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Asked by mizna to Charlotte, Jo, Kevin, Louise, Valeria on 11 Jun 2012.
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Valeria Senigaglia answered on 11 Jun 2012:
Some behaviours are instinctual, so animals don’t learn them, they already know what and how to do them. However some others can be acquired during life. They can learn by themselves by trial and errors, they can imitate their parents (is called vertical transmission) or they can learn from other individuals (is called horizontal transmission). Is a debated issue but some scientists believe that animals also have culture, so they can have local tradition or peculiar behaviour that they can transmit to other individuals of the group. These behaviour are group specific so the same species elsewhere will not have them.
for example only some dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia use sponges to protect their rostrum when they eat but the same dolphin species in Scotland doesn’t do it.
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Kevin Mahon answered on 11 Jun 2012:
Many animals have innate behaviours – that is they are naturally occuring to the animal and do not require teaching. A good example of innate behaviour is a dog shaking wet fur to get dry. You could call it ‘instinct’.
Learned behaviours, which are generally more complex come from a variety of sources and really depend on the social structure of the species. Animals that show a lot of parental care (crocodiles, apes) usually have their parents teach them. A good example is a cat taking a kitten near-dead prey in order to teach it to hunt.
Species that have complex social structures can even have animals that aren’t directly related teaching younger/less experienced animals certain behaviours. This is altruistic behaviour.
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