biology - 2.1e - measuring and recording animal behaviour Flashcards
What are some of the measurements used to quantify animal behaviour?
Latency, frequency and duration.
What is latency?
The time between the stimulus
occurring and the response behaviour.
What is frequency?
The number of times a
behaviour occurs within the observation period.
What is duration?
The length of time each behaviour occurs during the observation period.
What does an ethogram of the behaviours shown by a species in a wild context allow?
The construction of time budgets.
What does an ethogram list?
Species-specific behaviours to be observed and recorded in
the study.
What does recording the duration of each of the behaviours in the ethogram, together with the total time of observation, allow?
The proportion of time spent on each behaviour to be calculated in the time budget.
What must you avoid when analysing behaviour?
Anthropomorphism.
What can anthropomorphism lead to?
Invalid conclusions.
