Animal Behaviour Flashcards
Levitus, 2009 - definition of behaviour
The internally coordinated responses (actions and inactions) of whole living organisms (individuals or groups) to internal and/or external stimuli, excluding responses more easily understood as developmental changes
What proportion of known species are vertebrates
<5%
Scope and impact (5 areas)
Post release mortality, resolving human-wildlife conflict, conservation, neuroscience, public engagement
Application to aquaculture
Hatchery-reared fish have high mortality - lack survival skills, migratory behaviour, foraging skills, anti-predator behaviours - behaviour studies to inform hatchery design
Question approach to behaviour study
Ask a question (what are the benefits of a behaviour), chose a system (what animals display this behaviour)
Cons of question approach
High cost - if each question leads to a new system, new equipment will need purchasing regularly
System approach to studying behaviour
Generate hypotheses from field observations of systems, then test them
Ethogram
Behavioural observations require defined behaviours - ethogram is a comprehensive list/inventory of described behaviour built through observation
Events
Short duration
Counted rather than timed
Longer behaviours can be counted eg courtship attempts
States
Extended
Eg foraging, sleeping, movement
Sampling protocols
Ad libitum, focal animal, all occurrences, binary, scan sampling
Constraints on sampling
Man power, field season length, replicates
Sampling protocol depends on
Ease of observation, specific question, statistics planned, constraints
Ad libitum
Observe and record individual/group behaviours - good for initial observations, ethograms, question formation. Limited in data quality/quantity
Focal animal
Recording either all behaviour of an individual, or all occurrences of a specific behaviour in an individual
