Animal Behavior

The study of animal behavior is Ethology. A large part of the studies have been conducted by Lonrenz and Niko Tinbergen who wanted to find out how animals saw the world.

For example, fishes. The male will protect its territory. They will become aggressive when they see the red belly of another fish. This reaction is innate or instinctive, it is automatic. An experiment was performed by placing a large red sheet of paper in the tank. This made the male fish aggressive. This aggressiveness is what will make the male more “fit” in order provide more sperm to the females. The red was the releaser/sign stimuli in this case.

If you take a chick for example, its mother will respond to sound instead of sight. When a chick is distressed and is placed in a sound proof container, the mother will not respond. However, when there is a physical barrier but not sound proof, the mother will respond to the chick’s cries. The releaser/sign stimulus is sound in this case. A bee will never see a white flower but instead it will see the “target’, which is the pollen.

Pheromones are not hormones. They are chemicals that are released outside of the animal, and have a scent that will give an effect. Therefore, pheromones can also be releaser/sign stimuli as well.

When a gull has captured a plentiful supply of fish in its neck, the baby will peck at its mother so the fish will be released for them to feed on. The baby gulls will respond to the back and forth swinging and the red dot on the mother’s beak.

When a releaser leads directly to behavior it is called a fix-action