Introduction

Animal behavior is dependent on the cytological and histological functionality of the nervous system compromised of the peripheral and central nervous systems. The peripheral nervous system consists of all of the nervous tissues that are not included in the brain (generally defined by the membrane separating the bloodstream of the head and the rest of the body) and the spinal cord (the parts to the central nervous system).

Ethology is defined as the study of animal behavior and has been largely contributed to thanks to the research of Konrad Lorenz who developed studies involving geese to test animal behavior at young ages as well as other ethological concepts such as taxis and kinesis. In ethology, taxes are defined as movements away or towards some stimulus applied to the organism. An example of this (even though it is not animal behavior and not related to the nervous system) is cyanobacteria and their movement towards or away from lights. These movements would be identified as a phototaxis. In ethology, kinesis refers to animal behavior that is in response to the stimulus but has no standard orientation to move the organism away or towards the stimulus.

Kinesises are usually classified into multiple types including photokinesis (response to light), chemokinesis (response to chemicals, either water-borne or air-borne), hydrokinesis (response to water), thermokinesis (response to average kinetic energy), gravikinesis (response to gravity), and haptokinesis (response to touch / tactile stimulation). An example of kinesis is given when one approaches the sleeping cat or sleeping dog and touches the fur and the animal reacts by some sort of twitching. However, not all dogs and cats respond in the same manner to such stimulation. Some may awaken, others may not respond at all.

Reflex arcs are not instinctive behaviors. Breast feeding and the ability to nurse has to be an instinctive ability. Some children are born without that instinct and it is extremely difficult to get them to survive. You have to teach them to have something that would have otherwise been engrained.

It was Konrad Lorenz, Timbergen, and Frisch who said that there are two types of behaviors: innate behaviors and learned behaviors. Innate behaviors are those behaviors that are similar regardless of the situation, they are standard across the species, and they are relatively unchanged according to the reception of stimuli. The second type of behavior is learned behavior including imprinting, associative learning, and classical conditioning.

The idea of imprinting was put forth by Konrad Lorenz. He found out that when a baby goose is born, that that baby goose imprints, as its mother, as the first thing that it sees, and if you take an egg about to hatch, and you take it away from mama goose and you show it some other object (dog, human) then that gussling imprints on that organism as its mother.

It is highly possible to create the situation of a `family' with very young dogs. You remove the pup from the family and you bring them into the family then you imprint them into the family and they really believe that they are part of the human family. And it is a very serious, enormous psychological problem that humans try to get over.

Associative learning is the ability of an animal to associate one stimulus with that of another stimulus. This is like humans learning to associate the written word with particular sounds or dogs learning that when the bell is rang that the food will be served.

Classical conditioning on the other hand is not associative in nature and is more related to physiological conditions rather than psychological such that certain body states are conditioned to be after another. It is like tricking the body into doing something that it would otherwise not do at all.

In terms of classical conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus is the thing that can already provoke some response. The unconditioned response is the behavior already associated with the stimulus. The unconditioned relationship is defined as an existing relationship between stimulus and response. The conditioned stimulus is the one that is delivered at the same time that the unconditioned stimulus is given. The conditioned response is the new response given when we create by associating the old stimulus-response to the new stimulus and so on. This is effectively “piggy backing” on older behavior.

In order to improve on our understanding of ethology an experiment had to be designed to assist the illustration of the creation of ethograms and laboratory experiments. In particular our experiment involved roughly twelve rolie polies in very small Petri-dishes connected together wherein the two Petri dishes were considered to be separate environments. The design of our experiment called for observation of the movement of the isopods from one Petri to another when there was a difference in water content and then when there was a difference in brightness (under the lamp).

The materials required to carry that out were only listed to be the Petri dish but instead some extra materials were scrounged up on the spot to assist in the laboratory experiment. Our design called for at least one cup-full of ground “mesh” including twigs, leaves, very, very tiny pebbles, grass pieces, dirt, etc. These components were used to attempt the simulation of some environment that rolie polies may find themselves in (i.e., where we found them, sort of). Remember, ethograms work better when the animals are in their natural habitats.

In total the materials included the Petri dish, cups, water, dirt, leaves, twigs, grass, rolie polies, and a lamp. The water was not distilled—it was just lab water. The cups used to transport the water were not checked for cleanliness and thus may have influenced the way in which the experiment carried out.

The method of carrying out the lab experiment involved four parts. Each section of the experiment was done twice (thus there were four parts in all). The first two parts consisted of observations of the rolie polies in moist and damp environments. The second two parts consisted of observations of the rolie polies in bright and dark environments. Note that during the experiment it was recognized that the lamp was also generating heat which may have influenced the behavior of the rolie polies instead of only the light directly from the lamp (as well as other environmental variables).

The organisms on the moist side are migrating towards the water splotch. The rolie polies on the dry side are moving more so than they are on the wet side. One has transferred over to the wet side. The wet-side ones have moved towards the water and are staying there (9:02).

One is moving to the dry side. It was kind of close to the water at first. “Can we get the dead one out? It bugs me.” One is coming over from the dry side to the wet side. It travels over the sticks, leaves, to the to pof the pile, mnmoving quickly, and then digs downwards and begins to sty put. It then continues to dig under the sticks and brush and move to the side of the wet side Petri dish. One of the others went from the wet side to the dry side. The one that we were observing moments ago has stopped moving significantly.

When they move over on their backs, they curl up to move and get on their front. At 9:05, we are adding more water to the wet side. The one that we were observing moments ago is now moving on the edges and is still going significantly. He is still moving with the curve of the Petri dish and then continues onwards into some pool of water and is nearing three other wet-side rolie polies. We have 12 rolie polies.

There are two-wet sie rolie polies that are now climbing on top of each other. Two others are moving towards each other as well. Uipon tactile touch, one of the bigger rolie polies begins to move around. The rolie polies on the wet set continue to move on the sides. The group of three rolie polies on the dry side were all over each other and then fell off.

One just went from the wet to the dry side. They are having interactions, yes, but they climb over each other, and now there are two rolie polies going to the wet side. Well, only one went to the wet side. Then one on the dry side is moving farthest away from the wet side. The rolie polies are using the sticks to roll back on their feet on the wet side. The dry side rolie polies stay farthest away from the wet side. There are two rolie polies on top of each other, one almost piggy-backing and now moving off to a perpendicular angle.

The rolie polies are still moving away on the wet side, some are going upside down, another has been near the entrance to the dry side for a while now. One is trying to use the rock to roll over, and it's not working (on the wet side). And it is still working its best (9:10) and trying to move the stick with its feat. The rolie polie is exceptionally hopeless as it tries to turn over on the stick in the mesh bed that it has. Another one on the dry side is trying to get out, but now the bigger one is on top of it and they are continuing on the side of it. It seems that they mainly just climb on top of each other as means of social interaction.

The ones on the wet side are rather still except for the one that is trying to get over on his feet. And now a dry one is moving towards the wet side and then the guy that was using sticks and stones to get over was helped by another rolie polie as it was going towards the water.

The movement of the rolie polies is not drastic when one picks up the Petri dishes that are attached side by side. They do, however, continue running over their terrain and topology as they were before, although we cannot know this for sure.

We can use the florescent light to light the chamber and keep the other one dark. And then we can see whether or not the rolie polies move towards the light Petri dish or the dark Petri dish. We are keeping the dark Petri dish dark.

We are trying not to confuse the light variable with the moister variable. The ones in the light environment are moving. One just moved over from the dark environment to the light one and then one just went from the light to the dark. The ones in the light environment are … There was one that just came from the dark (2 from the dark to the light, etc.). One on the light environment was trying to escape (perhaps moving towards the light source). Robert has put his paper over the dark environment. Seven are in the light environment and since we had 12 rolie polies, 5 are in the dark environment (9:16).

A couple of them are trying to hide under the covers. One tried to escape again on the light environment. They seem to prefer the edges in the light environment. One just went to the dark environment. Another one went to the dark. Yet another just went to the dark. There are only four in the light area at the moment. (9:17)

Another looked like it was going to the dark environment but turned around and now it just went into the dark environment. There are only three orolie polies in the light area and they are kind of hiding under the dirt / mesh (kind of sort of).

One is moving and the other is just kind of laying there. Note that we have no idea how well fed that these polies are. The three remaining in the light area are no longer moving. We can't tell in the dark area. The rolie polies in the dark area were observed to be slightly moving. We cannot tell because we had to add light to that particular environment in order to ascertain whether or not they were moving.

(9:20) And now we are switching the environments so that the wet one is the one in the light and the others are in the dark. The ones in the light environment are now moving. At least three are moving at the moment. And now at least five are moving. We do not know whether or not the moisture factor or dirt factor or light factor moves anything. One just came from the dark to the light but one just came from the light to the dark. And now another one went to the dark side (light to dark).

The light ones are still active. Another one went fro mthe light to the dark. A couple of them are hiding under the dirt. They are still active. There are seven in the light area (9:22). They are still active. Two are racing towards the dark area, one just went into the dark area, another one just went into the dark area. Two rolie polies in the new light area have collided and are just moving around. They do not have complicated social interactions. When they are moving, their antennae collide with each other and then one decides to move in response while another may continue in the same direction. Actually, when they collide, they go in different directions.

When they collide, they usually go different ways. Another one just went into the dark side. There are four on the light side and they are not moving. Some are hiding behind leaves (9:23). The only one that is moving is trying to get over a piece of dirt or grass or twig or whatever it is that the mesh is made of.

Another one just went into the dark side (9:24). There are only three on the light side and they are not really moving. One is moving now and it is moving over some leaves on top of two other rolie polies. It is moving towards the edge of the Petri dish and now two are moving. One just came fro mthe dark to the light side and is active. Another just came from the dark to the light side. The two that just came from the dark side are going towards the water (9:25).

One is covering the other and then they go in opposite directions or trying to move in different directions at least. After the one on top has moved away it then continues onwards and the bottom one slowly begins moving.

It looks like they move towards water and they don't really care whether or not it is dark or light. They prefer moving into the dark area, it seems. There is also the heat factor to think about when they are in the different environments. At 9:26, they are as far away from the light environment as possible on the opposite end of the Petri dish. It looks like they do not like the light (or the strong light at least). At the end of this second part of the experiment they were more in the dark environment.

Conclusions are listed in the conclusion section. The physiological reasons for the observed behavior can range from anywhere from kinesis and taxis in the nervous system to learned behaviors. However, after nearly one half hour of observation it is apparent that these rolie polies are incapable of associative learning and thus that there reactions to stimulus (if any) were mainly random jerk-like reactions in an attempt to meet basic homeostatic resource necessities such as food and some sort of basic shelter to protect the exoskeletal system.

Although data was not collected, it was apparent from the collection process of the isopod specimens that they largely prefer to be in warm, damp environments that are not flooded with water but enough to keep the region under the rock warm. Remember, soil does not absorb heat well, whereas water does, and as the water soaks into the soil, the soil is heated to some extent and the rolie polies have their under-sides heated to keep their bodies cool when they are likely spending great deals of energy on keeping their exoskeletal shell moving.

Our experiment is a bit of an odd test case for the location of appropriate environments because technically our simulated environments were not the natural environments in which the organisms lived. It is thus suggested that the isopods locate appropriate environments by using their senses relative to the evolutionary history leading to these particular morphological characteristics. They did not necessarily locate any `appropriate' environment because our temporary environment was going to be destroyed anyway. In the mean time, during our experiment, some rolie polies went over the sides of the walls (at which point we kicked them back in) and this suggests that they either were crawling randomly or still seeking out more appropriate environments. They seemed to be using antennae motion more than any sort of `eye' sight at all: they would run into each other and then antennae movement would reach some high (next experiment: track movement of antennae and relative rate of twitches).

I would expect the rolie polies to be doing nothing in particular and sort of `resting' there (for a lack of better terms—what do they do when “resting”?). Do rolie polies rest completely? Do they sleep? After some minutes my suspicion is that the behaviors would change towards moving away from the sunlight and traveling to nearby shelter and reaffirming their established internal conditions such that their heat transfer is more evened out with the soil and immediately surrounding environment.

The behavior is most likely kinesis because the directions were, in general, random. This could be further tested by blocking out the stimulation of the organisms and seeing what sort of “long range” detection they may have when their antennas are impeded or when other input organs are destroyed.

Careful review of the collected observation will suggest that interpretation was done in real time. This is actually one of the major problems of ethological and social sciences because observations are largely qualitative instead of quantitative. In fact, most sciences are based around numeral observations which are done based off of subjective measurements with varying degrees of consistency (not all rulers are created equally even though they may seem to give preliminarily correct results).

The data was being interpreted in real time. Had another person been sat down at the table to observe the behavior of the organisms there would have been another set of words put down that may have been referring to the same exact behaviors and events. There were clearly not enough eyes to watch each variable in the experiment and the many input-output correlations for each of the 12 organisms.

Suppose that in some fictional experiment we would be monitoring only two inputs and then the output of motion in each organism. There would be at least 24 input variables to monitor and observe at each moment plus the 12 outputs for motor differences and so on. The motion of the organisms of importance and then when they become closer and closer to each other more and more you have to account for their feedback with each other and the variables get very messy to deal with the limited number of people and recording apparatus.