Feeding Behavior in Feral and Domestic Cats
During the course of evolution, a species may change drastically. Adaptations in
behavior and in physical characteristics are both important to survival. Some behaviors of
a species may be learned, while others may be genetically determined. It is likely that most
behavior are a combination of genetic makeup and learning. Learned behaviors are
essential to survival because they can change to meet the demands an organism’s current
situation. Genetically determined behaviors are advantageous because they are automatic
and take place in the absence of learning. Each of these types of behavior are important to
species survival.
One way of conceptualizing genetically determined behaviors is through the Fixed
Action Pattern. Fixed Action Patterns or FAP’s are species typical behaviors that are
stereotyped, they are independent of external control, spontaneous, and are independent of
individual learning (Moltz, 1965). Fixed action patterns are considered to be
consummatory acts, and include a wide range of different behaviors.
Some types of feeding behaviors can be considered to be FAP’s. Capturing and
consuming prey are probably two of the most important behaviors an animal must perform
in order to survive. In most species, the young must learn how to capture prey from it’s
parents. This is especially true for carnivores.
Carnivores must work especially hard for their food. In most cases, carnivores
species must locate, capture, and kill their food before they can begin to feed. Herbivores
usually need only to locate a food source. One species of carnivores that is in fairly close
contact with humans is the domestic cat. Domestic cats belong to the...
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...han food. Future
studies could look at how frequently cats perform this behavior on nonfood items, such as
toys. Differences between cats who have been food deprived and those who have not
could be compared.
Bibliography:
References
Adamec, Robert E. (1976). The Interaction of Hunting and Preying in the Domestic Cat.
Behavioral Biology, 18, (263-272).
Hutchinson, R. R., & Renfrew, J. W. (1966). Stalking Attack and Eating Behaviors
Elicited From the Same Sites in the Hypothalamus. Journal of Comparative and
Physiological Psychology, 61, (360-367).
Liberg, Olof (1984). Food Habits and Prey Impact by Feral and House-Based Domestic
Cats in a Rural Area in Southern Sweden. Journal of Mammalogy, 65, (424-432).
Moltz, Howard (1965). Contemporary Instinct Theory and the Fixed Action Pattern.
Psychological Review, 72, (33-50).
mouth to obtain the prey, it swiftly returns back to the mouth of the reptile. The chameleon utilises its jaw to
According to the marginal value theorem (Fig. 1), the food intake rate of the forager decreases with the time spent in the foraging patch (Charnov 1974).
Gardner, Christopher. Notes from the Doc Talks. Stanford University. Web. April 10, 2014. Pollan, Michael. The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. New York:
Ever wonder how animals know so much? It’s simple. It’s all according to how they act and what they know. When an animal is born it has instincts. These instincts help the creature survive and cause them to behave certain ways. This is called Innate behaviors. Although, some things animals have been taught. Unlike Innate behaviors whereas it comes from the genes, other behaviors have to be learned. They are called Learned behaviors. Together, Innate and Learned behaviors can prove that animals are smarter then most people think.
These somewhat strange cat behaviors both amusing and baffling leave many of us asking, why do cats do that? Throughout time cats were primarily solitary predators of smaller animals and prey for larger carnivores, as both predator and prey survival of their species depended on their basic instinctual behaviors which we all still observe in wild and domestic cats today, While the feline actions of your domestic house cat (Garfield) might seem
...lving, and as with it, human nature. New research acknowledges this, and we can expect an emergence of new and revised developmental theories.
Chapter nine is mainly about behaviorism. Behaviorism is the theoretical perspective in which learning and behavior are described and explained in terms of stimulus- response relationship. There are two things that could be observed and objectively measured, these two things are environmental stimulus and learner’s behaviors or response. Stimulus is a specific object or event that influences an individual’s learning or behavior. A response is a specific behavior that an individual exhibits. Behaviorist believe that people are born with a blank slate with no inherited tendency to behave on way or another. Over the years the environment slowly molds or conditions the slate so that it is no longer blank. Conditioning is the commonly used term by behaviorist for learning that typically involves specific environmental events leading to the acquisition of specific responses (Ellis, 2013, pg.265).
good source of food. The Trilobites fought back for a time, growing spines during the
According to William Cohn, a conservation specialist, deer are “voracious eaters.” He also claims that if an area becomes too overpopulated with for example, deer, there will be a scarcity of food and lead to starvation.
For instance you find that when a child is prohibited from touching a certain object they hesitate when trying to touch to see whether there is any one observing them. Therefore, in such cases there is no need of teaching them because it is instinctive. Thus the child is able to make decision even later in life using his knowledge to do what is right or wrong. You find that the choices they make from child hood to adult hood are usually between acceptable and forbidden generous or selfish, and kind or
Many theories have been thought of over the years to attempt to explain why people behave the way they do. Many questions were brought up when thinking about that and the social learning theory is a popular theory in explaining this. Nobody really thought of the social learning theory too much until Albert Bandura wrote his idea of it. He actually wrote a book called “Social Learning Theory.” In this book, he states that behavior is learned from the environment through the process of observational learning(Saul McLeod).
of the mind from the learning process by behavioral laws was a primary theoretical cause
As infants humans don't have the knowledge adults do that make them think for themselves. Babies learn what they know from observing and repeating. People don't completely grow out of the habit of doing things that they see being done. An example is an important influence. Setting an example is the only way people learn and it's proved because they can't help it, it's how society has taught them to learn things, and it's the easiest way to learn things.
Behaviorism is the point of view where learning and behavior are described and explained in terms of stimulus-response relationships. Behaviorists agree that an individual’s behaviors is a result of their interaction with the environment. Feedback, praise and rewards are all ways people can respond to becoming conditioned. The focus is on observable events instead of events that happen in one’s head. The belief that learning has not happened unless there is an observable change in behavior. “The earliest and most Ardent of behaviourists was Watson (1931; Medcof and Roth, 1991; Hill 1997). His fundamental conclusion from many experimental observations of animal and childhood learning was that stimulus-response (S-R) connections are more likely to be established the more frequently or recently an S-R bond occurs. A child solving a number problem might have to make many unsuccessful trials before arriving at the correct solution” (Childs, 2004).
Learning is defined as a “process of change that occurs as a result of an individual’s experience” (Mazure, 2006). Researchers assume that the process of learning follows certain general principles, which were developed, into the general process learning theories. These include operant conditioning and classical conditioning which has been put forward by leading psychologists like Pavlov, B.F.Skinner and Thorndike. However, in learning, operant and classical conditoning are opposed by biological constraints that state that there are limitations to the theories. Some of these biological constraints on learning will be discussed below.