Instinct in the context of Nest


Instinct in the context of Nest

Instinct Study page number 1 of 2

Play TriviaQuestions Online!

or

Skip to study material about Instinct in the context of "Nest"


⭐ Core Definition: Instinct

Instinct is the inherent inclination of a living organism towards a particular complex behaviour, containing innate (inborn) elements. The simplest example of an instinctive behaviour is a fixed action pattern (FAP), in which a very short to medium length sequence of actions, without variation, are carried out in response to a corresponding clearly defined stimulus.

Any behaviour is instinctive if it is performed without being based upon prior experience (that is, in the absence of learning), and is therefore an expression of innate biological factors. Sea turtles, newly hatched on a beach, will instinctively move toward the ocean. A marsupial climbs into its mother's pouch upon being born. Other examples include animal fighting, animal courtship behaviour, internal escape functions, and the building of nests. Though an instinct is defined by its invariant innate characteristics, details of its performance can be changed by experience; for example, a dog can improve its listening skills by practice.

↓ Menu
HINT:

In this Dossier

Instinct in the context of Screaming

A scream (/skriːm/ ) is a loud/hard vocalization in which air is passed through the vocal cords with greater force than is used in regular or close-distance vocalisation. This can be performed by any creature possessing lungs, including humans.

A scream is often an instinctive or reflex action, with a strong emotional aspect, like fear, pain, annoyance, surprise, joy, excitement, anger, etc.

View the full Wikipedia page for Screaming
↑ Return to Menu

Instinct in the context of Ornithology

Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (órnis), meaning "bird", and λόγος (lógos), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds. It has also been an area with a large contribution made by amateurs in terms of time, resources, and financial support. Studies on birds have helped develop key concepts in biology including evolution, behaviour and ecology such as the definition of species, the process of speciation, instinct, learning, ecological niches, guilds, insular biogeography, phylogeography, and conservation.

While early ornithology was principally concerned with descriptions and distributions of species, ornithologists today seek answers to very specific questions, often using birds as models to test hypotheses or predictions based on theories. Most modern biological theories apply across life forms, and the number of scientists who identify themselves as "ornithologists" has therefore declined. A wide range of tools and techniques are used in ornithology, both inside the laboratory and out in the field, and innovations are constantly made. Most biologists who recognise themselves as "ornithologists" study specific biology research areas, such as anatomy, physiology, taxonomy (phylogenetics), ecology, or behaviour.

View the full Wikipedia page for Ornithology
↑ Return to Menu

Instinct in the context of Angling

Angling (from Old English angol, meaning "hook") is a fishing technique that uses a fish hook attached to a fishing line to tether individual fish in the mouth. The fishing line is usually manipulated with a fishing rod, although rodless techniques such as handlining also exist. Modern angling rods are usually fitted with a fishing reel that functions as a cranking device for storing, retrieving and releasing out the line, although Tenkara fishing and traditional cane pole fishing are two rod-angling methods that do not use any reel. The fish hook itself can be additionally weighted with a denser tackle called a sinker, and is typically dressed with an appetizing bait (i.e. hookbait) to attract and entice the fish into swallowing the hook, but sometimes an inedible fake/imitation bait with multiple attached hooks (known as a lure) is used instead of a single hook with edible bait. Some type of bite indicator, such as a float, a bell or a quiver tip, is often used to relay underwater status of the hook to the surface and alert the angler of a fish's presence.

When angling, the fisherman (known as the angler) will first throw the hook (i.e. "cast") to a chosen area of water (i.e. fishing ground), and then patiently wait for fish to approach and devour the hookbait. It is also not uncommon for the angler to scatter some loose bait (groundbait) around the target area before even casting the hook, to better attract distant fish with scents. If a fish has succumbed to its own feeding instinct and swallowed the baited hook (i.e. "bite" or "strike"), the hook point will likely pierce into and anchor itself inside the fish jaw, gullet or gill, and the fish in turn becomes firmly tethered by the fishing line. Once the fish is hooked (often colloquially called "fish-on"), any struggles and attempts to escape will pull along the line, causing the bite indicator to signal the angler, who jerks the fishing rod back to further deepen the hook anchorage (i.e. "setting the hook") and then tries to retrieve the line back, pulling the fish closer in the process. During the line retrieval, the angler will carefully monitor the line and rod tension to avoid equipment breaking. With stronger and feistier fish, the angler might need to temporarily halt or even reverse the line retrieval to prolong the struggle time and tire out the fish (i.e. "walking" the fish), before dragging it near enough to eventually lift it out of the water (known as "landing") for a successful catch. Sometimes a hand net (or "landing net") or a long-handled hook is used to make fetching the fish easier.

View the full Wikipedia page for Angling
↑ Return to Menu

Instinct in the context of Fish hook

A fish hook or fishhook, formerly also called an angle (from Old English angol and Proto-Germanic *angulaz), is a hook used to catch fish either by piercing and embedding onto the inside of the fish mouth (angling) or, more rarely, by impaling and snagging the external fish body. Fish hooks are normally attached to a line, which tethers the target fish to the angler for retrieval, and are typically dressed with some form of bait or lure that entices the fish to swallow the hook out of its own natural instinct to forage or hunt.

Fish hooks have been employed for millennia by fishermen to catch freshwater and saltwater fish. There is an enormous variety of fish hooks in the world of fishing. Sizes, designs, shapes, and materials are all variable depending on the intended purpose of the hook. Fish hooks are manufactured for a range of purposes from general fishing to extremely limited and specialized applications. Fish hooks are designed to hold various types of artificial, processed, dead or live baits (bait fishing); to act as the foundation for artificial representations of invertebrate prey (e.g. fly fishing); or to be attached to or integrated into other devices that mimic prey (lure fishing). In 2005, the fish hook was chosen by Forbes as one of the Top 20 tools in human history.

View the full Wikipedia page for Fish hook
↑ Return to Menu

Instinct in the context of Motor control

Motor control is the regulation of movements in organisms that possess a nervous system. Motor control includes conscious voluntary movements, subconscious muscle memory and involuntary reflexes, as well as instinctual taxes.

To control movement, the nervous system must integrate multimodal sensory information (both from the external world as well as proprioception) and elicit the necessary signals to recruit muscles to carry out a goal. This pathway spans many disciplines, including multisensory integration, signal processing, coordination, biomechanics, and cognition, and the computational challenges are often discussed under the term sensorimotor control. Successful motor control is crucial to interacting with the world to carry out goals as well as for posture, balance, and stability.

View the full Wikipedia page for Motor control
↑ Return to Menu

Instinct in the context of Monarch butterfly

The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (Danaus plexippus) is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. It is among the most familiar of North American butterflies and an iconic pollinator, although it is not an especially effective pollinator of milkweeds. Its wings feature an easily recognizable black, orange, and white pattern, with a wingspan of 8.9–10.2 cm (3.5–4.0 in). A Müllerian mimic, the viceroy butterfly, is similar in color and pattern, but is markedly smaller and has an extra black stripe across each hindwing.

The eastern North American monarch population is notable for its annual southward late-summer/autumn instinctive migration from the northern and central United States and southern Canada to Florida and Mexico. During the fall migration, monarchs cover thousands of miles, with a corresponding multigenerational return north in spring. The western North American population of monarchs west of the Rocky Mountains often migrates to sites in southern California, but have been found in overwintering Mexican sites, as well. Non-migratory populations are found further south in the Americas, and in parts of Europe, Oceania, and Southeast Asia.

View the full Wikipedia page for Monarch butterfly
↑ Return to Menu

Instinct in the context of Animal architecture

Structures built by non-human animals, often called animal architecture, are common in many species. Examples of animal structures include termite mounds, ant hills, wasp and beehives, burrow complexes, beaver dams, elaborate nests of birds, and webs of spiders.

Often, these structures incorporate sophisticated features such as temperature regulation, traps, bait, ventilation, special-purpose chambers and many other features. They may be created by individuals or complex societies of social animals with different forms carrying out specialized roles. These constructions may arise from complex building behaviour of animals such as in the case of night-time nests for chimpanzees, from inbuilt neural responses, which feature prominently in the construction of bird songs, or triggered by hormone release as in the case of domestic sows, or as emergent properties from simple instinctive responses and interactions, as exhibited by termites, or combinations of these. The process of building such structures may involve learning and communication, and in some cases, even aesthetics. Tool use may also be involved in building structures by animals.

View the full Wikipedia page for Animal architecture
↑ Return to Menu

Instinct in the context of Konrad Lorenz

Konrad Zacharias Lorenz (Austrian German pronunciation: [ˈkɔnʁaːd tsaxaˈʁiːas ˈloːʁɛnts] ; 7 November 1903 – 27 February 1989) was an Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch. He is often regarded as one of the founders of modern ethology, the study of animal behavior. He developed an approach that began with an earlier generation, including his teacher Oskar Heinroth.

Lorenz studied instinctive behavior in animals, especially in greylag geese and jackdaws. Working with geese, he investigated the principle of imprinting, the process by which some nidifugous birds (i.e. birds that leave their nest early) bond instinctively with the first moving object that they see within the first hours of hatching. Although Lorenz did not discover the topic, he became widely known for his descriptions of imprinting as an instinctive bond. In 1936, he met Tinbergen, and the two collaborated in developing ethology as a separate sub-discipline of biology. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Lorenz the 65th most cited scholar of the 20th century in the technical psychology journals, introductory psychology textbooks, and survey responses.

View the full Wikipedia page for Konrad Lorenz
↑ Return to Menu

Instinct in the context of Nesting instinct

Nesting behavior is an instinct in animals during reproduction where they prepare a place with optimal conditions to nurture their offspring. The nesting place provides protection against predators and competitors that mean to exploit or kill offspring. It also provides protection against the physical environment.

Nest building is important in family structure and is therefore influenced by different mating behaviours and social settings. It is found in a variety of animals such as birds, fish, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles.

View the full Wikipedia page for Nesting instinct
↑ Return to Menu

Instinct in the context of Mobbing (animal behavior)

Mobbing in animals is an anti-predator adaptation in which individuals of prey species cooperatively attack or harass a predator, usually to protect their offspring. A simple definition of mobbing is an assemblage of individuals around a potentially dangerous predator. This is most frequently seen in birds, though it is also known to occur in many other animals such as the meerkat and some bovines. While mobbing has evolved independently in many species, it only tends to be present in those whose young are frequently preyed upon. This behavior may complement cryptic adaptations in the offspring themselves, such as camouflage and hiding. Mobbing calls may be used to summon nearby individuals to cooperate in the attack.

Konrad Lorenz, in his book On Aggression (1966), attributed mobbing among birds and animals to instincts rooted in the Darwinian struggle to survive. In his view, humans are subject to similar innate impulses but capable of bringing them under rational control (see: Mobbing).

View the full Wikipedia page for Mobbing (animal behavior)
↑ Return to Menu

Instinct in the context of Thirst

Thirst is the craving for potable fluids, resulting in the basic instinct of animals to drink. It is an essential mechanism involved in fluid balance. It arises from a lack of fluids or an increase in the concentration of certain osmolites, such as sodium. If the water volume of the body falls below a certain threshold or the osmolite concentration becomes too high, structures in the brain detect changes in blood constituents and signal thirst.

Continuous dehydration can cause acute and chronic diseases, but is most often associated with renal and neurological disorders. Excessive thirst, called polydipsia, along with excessive urination, known as polyuria, may be an indication of diabetes mellitus or diabetes insipidus.

View the full Wikipedia page for Thirst
↑ Return to Menu

Instinct in the context of Obligate nasal breathing

Obligate nasal breathing describes a physiological instinct to breathe through the nose (or other forms of external nasal passages, depending on the species) as opposed to breathing through the mouth.

View the full Wikipedia page for Obligate nasal breathing
↑ Return to Menu

Instinct in the context of Habit (biology)

Habit, equivalent to habitus in some applications in biology, refers variously to aspects of behaviour or structure, as follows:

  • In zoology (particularly in ethology), habit usually refers to aspects of more or less predictable behaviour, instinctive or otherwise, though it also has broader application. Habitus refers to the characteristic form or morphology of a species.
  • In botany, the plant habit is the characteristic form in which a given species of plant grows.
View the full Wikipedia page for Habit (biology)
↑ Return to Menu

Instinct in the context of Observational learning

Observational learning is learning that occurs through observing the behavior of others. It is a form of social learning which takes various forms, based on various processes. In humans, this form of learning seems to not need reinforcement to occur, but instead, requires a social model such as a parent, sibling, friend, or teacher with surroundings. Particularly in childhood, a model is someone of authority or higher status in an environment. In animals, observational learning is often based on classical conditioning, in which an instinctive behavior is elicited by observing the behavior of another (e.g. mobbing in birds), but other processes may be involved as well.

View the full Wikipedia page for Observational learning
↑ Return to Menu