| A | B |
|---|
| behavior | what an animal does and how it does it |
| innate behavior | behaviors are due to genetic programming |
| ethology | the study of how animals behave in their natural habitat |
| fixed action pattern (FAP) | a sequence of behavioral acts that is essentially unchangeable and usually carried to completion once initiated |
| sign stimulus | an external sensory stimulus that triggers an FAP |
| foraging | food-obtaining behavior |
| optimal foraging theory | natural selection will benefit animals that maximize their energy intake-to-expenditure ratio |
| learning | modification of behavior resulting from specific experiences |
| maturation | developmental changes that may lead to improved learning |
| habituation | a loss of responsiveness to unimportant stimuli or stimuli that do not provide appropriate feedback |
| imprinting | the recognition, response, and attachment of young to a particular adult or object |
| sensitive period | a limited phase in an individual animal’s development when learning particular behaviors can take place |
| associative learning | the ability of many animals to learn to associate one stimulus with another |
| operant conditioning | trial-and-error learning |
| cognition | the ability of an animal’s nervous system to perceive, store, process, and use information gathered by sensory receptors |
| kinesis | a change in activity rate in response to a stimulus (usually random) |
| taxis | an automatic, oriented movement toward or away from a stimulus |
| cognitive maps | internal codes of spatial relationships of objects in the environment |
| migration | the regular movement of animals over relatively long distances |
| piloting | an animal moves from one familiar landmark to another until it reaches its destination |
| navigation | determining one’s present location relative to other locations, in addition to detecting compass directions |
| social behavior | any kind of interaction between two or more animals, usually of the same species |
| agonistic behavior | agressive and/or threatening toward another animalbehavior |
| dominance hierarchies | ranking of individuals in a group (a "pecking order") |
| territoriality | behavior where an individual defends a particular area, called the territory |
| courtship | patterns of behavior that lead to copulation and consists of a series of displays and movements by the male or female |
| promiscuous | no strong pair-bond between males and females |
| monogamous | one male mating with one female |
| polygamous | an individual of one sex mating with several of the other sex |
| polygyny | a specific example of polygamy, where a single male mates with many females |
| polyandry | one female mates with several males |
| signal | a behavior that causes a change in the behavior of another animal |
| communication | the transmission of, reception of, and response to signals |
| pheromones | chemicals released by an individual that bring about mating and other behaviors |
| altruism | behavior that might decrease individual fitness, but increase the fitness of others |
| inclusive fitness | the effect an individual has on proliferating its own genes by reproducing and by helping relatives raise offspring |
| reciprocal altruism | an individual aids other unrelated individuals without any benefit, is rare, but sometimes seen in primates (often in humans) |
