1. Introduction

Question 1

Animal behaviour has improved aquaculture and agriculture. Give an example of how it has improved aquaculture.

Answer 1

1. Raising fish in hatcheries has improved fish populations over time and can become necessary to maintain fish populations eg. in the Caspian Sea (Brown & Laland, 2001).
2. There is high mortality eg. less than 5% of healthy salmon mature, with most dying in first few days after release (Brown & Laland, 2001).
3. Hatchery fish have low migratory, feeding and anti-predatory skills, as they should learn these in lifetime but are living in an unnatural environment (Brown & Laland, 2001).
4. Predatory fish may target hatchery fish due to above (Brown & Laland, 2001).
5. Hatchery fish survival rates may increase with social learning, in which a naive fish is exposed to a trained demonstrator, and then becomes the demonstrator and so on (Brown & Laland, 2001).

Question 2

Give an example of how animal behaviour research has reduced human-wildlife conflict.

Answer 2

1. Elephant habitats in Mozambique are shrinking, causing elephants to raid and destroy crops.
2. Research found elephants dislike capsicum
3. Chili peppers are grown around crops and pepper fences are now used.

Question 3

Give an example of how animal behaviour studies have aided conservation.

Answer 3

1. Hand-reared animals do not show normal species behaviour so survival rates on release are low.
2. Imprinting studies have helped us to avoid animals imprinting on human carers
3. We heave learnt migratory routes and taught them to captive birds using camouflaged microlites.

Question 4

Give an example of an instance where animal behaviour studies have had implications for neuroscience research in humans.

Answer 4

1. There are parallels between birdsong and human speech learning.
2. Discovery of neurogenesis like this in birds allowed similar discoveries in humans
3. This has implications for research in diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Question 5

What invertebrates may be used for animal behaviour studies?

Answer 5

Most popular: insects, other crustaceans, worms
Gaining popularity: flatworms, echinoderms and cnidaria

Question 6

What is interesting about the behaviour of some sea anemones?

Answer 6

1. The Beadlet sea anemones fight each other for the best rockpool positions
2. The most persistent anemone wins contest fights (Rudin & Briffa, 2012).
3. Anemones base fight decisions on their own resource holding potential (RHP), not that of others (Rudin & Briffa, 2012).
4. Outcome of fight can alter physiology, therefore changing the RHP (Rudin & Briffa, 2012).
5. Response times of anemones were repeatable, which suggests they have personalities, and bolder anemones were winners as they had shorter startle duration (Rudin & Briffa, 2012).

Question 7

How did Charles Darwin use animal behavour to back up his theory of evolution?

Answer 7

1. Animal behaviour didn’t exist in Darwin’s time, but he was interested in instincts.
2. He believed natural selection and acquisition of characteristics could impact behaviour (Boakes, 2010).
3. Darwin used the idea to support evolution, arguing human intelligence evolved from less intelligent animals (Boakes, 2010).
4. He also believed sexual selection increased intelligence (Boakes, 2010).
5. He thought expression of emotions, as in humans, led to better communication and therefore more offspring (Boakes, 2010).

Question 8

Darwin’s view of animal behaviour was anthropocentric. How did scientists after him feel about anthropomorphism?

Answer 8

1. Conwy Lloyd Morgan wanted a more critical approach to animal behaviour.
2. Lloyd Morgan’s canon stated that animal behaviour should not be interpreted as human-level intelligence until simpler explanations have been tested and shown to be unlikely.
3. ‘Clever Hans’ was a 1900s horse who could apparently do arithmetic, read a clock and give the name of the artist when confronted with the painting using a number=letter alphabet system (Samhita & Gross, 2013).
4. Many scientists, academics and doctors believed he was capable of human-level thought.
5. Oscar Pfungst found Hans couldn’t answer if the questioner didn’t know the answer or was hidden behind a screen (Samhita & Gross, 2013).
6. Hans was picking up microexpressions from any human who knew the answer - still very intelligent (Samhita & Gross, 2013).
7. Early experimental animal behaviour focused on conditioning eg. Pavlov.

Question 9

What discipline did animal behaviour develop into in Europe and how?

Answer 9

1. European gentlemen watched animals in the field eg. Chance, Huxley
2. Field observations developed into ethology, which focused on instinct and innate ‘fixed action patterns’
3. Famous ethologists included Tinbergen, Lorenz and von Frisch.

Question 10

What discipline did animal behaviour develop into in North America and how?

Answer 10

1. Focus was psychology, developed from Pavlov’s experiments
2. There was also focus on physiology and comparative, lab-based psychology, which developed into behaviorism.
3. The concept of the mind was not needed.
4. Behaviorists were interested in the learning process
5. Famous behaviorists included Thorndike, John Watson and Skinner.

Question 11

What sorts of experiments did early behaviorists carry out?

Answer 11

1. Thorndike’s puzzle box - time how long it takes for cat to escape it several times.
2. Skinner box - teach rodent to press a leaver in response to stimuli eg. lights, sound - more quantifiable than puzzle box.

Question 12

What were the four whys that Tinbergen developed as a framework for studying animal behaviour?

Answer 12

1. What is the behaviour for/function
2. How did it develop during the individual’s lifetime/ontogeny
3. How did it evolve over the history of the species/phylogeny
4. How does it work/mechanism (Bateson & Laland, 2013).

Question 13

How can Tinbergen’s questions be catergorised?

Answer 13

Question 14

What are some of the suggestions made by Bateson & Laland (2013) for Tinbergen’s 5^th question?

Answer 14

1. How is the behaviour inherited?
2. How can the 4 questions be integrated?
3. What is the character?
4. Of what is the animal aware?

Question 15

What are some of the strgneths of Tinbergen’s 4 questions, as suggested by Bateson & Laland (2013)?

Answer 15

1. Ontogeny - this question allows the time before conception to be considered, as factors other than genes influence heredity eg. cytoplasmic effects and paternal genomic imprinting
2. If all levels are studied and connected, as in birdsong, we get a full picture of the behaviour.

Question 16

What are some of the weaknesses of Tinbergen’s 4 questions as suggested by Bateson & Laland (2013)?

Answer 16

1. Current function may not be the same as original functionl and this may not be due to natural selection, eg. tits opening milk bottles
2. It is now known evolution is controlled by frist as well as natural selection, and co-option of functions also contributes as environment changes
3. It can be hard to determine what behaviour is developmental vs evolutionary
4. Social transmission must be considered
5. There is a current lack of integration and research into mechanisms of control and development has been neglected
6. Function must be chosen for a particular point in ontogeny

Question 17

How has research into digger wasps answered proximate questions?

Answer 17

1. Digger wasps circle their nest a few times before leaving
2. Tinbergen thought wasps were using landmarks so they could find their nests again
3. He moved landmarks, and the wasps returned to the point within the landmarks where the nest would be if the placement of them had not changed
4. This shows us how digger wasps find their mest, therefore it’s focusing on internal mechanisms - a proximate question

Question 18

How has research into black-headed gulls answered ultimate questions?

Answer 18

1. After a chick hatches, the parent carries the egg away
2. Outside egg = camouflaged, inside = white
3. Tinbergen sprinkled broken and whole eggs around a sand dune
4. Eggs closer to broken shells were waten more often as broken shells conspicuous to predators
5. Removal of broken shells adaptive to increase fitness, so this asnwers an ultimate question.