Into to Animal Behavior Flashcards
Tinbergen’s Four Questions
Immediate Causation (physical mechanism)
Development (learning/hormones)
Evolution (phylogeny)
Function (adaptive significance)
Proximate Causes
“How?”
Causation
Development
Ultimate Causes
“Why?”
Evolution
Function
Teleology
Ascribing a conscious purpose to behavior
Anthropomorphism
Imposing human traits on animals.
Ethology
Study of animal behavior in natural environments Stresses the analysis of adaptation Arose in Europe Emphasizes ultimate causes Instinctive behaviors Lorenz, Tinbergen, von Frisch
ability to survive and reproduce
fitness
number of genes/offspring contributed to the next generation
reproductive success
Genetic if:
isolate (absence or learning/change habitat), artificial selection, mutation, knock out/knock in, breeding/hybrids, twins
Kin Recognition
phenotype matching
recognition alleles
spatial distribution
association
Phenotype Matching
“armpit effect”
if it looks, smells and sounds like you, it must be family
Recognition Alleles
“green beard effect”
recognizable trait and recognition of others from the major histocompatability genes
Spatial Distribution
favor anyone in nest/burrow
Association
those you grew up with/spend enough time with are family
Preps animals for loss of control and life as an adult
Play
