Animal Behavior

Animal Behavior is the scientific study of the wild and wonderful ways in which animals interact with each other, with other living beings, and with the environment. It explores how animals relate to their physical environment as well as to other organisms, and includes topics such as how animals find and defend resources, avoid predators, choose mates, reproduce, and care for their young.


Behaviors exist on a continuum from being to a large extent contingent on genetic factors (i.e., instinctive), to others which are mostly acquired through experience. Instinctive components are those that are exhibited without the benefit of, or need for, prior experience. They come to the fore when, for instance, newly hatched, inexperienced individuals of a particular species of spider construct their webs with little variation, despite the lack of a tutor. Learned behaviors are those that are acquired through interactions with the surrounding world.

Nature vs. Nurture describes a debate about the degree to which individual differences in physical and behavioral traits are the product of an individual's innate qualities ("nature") versus those shaped by personal experiences ("nurture"). This dichotomy aims to delineate how much of the human (psychological) make-up is the result of environmental influences and how much is a result of phylogenetic heritage. In today's view there are multiple problems with phrasing the issue in this either-or form. Most significant of all, as the two are NOT mutually exclusive concepts. It is now clear that in every instance both influences play significant roles as all development represents a complex interaction between inherited factors and environmental conditions.

Inherited and Learned Behavior:

Ap chap 51 animal behavior

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