March 28, 2024

Behaviour is everything an organisms does in response to changes in its environment. It is basically adaptive, geared mainly towards promoting the organism’s survival and reproduction. Examples of behavioural adaptations are grouped and explained below.

Behavioural Adaptation in Predators (Carnivores)

  1. Setting a trap: The ant-lion digs a conical hole in the ground and waits at the bottom of the hole for the prey to fall in. The spider spins a web and waits for the prey to be caught in it.
  2. Overtaking prey by speed: A lion or leopard chases its prey and overtakes it by speed, it catches the prey and kills it.
  3. Lying in ambush: The praying mantis remains in hiding, waiting for the prey to come within striking distance. Snakes also lay in ambush for their prey.

 

Behavioural Adaptation to Protect Prey from Predators

  1. Hiding: Some animals being chased can suddenly stop running and hide in small bush where it is difficult to discover them.
  2. Swaying in the air: Bats hold on to branches of trees with the head upside down and sway in the air like leaves. By so doing, they escape being notice by predators.
  3. Remaining motionless: When a moving land snail is touched, it retracts into its shell and remains motionless.
  4. Secretion of irritating liquid: A toad is capable of secreting an irritating liquid when attacked by a predator.
  5. Running or flying away: Many animals such as gazelles and antelopes depend on speed to escape from their predators while birds simply fly away.
  6. Secretion of an offensive odour: Some beetles and buds secrete offensive odour when attacked. This smell scares away their predators or enemies.
  7. Feigning death: If a moving millipede is attacked, it stops moving, rolls up and feigns death.
  8. Swelling up: A toad ; puffs itself up and by so doing becomes difficult to be swallowed by a predator.

 

Protective adaptations used by animals against predator

  1. Mechanical protection like the hard outer covering/shell; e.g. giant snail/tortoise/oyster/barnacles/battery of spines in porcupine/sea urchin.
  2. Chemical protection in the form of poisonous secretions of skin glands; e.g. toad.
  3. Concealing colouration/cryptic adaptation/a close matching in appearance of the animal to its background; e.g. chameleon/praying mantis/green mamba.
  4. Specilised toxic glands/hairs that penetrate skin of predators/toxin secreted to cause intense irritation; e.g. larvae of Lepidoptera.
  5. Mimicry of objects such as leaves or twigs; e.g. Praying mantis/stick insect/moths.
  6. Rolling the body into a ball; e.g. pangolin/ millipede/porcupine.
  7. Fast movement to escape from enemies; e.g. antelopes/deers.
  8. Secretion of offensive smell; e.g. shrews/ zonocerus.
  9. Stings/injection of painful chemicals; e.g. bees/wasps/scorpions/electric fish.
  10. Offensive structure of horns/hooves;e.g. antelopes/gazel/buffalos.
  11. Movement in groups to frighten predators; e.g. monkey/baboons/small ungulates.
  12. Datachment/dropping of parts of the body to escape; e.g. lizards/wall geckos.
  13. Secretion of ink/coloured substance to impair vision of predator/create a screen e.g. squid.
  14. Inflation of the body to frighten predator; e.g. chameleon/octopus/ cats.

 

Behavioural Adaptation for Avoiding Adverse Weather Conditions

  1. Aestivation: Aestivation is a period of inactivity seen in some animals during long period of heat or drought. For example, lung fish, crocodiles etc bury themselves in the mud or crevice during dry season and re-emerge at the beginning of the rainy season.
  2. Hibernation: Hibernation is a state of sleep and greatly reduced metabolic rate that enables certain animals to survive prolonged period of low temperature (winter) and food scarcity. For example, insect-eating bats wake and feed on warm days.
  3. Migration: Migration is the movement of certain animals from one place to new habitats where conditions are more favourable than in their original habitats Apart from running away from adverse weather condition, organisms migrate to avoid overcrowding, establish new habitats and for the aim of reproduction. Example of migration is the movement of cattle egrets between the north and south of Nigeria during the dry and rainy seasons.

 

Behavioural Adaptation in Plants

Plants, even though they do not move from place to place also exhibit behavioural adaptation in a number of ways. These are:

  1. Shedding of leaves: Many plants have behavioural adaptation to enable them survive adverse weather conditions by shedding their leaves especially during the dry seasons to reduce water loss. Example of such plants are Iroko, and silk cotton tree.
  2. Death of vegetative parts: Some plants die down and survive the dry seasons as underground stem, e.g. yam tuber, sweet potato, stubborn grass.
  3. Dormancy: Dormancy is a period of minimal metabolic activities of an organism. It is a means of surviving adverse conditions of cold and drought. Examples can be found in seeds of plants.
  4. Phototropic movements of plant shoots: Plant shoot moves in response to light which is needed for its photosynthetic activities.
  5. Carnivorous plants: The insect-trapping movements of the leaves of the venus flytrap is a behavioural adaptation for obtaining food.
  6. Coiling response of leaf: The coiling response of the leaf tendrils of the gloriosa plant when they touch a support is an adaptation for support.

 

Gregarious Behaviour in Animals

When animals of the same species move together in a group, they are said to be gregarious. Gregarious animals show certain kinds of co-operative behaviour which give them survival advantage. Such gregariousness may lead to social organisation and provide protection to members of the group. Examples of organisms which exhibit gregarious behaviour include:

  1. elephants.
  2. gazelles.
  3. zebra.
  4. some flocks of birds.
  5. some shoals of fish.
  6. some social animals, e.g. termites, bees, wolves, baboons and foxes.

The protection provided by the moving together of animals in groups (herding) is due partly to the ability of group to detect danger. In some species, the group may act as a unit to protect its members especially the young ones.

In groups of animals where there is cooperative behaviour, members usually have means of transmitting information among themselves. Such information may be about food source, presence of enemies or readiness to mate. The information might be received through the sense of touch, hearing, sight or smell.

 

Communication Among Animals

Communication may be defined as the act of transmitting information from one individual to another.

 

Method of Communication in Animals

Various methods are used by animals to convey information among themselves. These methods are.

A) Communication by sound and contact 

  1. In times of danger: A member of a group may give an alarm to alert others to show the normal protective behaviour of the group when danger threatens. For example, a mother hen makes a danger sound when it sights a snake or a hawk. The chicks stoop down and remain quiet and alert.
  2. In times of hunger: Animals in a group may make certain sound to call the attention of the others, e.g. goats bleat when they are hungry. A mother hen makes a special sound to call the attention of the chicks when she sees food.
  3. For reproduction: Some animals make special sound to attract the opposite sex for reproduction. For instance a male toad croaks to invite a female toad for mating.
  4. In parental care: Some animals make contact notes as a way of showing parental care for the young ones, e.g. a mother hen continues to quack or make contact notes so that the chicks would know the movement of their mother and follow it.

 

B) Communication by sense of small: Some animals are able to communicate among themselves by sense of smell. For example, an antelope rube a gland on its forehead on twig of plants. The secretion of the gland leaves a smell which warns other antelopes that they are in an antelope territory.

 

C) Communication by touch: The sense of touch can be used to communicate among a group of animals, e.g. ants in one colony touch one another. This is used as a means of recognizing members of the same colony.

 

D) Communication by ‘dance’: Dancing of an organism in a group may be used as a means of communication to others, e.g. the worker bee performs a special dance called tail waggling dance to show its mates the direction and distance of a food source.

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