Chapter 4 - Homeostasis and Time Budgets

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter appreciates how homeostasis describes the behavioral and physiological processes that animals use to maintain appropriate internal and external environments. Homeostasis is an umbrella term for the behavioral and physiological processes that animals use to maintain appropriate internal and external environments. Motivation and drive theory assists to understand homeostatic decisions by animals; although drive theory has been replaced by more sophisticated ways of looking at the physiology behind behavioral decisions, it remains a useful concept, especially in the area of animal welfare. Behavior plays a crucial role in the maintenance of animal homeostasis and homeostatic needs, in turn, often motivate behavioral choice. Displacement behavior and redirected behavior, in the form of self-directed behaviors, are tools from drive theory that provide powerful insights for assessing animal welfare. Time budget analyses allow quantification and interpretation of behavioral decisions that maintain homeostasis. Time budgets are among the simplest, yet most powerful, tools available to biologists studying animal behavior in field settings.