People who study animal behavior are concerned with
understanding the causes, functions,
• development, and evolution of behavior. The causes of behavior
include both the external stimuli that affect behavior, and the internal
hormonal and neural mechanisms that control behavior. The
• functions of behavior include its immediate effects on animals and
its adaptive value in helping
• animals to survive or reproduce successfully in a particular
environment. The development of
• behavior pertains to the ways in which behavior changes over the
lifetime of an animal, and how
• these changes are affected by both genes and experience. The
evolution of behavior relates to the
• origins of behavior patterns and how these change over
generations.