Behavioral Ecology pt. 2 Flashcards
3 Objectives for Behavioral Ecology
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
The study of how and why animals interact with each other (both within and among species) and their environment.
What is Animal Behavior?
mechanisms responsible for interactions
Proximate questions - how
how these interactions influence an individual’s survival and reproduction.
Ultimate questions - why
Why study behavior ecology? (3)
Possible first science
Control/management of species
Understanding/modification of our own behavior
___ from 40,000+ years ago provide indirect evidence that primitive humans observed the behavior of animals.
Paleolithic art
___ 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
Blurton-Jones (1976)
How do we
often interpret
animal behavior?
Anthropomorphism
___ determined that
baboons had female
dominated societies
Shirley Strum
Objective description of behavior in the field, using observation.
Ethology
___ coined the term instinct to describe the display patterns of pigeons.
C. O. Whitman (1800’s)
The ___ a graph of the time course or switch
points in a sequence of behaviors, became a way of
categorizing species-typical behaviors.
Ethogram
___ called triggers of
instinctive stereotyped behaviors ___. (Believed that we needed to think like the animal - not anthropomorphize).
Jakob von Uexkull (1864-1944)
sign stimuli
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.
Charles Darwin
“…depends on the success of certain individuals over
others of the same sex, in relation to propagation of the species…”
Charles Darwin 1871
Founders of the field of Animal Behavior (3) The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1973
Niko Tinbergen
Konrad Lorenz
Karl von Frisch
the study of the
evolution and functional significance of
behavior.
Modern Ethology
examined genetically
programmed behaviors in young and imprinting.
Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989)
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.
Karl von Frisch (1886 - 1982)
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.
Niko Tinbergen (1907-1988)
A
B
C
D
E
F
Animal (organisms)
Behavior (observable actions)
Causation (proximate causes)
Development (ontogeny of behaviors)
Evolution (phylogenetic context)
Function (adaptive value or contribution)
Model organisms example
Norway Rat
Behaviorism coined by ___
B.F. Skinner
Experimental studies of behavior in the
laboratory, using manipulation
“universal principles” of behavior
Learning: classical and operant conditioning
Behaviorism
The ___ remains an important tool in the field of
animal psychology.
Skinner Box
A synthesis between the evolutionary traditions of
modern ethology, and the mechanistic studies of
comparative psychology
Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
Krebs and Davies (1978)
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.
Sociobiology
E. O. Wilson (1975).
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?
Evolutionary Psychology
