INNATE BEHAVIOUR
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Innate behaviour is when an animal performs a behaviour that it never learned and using instinct, knew what to do. One example of this is the warbler- a long distance migratory bird. When warblers hatch, they are left alone and must inherit the ability to fly in the correct direction for the right length of time to get to the destination. Warblers never learn the migratory route from their parents, but still know to fly from Europe to Africa for winter and then return in spring. Instinct is the innate ability to perform a specific behaviour with no conscious intention involved.
The advantage with this is that no practice is needed, meaning the behaviour can be produced correctly the first time. It works due to a particular inherited pattern of nerve cells, which can produce instinctual behaviours. When presented with the stimulus it correctly recognizes it and automatically responds.
Releasers (also known as sign signals) are the specific signals that cause the response of innate behaviour. Releasers get their name because they ‘release’ a particular innate behaviour but can be in different forms such as visual or auditory. An example is the interaction between European robins and intruding red-breasted robins. To protect their territory, European robins will attack; the releaser for this aggression being the red colour. This is an example of a visual signal and it has been demonstrated that robins will vigorously attack a bunch of red feathers but not a model robin lacking the red breast.
A disadvantage of innate behaviour is that it can be triggered inappropriately. An example for this is the red stickleback fish when breeding. During this period they have red bellies, however the colour red also triggers territorial behaviour among the species. In Netherlands it was observed that the colour was such a strong releaser that a male stickleback swimming in an aquarium near a window, displayed territorial behaviour after a red postal van drove past. Clearly the behaviour was triggered in the wrong circumstance, which is a disadvantage to the species.
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