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We all respond to stimuli from the environment, and how we respond to a stimulus represents our personality and mental state. This is called behavior. There are two types of animal behavior: innate and learned.
Innate Behavior is the ability of an animal to respond spontaneously to a situation or a stimulus. Animal behavior is based on instinct and the spontaneous inner drive to respond to a stimulus can be considered innate.
Innate responses are not dependent on the animal's cognition. They're based on natural behaviors that are more or less unanimous for a species or a population. These behaviors are considered to be genetic and can adapt through natural selection.
The migration of birds, animals, and crabs to locations in certain seasons, depending on the availability of resources, is an innate behavior in response to seasonal changes.
A change or delay in the season can directly impact the migratory patterns or behaviors of an animal. This has been observed in bird sanctuaries when reduced rainfall causes a low influx of migratory birds.
Learned Behavior is animal behavior attained through training and correction from the errors of past experiences. This is why these behaviors are not consistent but are flexible and adaptable to changing situations.
Learning is achieved through techniques like habituation, sensitization, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, observational learning, play, and insight learning. Let's talk about them below.
Habituation is learning behavior through repeated exposure to a stimulus. The original behavior is reduced in habituation, like refraining from responding to a stimulus.
Sensitization is the opposite of habituation. Repetitive exposure to stimuli can result in an progressively amplified response to a certain stimulus.
Classical Conditioning is the process by which an association is created between a natural stimulus and a neutral one.
Operant Conditioning is the process of learning behavior through the association of a response with a reward or punishment.
Observational Behavior is learning to perform or avoid a response to a stimulus from another animal of the same species.
Play is the process by which young animals learn important behaviors from one another.
Insight Learning uses past experiences to reason and learn new behaviors to solve problems.
Learning about animal behavior is interesting and is an opportunity for animals like us also to learn new behaviors.
In innate behavior, animals are genetically hardwired to perform a task without learning such as migration in birds.
In learned behavior, animals are taught the behaviors such as a dog obeying the commands of human beings.
1. How is behavior related to evolution?
2. What is meant by the evolution of behavior?
3. What are the 4 types of animal behavior?
4. What is animal behavior and types of animal behavior?
Animal behavior is the animal's response to stimuli, and the types of animal behavior are learned and innate.
Examples of animal behavior are training dogs to obey commands which are learned behavior. In contrast, innate behavior is the mating signals like the crowing of birds or dancing of the peacock before the rain.
5. What factors influence animal behavior?
6. Why is the study of animal behavior important?
We hope you enjoyed studying this lesson and learned something cool about Animals – Innate and Learned Behavior! Join our Discord community to get any questions you may have answered and to engage with other students just like you! Don't forget to download our App to experience our fun, VR classrooms - we promise, it makes studying much more fun! 😎
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Learned Behavior. https://flexbooks.ck12.org/cbook/ck-12-biology-flexbook-2.0/section/10.5/primary/lesson/learned-behavior-of-animals-bio/. Accessed on 6 Dec, 2021.