Making an Ethogram and studying behavior

Studying behaviour
  • Ethology: study of animal and human behaviour
  • Behaviour contains actions (gedragselementen) : these are often interrelated and have a goal 
  • Chain of behaviour
  • Make an ethogram: a list of an animal's behaviour that creates an inventory of actions/movements/patterns that an animal exhibits
  • Ethogram is a tool to measure behaviour to understand how an animal behaves and interacts with the environment
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Slide 1: Slide
BiologieMiddelbare schoolvwoLeerjaar 3

This lesson contains 11 slides, with interactive quizzes and text slides.

Items in this lesson

Studying behaviour
  • Ethology: study of animal and human behaviour
  • Behaviour contains actions (gedragselementen) : these are often interrelated and have a goal 
  • Chain of behaviour
  • Make an ethogram: a list of an animal's behaviour that creates an inventory of actions/movements/patterns that an animal exhibits
  • Ethogram is a tool to measure behaviour to understand how an animal behaves and interacts with the environment

Slide 1 - Slide

How do we study behaviour?
  • To study behaviour, we have to quantify it (#s, data)
  • Example: How often? How long? Differences
  • The behaviour (action) must be objective
  • The action must be repeatable

Slide 2 - Slide

Steps to making an ethogram
  1. Observe the species 
  2. See which actions the animal is making
  3. Write down each action objectively (ex. animal shows teeth = growl)
  4. Give each action an abbreviation

Slide 3 - Slide

Example
Action
Abbreviation
Description
Sitting
si
bottom has touched the ground
Scratching
sc
hind leg strokes fur
Rolling
ro
turns 180 degrees

Slide 4 - Slide

Get your results
  • Protocol - write down which actions you observe within a time frame
  • 1st step: Name of species, where, when (time and date), length of time
Rabbit
Noorddijk 23, Piershil
rabbit cage 2X2m
7-9-2021, 10:05am
Observation time: 5 min, every 10s

Slide 5 - Slide

Time
2
3
4
5
0-10sec
10-20sec
20-30sec
30-40sec
40-50sec
50-60sec
Protocol for a rabbit

Slide 6 - Slide

Time
2
3
4
5
0-10sec
si
sc
10-20sec
si
sc
20-30sec
si
sc
30-40sec
sc
si
40-50sec
ro
si
50-60sec
ro
si

Slide 7 - Slide

Videos:

  1. horse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAY8ZatNTZE
  2. rats: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZmPINRJOVg
  3. monkeys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_AL93uqIow
  4. chimps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM4si1ZO4Ns
  5. dog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNAwVoa1HvI

Slide 8 - Slide

Slide 9 - Slide

Habituation
Chemotaxis
Kinesis
Imprinting
Responding to food chemicals by moving towards the stimulus
A randomly directed movement of the organism in response to a stimulus
Animals learn not to respond to unimportant signals in the environment

Slide 10 - Drag question

The red/white pencil is a
A
Super stimulus
B
Supernormal stimulus
C
Sign stimulus
D
Sign response

Slide 11 - Quiz