behaviour results. E.g. Non oestrus sows attack boar who
attempts to mount.
8. Aberrant aggression Wool biting in sheep, ear and tail chewing in pigs,
cannibalism or killing of young.
Ethogram of agonistic behaviours
 Ethogram - complete catalogue of all behaviour patterns and vocalization
occurring in a species.

1. Sheep

 Aggressive behaviour (fighting) include: shoving with shoulders, running

together and butting. Play butting occurs in young lambs and more
damaging aggression in ewes and rams. Most fighting is during breeding
season.

 Threat postures include: striking the ground, tooth grinding, lateral body
presentation, sniffing, mounting and chasing.

 Aberrant aggression: Some ewes show aberrant aggression towards their

lambs or alien lambs. Wool picking with teeth is common in confined
sheep.

2. Goat
 Contact agonistic behaviour include: Pushing the forehead against another
goat; Butting and rear clash.

 Non-contact agonistic behaviour include: Staring; A horn threat with chin

down and horns forward; Rush or rear as a challenge threat.
Ethogram of agonistic behaviours cont…

3. Cattle

 Pre-fight behaviours: Active or passive avoidance leads

to fight.

 Threat: Close contact, head lowered, ready to fight and

butting or active fighting. Butting could be regarded as
a non-retaliated blow with the head, while fighting
involves reciprocal butts, circling and pushing.

 Submissive behaviour: The end of the fight begins with

one animal showing submissive behaviour.

 Aberrant agonistic behaviour: Include naval sucking,

fence and pen chewing (aggression towards inanimate
objects) and ear sucking. These behaviours may be a
sign of nutrient deficiency. Other abnormal behaviours
include: mis-mothering.
Ethogram of agonistic behaviours cont…
4. Swine
 Threat: Head tilt and retreat or avoidance to chase and nose to nose contact.
 Aggressive: Bites and pushes - Head-thrusts in combination with bites and
shoulder pushes represent the phase of interaction that seems most intense.

 Submissive behaviour: Subordinate pig turns its body and either runs away or
remains stationary and presents its rump. Submission may be signaled by
lowering of the head.

 Abnormal or aberrant agonistic behaviours: Tail/ear biting and cannibalism.

 *High concentration of atmospheric ammonia, dietary factors, floor type and

lack of bedding may aggravate tail biting and ear chewing in pigs. Other
abnormal behaviours include: abnormal mating behaviour, abnormal maternal
behaviour, eating disorders, abnormal dunging etc.

5. Chickens
 Threat: Chickens show threats associated with fighting, leaping and wing-
flapping. The major aggressive act is pecking.

 Submissive behaviours are described as retreat.

 Aberrant behaviour can be found among confined chickens. Cannibalism could

be influenced by diet and management procedures.
 Management of aggression
 Besides farm machinery, animals are considered to be the 2nd leading cause of
injury in some livestock farms.

 With understanding of behaviour patterns of cattle, sheep, pigs, etc., a

production programme to minimize aggression, livestock injury and maximize
safety to stock men will include the following:

 1. Animal should be raised in groups for better control.

 2. Provision of adequate housing/holding area as well as wallowing area for pigs.

 3. Provision of adequate feed/water & pasture: Location of feed in the

environment is very important.

 4. The stockman should maintain a dominant role with farm animals because
animals form social relationships with caretakers who provide shelter and care
for animals.

 5. Stock men should be alert when handling animals during the most active time
at dawn or dusk.

 6. Some short-term treatments sometimes used to minimize aggression between

newly mixed pigs include the use of tranquillizer (azaperone).
 2. Dominance status
 Existence of social hierarchies or pecking orders.

 A pecking order is a dominance hierarchy in which animals within a group are

arranged according to status.

 Position - decided by some agonistic form of behaviour other than fighting.

 Animals recognize each other as individuals & possess some ability to learn.

 Size, strength, fitness and aggressiveness may have influence.

 Lower order male may be raised up the hierarchy by injection of

testosterone.

Advantages of pecking order

 Decreases the amount of individual aggression.

 It avoids injury to the stronger.

 It ensures that resources are shared out so that the fittest survive.

 Increase genetic vigour of the group.

Effects of breed ad horn size on social hierarchies in goats

Variable Sub-class No. LSM (+SE)

Breed WAD (1) 16 2.06+0.13
Red Sokoto (2) 13 2.03+0.14
(P>0.05)
Horn size Small (1) 10 1.21+0.16
Medium (2) 10 2.00+0.16
Large (3) 9 2.93+0.17
(P<0.001)
Breed*Horn Size 1,1 6 1.17+0.21
1,2 5 2.40+0.23
1,3 5 2.60+0.23
2,1 4 1.25+0.25
2,2 5 1.60+0.23
2,3 4 3.25+0.25
(P<0.05)
Source: Bemji et al. (2002)
3. Territorial behaviour
 Territory is an area held and defended by an organism or group of organisms
of the same or different species.

 Common to all vertebrates except amphibians.

 Formation of territory ensures that each mating pair of

organisms/offsprings are spaced to receive a share of the available resources
(food/breeding space).

 Size of territories occupied by species varies from season to season.

 Defense is greatest during breeding season and fiercest between males of the
same species.

 Threat displays are used by owners of adjacent territories. These threat

displays involve certain stimuli which act as releasers.

 E.g. An adult male robin would attack another adult male displaying a red
breast and a bunch of red feathers.

 Individuals mark out the boundary by leaving a scent trail.

 Aggressiveness of males is determined partly by the level of testosterone in

the body and this can affect territory size.
4. Altruistic behaviour
 Form of social behaviour whereby one organism puts itself either at risk or
personal disadvantage for the good of other members of the species.

 E.g. Birds and monkeys call out warnings to others in danger and female
monkeys carry and care for the babies of other monkeys.

 In insects such as honey bees, wasps and ants, sterile female workers are
prevented from producing offsprings, yet they spend their lives looking after
their brothers and sisters.

 The conferring of a genetic advantage on closely related organisms forms the

basis of altruistic behaviour.

 Altruistic behaviour is very common amongst primates and varies from the
extremes of social protection which exist between members of the same troop
(monkeys), through acts of mutual grooming and food sharing (apes) to
deliberate acts of self-sacrifice for family (God of humans).

 The extent of altruistic behaviour appears to be related to close relatives (kin)

such as offspring and siblings (brothers, sisters cousins) with whom they share
certain alleles.

 Thus adaptive significance of altruistic behaviour is to increase the

frequency of those alleles common both to the donor and recipient(s) of the
altruistic behaviour.
Module Skills

Research skills Students' ability to work independently and solve

problems will be developed by assignments.  

Communication Students are required to present information precisely

and concisely in a clear and informative manner. Oral
discussions and presentations will form part of the
module.  

Improving own Learning Students will have to manage their own time in
and Performance developing assignment.  

Information Technology To complete assignment, students will have to obtain

information from a variety of sources including books
and websites. This will involve the use of IT to compile
finished report, as well as retrieving relevant
information