Animal Behavior Lab Report

Color’s Effect on a Roly-Poly’s Choice of Shelter

ABSTRACT: In this lab, our goal was to find out whether or not the colors of rocks have an effect on a roly-poly’s decision of where to find shelter. For our experiment, we placed 12 roly-polies in a choice chamber, which can be described as two petri dishes with an area of crossover (pictured below). We filled one side of the choice chamber with green rocks, and the other side with clear rocks. The green rocks were rigid while the clear rocks were smooth and spherical. At the start of the experiment, we placed 6 roly-polies on each side of the choice chamber and put on a cover. Then at 30-second intervals, we took off the cover, recorded the new numbers, and recovered the chamber. After 5 minutes of testing, our experiment was concluded. Our final results showed that the number of roly-polies on the side with green rocks had increased to 8, and the number of roly-polies on the side with clear rocks had decreased to 4.

http://www.enasco.com/product/SB48162(X)M

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armadillidiidae

INTRODUCTION: Before doing this experiment, it is good to know some background on animal behavior. So what is behavior? Behavior can be defined a reaction to a stimulus. For an animal, this is a visible activity, or simply what the animal does (its movements), in response to an external or internal change (Dugatkin, 2012). When dealing with animal behavior, there are two different types of questions that one can ask. They can either ask a proximate question, or an ultimate question. A proximate question is one that deals with the how. What you are asking is how an internal or external stimuli was able to trigger that animal to have a specific behavioral reaction. An example of a proximate question would be “how does a bird know when and when not to sing”. With this question you are searching for the environmental stimuli responsible for the behavior. An ultimate question is one that deals with the why. It is a question that one asks when they want to know why an animal does what it does, or why it is triggered by a certain stimuli. For example, an ultimate question that you can ask is “why does a bird sing”. These are the kind of questions that make you search for the evolutionary benefit that this behavior would have for the animal.

http://sulaimansait.blogspot.com/2011/04/singing-bird.html

         Animal behavior can be categorized into different types. One of these specific types of behavior is known as fixed action pattern. Fixed action pattern is instinctive, meaning that it is with the animals from the day they are born. Fixed action pattern causes all members of a specific species to carry out the exact same sequence, without ever learning it from their parents or other older members. Even if the action becomes impossible to perform, the animal will still carry out the motions of that action. For example, a dog will always know how and when to bark, even when kept in isolation. Additionally, if a dog is physically unable to bark, it will still go through the normal motion of barking whenever it is stimulated to. Another example of fixed action pattern occurs in apes. It has been shown that apes always know to be afraid of snakes. This fear even occurs when they are raised in isolation and a fake snake, instead of a real one, is placed in front of them.

         Another type of animal behavior is imprinting. Imprinting can be defines as a type of animal learning that only occurs at a specific period in the animal’s life, and is generally learned very quickly. The most common type of imprinting is called filial imprinting, in which young birds learn to both recognize their parents and follow them around. This occurs because baby birds form strong attachments to the first thing that they see, which is often the mother. A proximate cause for filial imprinting in young geese is that in their early stages of development, they see their mother walk away from them, calling for them to follow. An ultimate cause for filial imprinting in young geese is that following their mother gives them an increased chance for survival, as they will receive protection from their mother, and will learn from her the necessities for survival.

        

http://www.scienceclarified.com/everyday/Real-Life-Biology-Vol-3-Earth-Science-Vol-1/Instinct-and-Learning-How-it-works.html#b

http://castlehs.com/users/johlsen/BEHAVIOUR.htm

         Interestingly, a man named Konrad Lorenz tried an experiment where he put some geese eggs in an incubator. When the eggs hatched, Lorenz was the first thing that the baby geese saw. As a result, they spent rest of their lives following Lorenz around. The geese even attempted to mate with humans.

http://castlehs.com/users/johlsen/BEHAVIOUR.htm

         Two more types of animal behavior are taxis and kinesis. In taxis, an animal moves toward or away from a stimulus. An example would be when birds migrate towards warmer climates, and away from colder climates. Heat is a stimulus for the birds, and that is why they move toward it. In kinesis, the movement of the animal is completely random, and not toward or away from the stimulus. For example, when you turn on a light, cockroaches start jumping in all different directions. They don’t move toward or away from the stimulus, but rather move in completely different and random directions.

http://www.bubblews.com/news/1258321-how-do-migrating-birds-find-their-path

http://www.fws.gov/alaska/nwr/arctic/birdworldmig.htm

Another type of animal behavior is conditioning. The two types that I will mention are called classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning occurs when a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus that evokes a specific response. For example, the presence of food evokes a specific response from a dog (it thinks about food). However, if the owner of the dog rings a bell every time that he feeds the dog, the sound of the bell, which would normally be a neutral stimulus, will become associated with eating food, and the dog will think about food every time that the bell is rung. Now operant conditioning is a bit different. Operant conditioning occurs when an animal is rewarded or punished for their behavior, or a specific response. The animal makes an association between a behavior, and the consequences for that behavior. For example, when you give your dog a treat when he shakes your hand, he will associate shaking your hand with getting the treat, and will want to shake your hand.

http://cnx.org/content/m44879/latest/?collection=col11448/latest

http://dogrus.wordpress.com/2010/03/15/training-your-dog-to-shake-hands/

         Now that I have introduced you to animal behavior, and showed you a some specific types and examples of these types, you should have no issue understanding this experiment.

QUESTION: Does the color of a rock effect a roly-poly’s decision of whether or not to use it as shelter? Or are roly-polies even attracted to certain colors at all?

HYPOTHESIS: If six roly-polies are placed on each side of the choice chamber, with green rocks on one side and clear rocks on the other side, then all of the roly-polies will end up on the side with the green rocks by the end of the experiment, because the roly-polies will be attracted to the green color due to the fact that their mind will connect the color green with food, such as the plants they eat. The color of the rocks, clear and green, are the independent variables in this experiment, and the number of roly-polies on each side is the dependent variable. The numbers will be compared to a control, in which we placed the roly-polies in the choice chamber with no rocks on either side.

MATERIALS:

1. 12 Roly-Polies

2. Stock Chamber

3. Choice Chamber

4. Small Green Rocks

5. Small Clear Rocks

6. Paint Brush

7. Cover

8. Stopwatch

PROCEDURE:

1. Collect 12 Roly-Polies.

2. Add Green Rocks to one side of Choice Chamber.

3. Add Clear Rocks to other side of Choice Chamber.

4. Transfer Roly-Polies from Stock Chamber to Choice Chamber.

5. Put six on each side (use paint brush to move them). 

6. Start stopwatch and cover Choice Chamber.

7. Remove cover every 30 seconds, record new numbers, and then recover the Choice Chamber.

8. Continue for a total of 5 minutes.

9. Return Roly-Polies to Stock Chamber.

10. Put the Green and Clear Rocks back in their respected beakers.

11. Graph data using Excel.

RESULTS:

Time (Mins)	Number of in Roly-Polies in Chamber with Green Rocks	Number of in Roly-Polies in Chamber with Clear Rocks
0	6	6
0.5	7	5
1.0	8	4
1.5	8	4
2.0	8	4
2.5	8	4
3.0	8	4
3.5	8	4
4.0	8	4
4.5	8	4
5.0	8	4

CONCLUSION: Our results show that the roly-polies prefer the green rocks. This could mean that they prefer to find shelter under the green rocks because the color reminds them of the food that they eat, such as leaves. Since the number of roly-polies on each side did not change in our control, in which we placed them in a choice chamber with no rocks on either side, then our results show that their was in fact a response by the roly-polies in our experiment. These results that we obtained fail to reject my hypothesis that the roly-polies would be attracted to the green color of the rocks. Animal behavior in the form of classical conditioning is taking place if my results are accurate, because the roly-polies are associating the color green, a neutral stimulus, with their source of food, another stimulus. For further research, it would be ideal to set up another experiment in which we place a green piece of paper in one side of the choice chamber, and a white piece of paper in the other side of the choice chamber. Going back to the experiment we just did, I would like to state two constants. First, we kept the amount of rocks on each side fairly constant, with both sides being filled. Second, we kept the lighting and the temperature of each side constant, so that they had no effect on the results. Moving on, one possible source of error is that we did not take into consideration the fact that the clear rocks were smooth and spherical, while the green rocks were rough and shaped more like normal rocks. The roly-polies could have just moved to the side with the green rocks because they preferred the shape and texture of the green rocks, not the color. Another possible source of error is that we place six roly-polies in on each side, instead of placing all twelve in the center. By placing six on each side, it is possible that the two roly-polies that switched sides did so randomly. If we placed them all in the center, we would have been better able to tell if the roly-polies preferred one side to another.

CITATION:

Dugatkin Ph.D, Lee Alan. "What Is "Behavior" Anyway?"

Psychology Today. Sussex Publishers, LLC, 17 July 2012. Web. 14 Apr. 2014. <http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-prince-evolution/201207/what-is- behavior-anyway>.

Quick, Kevin, Holly Kiamanesh, Rosie Montague, Jennifer

Blanchette, and Barbara Akre. The Webb Schools Honors Biology Textbook. Claremont: CK-12 Foundation, 2012. eBook.

“What is Imprinting?.” wiseGEEK. Conjecture Corporation. Web.

14 Apr. 2014. < http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-imprinting.htm>.

http://castlehs.com/users/johlsen/BEHAVIOUR.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imprinting_(psychology)