Behavioral Ecology pt. 2

Question 1

3 Objectives for Behavioral Ecology

Answer 1

1.To determine the various behavioral patterns that is caused by specific ecological set-up

2.To understand the basic mechanisms or differences of the behavioral patterns based on the ecological set up

3.To describe specific behavioral ecological patterns

Question 2

The study of how and why animals interact with each other (both within and among species) and their environment.

Answer 2

What is Animal Behavior?

Question 3

mechanisms responsible for interactions

Answer 3

Proximate questions - how

Question 4

how these interactions influence an individual’s survival and reproduction.

Answer 4

Ultimate questions - why

Question 5

Why study behavior ecology? (3)

Answer 5

Possible first science

Control/management of species

Understanding/modification of our own behavior

Question 6

___ from 40,000+ years ago provide indirect evidence that primitive humans observed the behavior of animals.

Answer 6

Paleolithic art

Question 7

___ documented Kalahari bushmen’s (!Kung) knowledge of animal behavior.

Hunter-gatherer society, similar to most of
human’s history.

• Discriminated data
  from theory
• Developed hypotheses
• Used reasoned
  skepticism

Answer 7

Blurton-Jones (1976)

Question 8

How do we
often interpret
animal behavior?

Answer 8

Anthropomorphism

Question 9

___ determined that
baboons had female
dominated societies

Answer 9

Shirley Strum

Question 10

Objective description of behavior in the field, using observation.

Answer 10

Ethology

Question 11

___ coined the term instinct to describe the display patterns of pigeons.

Answer 11

C. O. Whitman (1800’s)

Question 12

The ___ a graph of the time course or switch
points in a sequence of behaviors, became a way of
categorizing species-typical behaviors.

Answer 12

Ethogram

Question 13

___ called triggers of
instinctive stereotyped behaviors ___. (Believed that we needed to think like the animal - not anthropomorphize).

Answer 13

Jakob von Uexkull (1864-1944)
sign stimuli

Question 14

Realized that traits related directly to mate acquisition and mate choice, were distinctly different from other traits under natural selection (e.g., foraging ability). He coined the term sexual selection to emphasize the
distinction between the two processes.

Answer 14

Charles Darwin

Question 15

“…depends on the success of certain individuals over
others of the same sex, in relation to propagation of the species…”

Answer 15

Charles Darwin 1871

Question 16

Founders of the field of Animal Behavior (3) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1973

Answer 16

Niko Tinbergen
Konrad Lorenz
Karl von Frisch

Question 17

the study of the
evolution and functional significance of
behavior.

Answer 17

Modern Ethology

Question 18

examined genetically
programmed behaviors in young and imprinting.

Answer 18

Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989)

Question 19

pioneered studies in bee
communication and foraging.

Demonstrated that honey bees have color vision.

Honey bees use a dance language to communicate the location of resources to other bees.

Answer 19

Karl von Frisch (1886 - 1982)

Question 20

formulated a method studying
animal behavior

His approach had a strong Darwinian influence:
understand the ultimate (evolutionary) reasons for
behavior.

Demonstrated that digger wasps used
visual landmarks to relocate their nests.

Answer 20

Niko Tinbergen (1907-1988)

Question 21

A
B
C
D
E
F

Answer 21

Animal (organisms)
Behavior (observable actions)
Causation (proximate causes)
Development (ontogeny of behaviors)
Evolution (phylogenetic context)
Function (adaptive value or contribution)

Question 22

Model organisms example

Answer 22

Norway Rat

Question 23

Behaviorism coined by ___

Answer 23

B.F. Skinner

Question 24

Experimental studies of behavior in the
laboratory, using manipulation
“universal principles” of behavior
Learning: classical and operant conditioning

Answer 24

Behaviorism

Question 25

The ___ remains an important tool in the field of
animal psychology.

Answer 25

Skinner Box

Question 26

A synthesis between the evolutionary traditions of
modern ethology, and the mechanistic studies of
comparative psychology

Answer 26

Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

Krebs and Davies (1978)

Question 27

How do principles of modern ethology explain the evolution of complex social systems?

The theory has been the target of much controversy because of
its application to humans.

Answer 27

Sociobiology

E. O. Wilson (1975).

Question 28

Use the approaches of behavioral ecology and sociobiology to explain human behavior (murder, female choice).

Are humans subject to the same “rules” that shape the
behavior of other organisms?

Answer 28

Evolutionary Psychology