Topic 6 - Human Behavioural Ecology

Question 1

What is ecology?

Answer 1

The relationship of a living organism to its environment.

Question 2

What is ethology?

Answer 2

A field of study that investigates instinctive behaviours in the natural environment.

Question 3

What are Tinbergen’s 4 Qs?

Answer 3

Proximate causes:
1. Mechanisms: physiology of behaviour
2. Ontogeny: development of behaviour
Ultimate causes:
3. Adaptive value: how the behaviour is adaptive
4. Phylogeny: how the behaviour evolved

Question 4

Are innate behaviours the opposite of learned?

Answer 4

No, they are the opposite of environmentally induced.

Question 5

What does sociobiology study?

Answer 5

It studies how evolution and the environment influence social behaviour (ie. kin selection theory).

Question 6

What does human behavioural ecology study?

Answer 6

It studies how behaviour evolves in relation to ecological conditions (physical environment, social environment, individual condition).

Question 7

Is HBE interested in proximate mechanisms?

Answer 7

No.

Question 8

What are the two focuses of HBE?

Answer 8

1. How does variation in the environment influence variations in behavioural strategies?
2. What are the fitness consequences of those behavioural strategies?

Question 9

According to HBE, are behaviours flexible?

Answer 9

Yes, they are flexible depending on ecological conditions. Selection favours behavioural plasticity.