Lecture 10 Flashcards
What is a practical way to define behaviour?
ethograms
What is the challenge when it comes to definitions of behaviour?
behavioural biologists don’t agree on what constitutes behaviour
- makes it difficult tot ackle significant moral/emotional problems
- intellectual rigour of scientific inquiry
What is a proximate factor?
external stimuli that initiate or maintain biological processes
What is an ultimate factor?
environmental factors that have led to a restriction through natural selection over the course of evolution
What are tinbergens 4 questions?
function - why does animal perform behaviour?
evolution - how did behaviour evolve?
causation - what causes the behaviour to be performed?
development - how has the behaviour developed during the lifetime of the animal
What is folk psychology?
expertise that humans have when they spend a lot of time interacting with another species
- farmers, zookeepers and vets develop folk animal psychology that they use to understand, predict and better interact with animals in their care
What is anthropomorphism?
attribution of human characteristics and feelings to other animals
- starting point for considering what animals want/need in order to have a good life
- essential to not only use anthropomorphism alone
What is a structured approach to observing animal behaviour?
defining ethograms and describing the observed behaviour using time parameters
What is a good 6 step method to observe behaviour?
- which animals to observe
- what behaviour to record
- define behaviour (ethogram)
- data collection protocol (sampling methods)
- when should animals be observed
- preliminary observations
What is a qualitative behaviour assessment?
relies on observer to integrate perceived details of behaviour
What is an ethogram?
catalogue of descriptions of the discrete, species typical behaviour patterns that form the basic behavioural repertoire of the species (quantitative)
What are some characteristics of ethograms?
- list of behaviours with clear definitions/detailed descriptions
- mutually exclusive
- specific to the animal that you are studying
- can be very simple or complex
- should include other and or out of view
- objectively described in detail so that another observer can recognize the behaviour
What a duration?
states, how long?
should be mutually exclusive
can measure length of behaviour and pauses between behavioural states
What is a frequency?
events
the number of counts of behaviour
rate - events per unit time
What is latency?
time it takes to perform a specific behavioural pattern
What is a bout?
sequence of actions that are temporally clustered together
