---
id:"kb-2026-00490"
title:"Animal Behavior"
schema_type:"TechArticle"
category:"science"
language:"en"
confidence:"high"
last_verified:"2026-05-22"
generation_method:"ai_assisted"
ai_models:["claude-opus"]
derived_from_human_seed:true
primary_sources:
  - title:"Animal Behavior (John Alcock, 11th Ed)"
    type:"book"
    year:2023
    url:"https://www.oxfordlearninglink.com/s-alcock-animal-behavior-11e"
    institution:"Oxford University Press"
secondary_sources:
  - title: "Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks"
    authors: ["Lewis", "Perez", "Piktus"]
    type: "academic_paper"
    year: 2020
    doi: "10.48550/arXiv.2005.11401"
    url: "https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.11401"
  - title: "MDN Web Docs — HTTP"
    type: "documentation"
    year: 2026
    url: "https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP"
    institution: "Mozilla"
completeness: 0.88
ai_citations:
  last_citation_check:"2026-05-22"
---

## TL;DR

Animal behavior studies how animals interact with their environment, other organisms, and their own species. Tinbergen's 4 questions: mechanism (how?), ontogeny (development?), function (adaptive value?), phylogeny (evolutionary history?). Key behaviors: communication, mating, foraging, social organization, migration, cooperation.

## Core Explanation

Bees' waggle dance (von Frisch, Nobel 1973): communicates food distance and direction. Imprinting (Lorenz): ducklings follow first moving object. Altruism paradox (Hamilton, 1964): kin selection — helping relatives helps shared genes. r/K selection: r (many offspring, little care: insects), K (few offspring, much care: elephants). Tool use: not unique to humans — chimpanzees (termite fishing), crows (wire bending), sea otters (rock = anvil).

## Further Reading

- [Animal Behavior (John Alcock, 11th Ed)](https://www.oxfordlearninglink.com/s-alcock-animal-behavior-11e)