Animal Form and Function: Animal Behavior

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2025-08-12 21:51

In this video I go over animal behavior, which is central to how animals interact with other animals and their environment such as through foraging, mating, and migration. Some actions are genetically determined and occur without learning, such as kelp gull (and other seagull) chicks pecking at the red dot on their mother's beak when they want food. Dutch scientist Niko Tinbergen won a Nobel Prize in part for his discovery that this seagull peaking was instinctive from birth and not learned. These fixed pattern behaviors are controlled by the nervous system.

Some behaviors can be quite elaborate, such as some cuckoo species laying their eggs in the nest of other birds instead of laying their own eggs. This type of behavior is known as a brood parasite, and gives rise to the cuckoo's egg metaphor. However, the vast majority of animals raise their own young.

#science #biology #animalbehavior #animals #nature

49 Animal Behavior.jpeg

Timestamps

Behavior is central to animal / environment interactions: 0:00
Kelp gull bird with a red dot, which their chicks instinctually peck at when wanting to be fed: 1:19
Other behaviors include foraging, mating, altruism, learning and modifying behaviors: 2:57
Brood parasites such as the cuckoo lay their eggs in nests of other birds, this is a supernormal stimulus to the parenting species: 3:29
Metaphor of cuckoo's egg. Most species raise their own young: 4:30