Biology
Animal behaviour
Why some animals can do things from birth while others must first learn them, and how animals talk to each other.
Animals are always doing something: searching for food, building nests, fleeing from enemies, or attracting partners. All of this is called behaviour. Some behaviour an animal is born with, other behaviour it has to work hard to acquire. Behaviour helps every animal survive in its habitat.
Innate behaviour
Innate behaviour is something an animal can do from birth, without learning it. A freshly hatched chick pecks at grains right away. A spider weaves its first web perfectly without ever having seen one. Such fixed behaviours are also called instinct. They always run in a very similar way.
Fast growth first, then flattening at the carrying capacity.
Learned behaviour
Learned behaviour has to be gained through experience. A young fox learns from its mother how to hunt. A young bird learns its song by listening to older birds of its species and copying them. Learning makes animals adaptable, because they can change their behaviour when their surroundings change. Innate behaviour, by contrast, stays almost always the same.
Communication among animals
Animals exchange information in many ways. They use sounds like the song of birds, movements like the waggle dance of bees, colours like bright plumage, or scents. With these signals they warn of danger, attract partners, or show where food is. Communication helps a pack or swarm stay together.
Behaviour secures survival
Whether innate or learned, every behaviour has a purpose. Fleeing from danger saves a life, searching for food stills hunger, caring for the brood secures the young. Animals whose behaviour fits their habitat well have better chances to survive and raise offspring.
Exercises
0 of 6 solvedTime to try it yourself. You can't break anything, every attempt counts.
A freshly hatched chick pecks at grains right away. What kind of behaviour is that?
How does a bee show its own kind where food is?
The text names these ways of communication: sounds, movements, colours, and scents. How many ways is that?
Match each way of communication to the example the text gives for it.
A young fox practises hunting 3 times on each of 5 days. How many times does it practise in total?
A behaviour that an animal can do from birth without learning it is called ….