Behavioural adaptations are the ways an organism acts that increase its chance of survival and reproduction. Behaviour can be innate (inherited and carried out without learning) or learned from experience. Innate behaviours are shaped directly by natural selection.Examples
• Migration: swallows fly south in autumn to warmer areas where food is available, and return to breed in spring.
• Courtship: displays and songs, such as the dance of a male bird of paradise, attract a mate of the same species and show the male is fit, increasing reproductive success.
• Avoiding extremes: many desert animals, such as kangaroo rats, stay in cool, humid burrows by day and come out at night, reducing water loss and overheating.
• Basking: lizards and other ectotherms lie in the sun to warm up before becoming active, and move into shade when too hot. This is behavioural control of body temperature.
• Playing dead: opossums may lie still when threatened, so predators lose interest.
• Moving to suitable conditions: woodlice move faster and turn more in dry, bright places and slow down in damp, dark places, so they end up where they lose less water.
• Working together: wolves hunt in packs, allowing them to kill prey much larger than themselves.Some behaviours combine with anatomical adaptations. For example, an animal with camouflaged colouring only benefits if it stays still in the right place, so resting behaviour and colour work together.
• Migration: swallows fly south in autumn to warmer areas where food is available, and return to breed in spring.
• Courtship: displays and songs, such as the dance of a male bird of paradise, attract a mate of the same species and show the male is fit, increasing reproductive success.
• Avoiding extremes: many desert animals, such as kangaroo rats, stay in cool, humid burrows by day and come out at night, reducing water loss and overheating.
• Basking: lizards and other ectotherms lie in the sun to warm up before becoming active, and move into shade when too hot. This is behavioural control of body temperature.
• Playing dead: opossums may lie still when threatened, so predators lose interest.
• Moving to suitable conditions: woodlice move faster and turn more in dry, bright places and slow down in damp, dark places, so they end up where they lose less water.
• Working together: wolves hunt in packs, allowing them to kill prey much larger than themselves.Some behaviours combine with anatomical adaptations. For example, an animal with camouflaged colouring only benefits if it stays still in the right place, so resting behaviour and colour work together.