Animal Behaviour

very curious animals- diversity of prey * Variety of diets- more versatile: not obligate carnivores * Social hunters (pack up)- can incapacitate prey larger than individual animal (dog) * Run fast, over ling distances- great stamina * Long , slender limb, slender toes (phalanx) * More upright standing posture

Grey Wolves The most likely origin of domestication is East Asia

The study of behaviour - includes causation and function - Behaviour is a combination of physiological responses (ei. social interaction) and complex activity (ei. social interaction

1) unique to the individual, 2) unique to the event (situation) 3) can be uniform within the population

Cause, purpose, development (evolution?) and effect of a response 1) What causes dog barking? 2) What is the function of dog barking? 3) How does dark barking develop during their evolution? 4) How has barking developed during their evolutionary and social relationships with other organisms? (Effect) Note: The 4 questions may not take into consideration the dog’s emotional and cognitive aspect of behaviour

Present in all mammals (80% of total mass of human brain) * Integration of sensory stimuli * Higher learning - reasoning, reflection * Includes the Limbic system

Includes the hypothalamus, thalamus, hippocampus: Responsible for basic behaviours: feeding, fear, aggression, sexual behaviour (the four “F”s) Although cortex of dog is smaller than people, the limbic system is comparatively the same size, as such dogs can sense basic stimuli (ie fear), but may not process the stimuli the same as humans

Includes: * Central nervous system: (CNS; spinal cord + Brain), * Peripheral nervous system: (PNS; all non-spinal cord + non-brain, ‘outside’’ CNS)

Nerve signals to CNS

Nerve signal away from CNS

Somatic- voluntary control (weight lifting - muscle contraction) Autonomic- involuntary control (digestion after a meal), - Parasympathetic (relaxation), - Sympathetic (excitation)

A collection of stimuli (signals) that cause a interpreted by the CNS in a specific and functional manner Often linked to specific behavioural response, but can be modified - Ex. dogs will chase ( rabbit)- instinctive (innate response) - Can prevent chasing behaviour- this is trained (learned event)- not instinctive

Formones ( chemical signals) form areas of the brain (ie hypothalamus-pituitary axis; HPA)) will effect behaviour * Example: Follicular stimulating hormone (FSH) from HPA, will increase testosterone in the testes- this will effect growth, maturation and reproductive behaviour * Castration of the dog – reduces testosterone – alters reproductive behaviour

1) Neonatal (birth~13 days) - Completely dependant of mother for life function 2) Transition (~13-20 days) - early development of adult traits 3) Socialization (3-8 weeks) - Social behaviour begins, this is also where you start seeing fear and aggression 4) Juvenile (2-8 months) - Behaviour traits are not changing much

feeding, reproduction, defence-aggression

Behaviour can be affected by a either: - single genes (drastic changes) - impacted on complex suite of multiple genes Usually behaviour is affected by a ‘defined set of multiple of genes’ (protein interactions)

Behavioral changes are associated with morphological (physical and health) changes

Genetic – very similar genetic sequences (genetic code) between dog species and wolves * Behaviour differences- alterations (mutations) in the ‘regulatory areas’ of the of the genetic code * Especially alterations in the regulation of the genetic code within the brain Wolves have more ‘social behaviour’ abilities as compared to domestic dogs and other wild canids (fox, coyotes, jackals) - it maintains commination, hierarchy and interaction in the wolf pack

• Social play- form some basic characteristics of social life (ie bite play vs dominance- aggression) • Fairness- part of social play- helps individua animal benefit-survive within the environment (group pack behaviour) • Communication skills- visual cues- body posture, facial expression and barking • Communication social hierarchy-established structure and aids in social behaviour stability • Family groups (pack size and interactions)- influenced by food supply. A division of labour in wolve packs- hunting, progeny rasing and development • Monogamy- usually long term (wolf pack), polygamy is uncommon. • Note: Domestic dogs’ reproductive behaviour is heavily influenced by people (hard to have a natural monogamous mating pair) • Social bonding- bonding is strong is social animals such as candids (wolves- bonding in pack; domestic dogs- bonding with owner). Postulated bonding between canids stronger that other Non-human primates (chimpanzees) • Parental care- wolf pack members ‘ helpers’ in raising cubs • Social learning (long-term)- wolf can stay within the pack indefinitely, as such long term learning for hunting, social interaction, play etc

Dispositional (ie individual characteristics) that regularly and persistently determine behaviour in many different types of situations’

• Aggression (well studied) • Includes object and teritorial agression • Includes aggresision toward family members, stangers, and unfamiliar dogs • Fearfulness (highly studied) • Fear can stem from: i) non-social stimuli, and ii) non-social stimuli • Fear response can differ based on breed (ex. inhibition (Shetland sheepdogs) , avoidance (basenjis)) • Excitability • expressed- when owner returns home, playing with family or preparing for a trip • Socialbility (friendliness) • Overly friendly to unknown people and dogs • Playfulness • Pet is willing to play games (fetch, tug-of -war) , run and chase with both known and unknown persons • Trainability (This is unproven and unlikely) • ’success in training events’ • Possibly a manifestation of other traits

• Pointing (gestures) - dogs appear to understand directional point (ie pointing at a chew toy) • Looking (facial gestures). Looking at the object ( chew toy, food treat), the dog will move in that direction -how does facial gestures work? Note: dogs are better at interpreting gestures from human companions- better than non-human primates • Words: do dogs truly understand words, or its it changes in frequency and amplitude in the word acoustic (word-commands) • Some evidence is dogs can understand some select word related to objects and can learn • Note: the ability to understand words can vary between individual dogs within the same breed and may differ between various breeds

• Behavioural aspects and adaptations allowed dogs to become part (of human society and interact (attachment-often co-operatively) with people • This social interaction requires forms of (‘understandable’) communication between people and dogs • Animal behavioural communication: both genetics and leaning ability of the animal is required (ie wolf dominance vs submission)

• 1942 Waddington ‘epigenetics’, which he defined as changes in phenotype without changes in genotype • ’inheritance of gene expression patterns without altering the underlying DNA sequence but by adapting chromatin’ • DNA methylation, non-coding RNA and Histone modification • Can have a multigeneration effect • Potentially can be reversible (Eraser proteins) other mechanisms