Animal Personalities and Cultures
Many behaviors are shared across a species. For instance, anchovies, small marine fish, tend to swim in large schools to avoid predation. However, some behaviors differ between individuals. In that same school of anchovies, some of the fish are more shy of new things and will try to escape from them, while other individuals are more bold and may even investigate new things. These variations in individuals is called an animal's personality. You may notice this in your pets. Even when two dogs come from the same litter, they can end up with very different personalities. Additionally, some behaviors may be shared within only one population or group of individuals, and not with the entire species. Remember the macaques that floss their teeth with human hair? Only macaques living in Lop Buri, Thailand show that behavior. Macaques living in other areas don't show this behavior. This population-wide behavior is called their culture.
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The Interactions Between Behavior, Climate Change, and Evolution
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Animals' behaviors are shaped by their species' history, (their evolution), and their environment. It is important to keep the evolutionary history of the species in mind when thinking about animal behavior. Animals behave a certain way because it helped their ancestors to survive and reproduce, so it might help them too. Consider the lyre bird in the video on the left. It has an amazing ability to mimic sounds, even the sounds of cars and camera shutters! But they didn't evolve that behavior to amuse us. They evolved that behavior to attract mates, and that's an important distinction. Climate change is rapidly changing the world these animals live in, and some of their behaviors, that evolved when the world was more stable, are becoming unsuitable in this new world. A challenge has been set to the animals of the world: evolve new behaviors fast enough to keep up with climate change.
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How Does Studying Animal Behavior Help Humans?
One of the most practical applications of animal behavior research is in getting animals to do what we want them to, called animal training. Perhaps you have done some animal training with your pets at home. Knowing how animals behave in natural settings and what motivates them can help us develop better techniques for training them. This relationship actually goes both ways; training animals can help us learn more about how animals think too. Learning about animal behavior is also useful in conservation, or preserving a species. When trying to save an endangered species, one that is close to going extinct, knowing their behaviors is crucial. For example, if you want to create a land preserve where a species can live, it would be useful to know where that species lives, if they migrate, and where they migrate to. Without this information, your wildlife preserve may fail. Most importantly, learning about animal behavior can help humans to live with animals peacefully, which, in an evermore crowded world, is becoming increasingly important.
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