Lecture 7- Tinbergen's 4 questions Flashcards
what are Tinbergen’s 4 questions
ultimate:
-adaptation- why is the behaviour beneficial?
-phylogeny- where does the behaviour come from?
proximate:
-development- how does the behaviour develop?
-mechanism- how does the behaviour arise, physically?
example of a test of adaptation
testing ‘mutant’ eggs in a nest to look at egg removal behaviour-
looking at if proximity to a predator impacts egg removal to test predator-related hypotheses
how do you test for phylogeny
need to look at evolutionary relationships, and if the behaviour occurs in specific lineages, or is more related to things like habitat
how you can test mechanism
trying different things that might trigger the behaviour, in a controlled way- e.g. putting differently adapted eggs in the nest, heavier ones didn’t get removed
how can you look at development of a behaviour
look out for learning oppurtunities or specific teaching, can sort of figure it out from ‘context’- like if something is vital for survival.
can also use ‘wrong’ cues to test if learning or adaptation is possible, e.g. adding ‘incorrect’ eggs
things to talk about with comparing individuals
experimental mutants
comparisons within species, e.g. looking at animals which do the behaviour more and analysing the differences between them
gazelle stotting study
gazelles which stot are less likely to gat caught in a chase- suggesting honest signalling
also a more common behaviour with long-distance chasing prey, and is most likely when prey get close
other examples of individual variation in behaviour
‘hawks’ and ‘doves’- not well documented but does seem to be a thing for a species of finch (Kokko et al., 2014)
‘bold’ and ‘timid’ great tits
male vs female behaviour
example of comparisons between species
ball size in chimpanzees- can look at different species and their mating behaviour compared with their testes, where there is more competition there seems to be the largest testes
optimality approach
trying to test a feature by seeing if a ‘perfect’ version of the feature resembles what is seen in nature- e.g. get a human to try and make a good tunnel for airflow, see if it matches prarie dog tunnels, if it does they might be built that way for airflow
fish schooling example
models of the best hydrodynamicism for fish lined up with real fish schooling behaviour- wasn’t very similar, so assumed there might be anti-predator reasons instead
pros and cons of using experiments vs comparisons
experiments are better for controls, but may not reflect the natural environment and complex factors within it
comparisons bettwe reflect natural behaviour but can lead to misleading results due to lack of controls- within species comparisons also need to explain why the ‘alternative’ behaviour still occurs
example of behavioural phylogeny
preference for males with ‘swords’ in a closely related fish to swordtails- even though the platyfish don’t have swords- suggests a relationship of behaviour . the preference seems to be a hangover from when swords have been lost in the evolutionary history of platyfish
sign stimuli- def + example
response to a small part of a possible array of stimuli, appearing to ignore the rest
herring gull chicks pecking at the spot on the parents gill to get them to regurgitate, response to just the sword
benefits of sign stimuli
can easily trigger a response if it is unique
can be good for speed
useful when a response is needed soon after birth
-however can lead to mistakes
