Lecture 1: Introduction

Question 1

Sac-winged bat (Saccopteryx bilinieata) scent production

Answer 1

Male hanging upside down, starts to lick clean cavity in his wing, leans forward and drips urine into his mouth. Continues licking, collects yellow secretion and puts into cavity. Secretion drop of gland from gland chin, into cavity. Bacteria in cavity and contents combine produce pleasant scent

Question 2

The founders of animal behaviour: (3 early ‘ethologists’)

Answer 2

• Niko Tinbergen (Dutch) 1907-1988
• Konrad Lorenz (Austrian) 1903-1989
• Karl von Frisch (Austrian) 1886-1982

–> All one a nobel prize in physiology or medicine in 1973

Question 3

Niko Tinbergen: main interests

Answer 3

• studied a range of species, including gulls, wasps & sticklebacks
• 1) Evolutionary history of behaviour
• 2) Causation of behaviour
• 3) Function of behaviour

Question 4

Timbergens 4 questions:

Answer 4

1) WHY did the behaviour evolve like this? i.e. what is its evolutionary history?
2) WHAT is its current function? i.e. why is it adaptive or, how does this behaviour increase the fitness (survival/reproduction) of the individual?
3) What are the STIMULI and MECHANISMS causing the behaviour?? in other words, what are the CAUSAL FACTORS?
4) HOW does this behaviour develop? i.e. during the period when the animal is growing up~ is it learnt or is it innate?

Question 5

Karl von Frisch work was:

Answer 5

the dance language of honey bees

Question 6

Konrad Lorenz studied:

Answer 6

Drives, causation and imprinting.
also pioneered the use of COMPARATIVE STUDIES in animal behaviour (courtship displays of ducks to try and infer the evolutionary (i.e. phylogenetic) relationships between them)

Question 7

courtship of three-spines stickleback: innate releasing mechanisms

Answer 7

• male’s red throat is a signal (to other males)

- females swollen belly (swollen with eggs) is a signal to males

Question 8

MHC

Answer 8

Major Histocompatibility Complex

Question 9

Major Histocompatibility Complex:

Answer 9

• a set of genes concerned with fighting disease
• does how we smell say something about our ‘attractiveness’?
• Depending on MHC type produce a different body odour
• Similar MHC not attracted – avoid similar people mating together.

Question 10

tinbergens 4 question we can ask about behaviour in shortt

Answer 10

• evolutionary history
• development
• causation
• function