Animal Behaviour
Instincts and learning guide how animals act.
About this topic
Behaviour includes innate (instinctive) actions like reflexes and migration, and learned behaviour from experience: habituation, conditioning (Pavlov's dogs), imprinting (ducklings following a mother) and problem-solving. Social animals communicate with signals, pheromones, sounds and displays.
Behaviour evolves because it improves survival and reproduction. Innate behaviour is inherited and appears without practice, such as a newborn turtle heading for the sea. Learned behaviour allows flexibility: a crow can learn to drop nuts on a road for cars to crack. Courtship displays, territory defence and parental care help animals pass on genes.
In Pavlov's experiment, dogs naturally salivated at food, but after a bell was rung each time food arrived, they salivated at the bell alone. This classical conditioning shows how a new stimulus is linked to an existing response. Bees use a waggle dance to tell hive mates the direction and distance of flowers. Geese imprint on the first moving thing they see after hatching.
Studying behaviour helps in animal welfare, training and conservation. Avoid anthropomorphism, giving animals human feelings without evidence. Another misconception is that behaviour is either innate or learned; most is a mix of both.
Key ideas
- Innate vs learned
- Migration and hibernation
- Communication
Quick check
Use cases: where Animal Behaviour helps
- Homework: review the key idea behind Animal Behaviour before you start a problem set.
- Exam revision: use the quick check to test whether you can recall Animal Behaviour without notes.
- Visual learning: play with the interactive lab to see how Animal Behaviour changes when you adjust its inputs.
- Teaching a friend: explain Animal Behaviour in your own words, then compare your version with the key ideas.
Biology underpins medicine, farming, conservation and biotechnology.
Frequently asked questions
What is Animal Behaviour?
Instincts and learning guide how animals act.
What will I learn in Animal Behaviour?
Innate vs learned. Migration and hibernation. Communication.
Is Animal Behaviour part of Biology?
Yes. It is one of 150 Biology topics on LearnViz HighSchoolEdu, with 3 key ideas, a live animation and a quick check.
Does the Animal Behaviour lab work on a phone or tablet?
Yes. The animation resizes to fit your screen and supports touch, so you can drag, tap and slide with your finger.
How should I study Animal Behaviour?
Read the summary and key ideas first, play with the interactive lab to see the idea in motion, then answer the quick check. If you get a question wrong, go back to the key idea it tests.
Do I need an account, and is my progress saved?
No account is needed. Marking a topic as learned is saved in your own browser, so it stays on that device and is not sent to a server.