Tutorial 1 - All about Tinbergen's Four Questions

Question 1

What are Tinbergen’s proximate questions?

Answer 1

How behaviour occurs: Control (causation) and development

Question 2

What are Tinbergen’s ultimate questions?

Answer 2

Why the behaviour occurs: Function and evolution

Question 3

What is control (causation)?

Answer 3

What starts the behaviour

Question 4

What is development?

Answer 4

Change over the individuals lifetime

Question 5

What is function?

Answer 5

Makes the population fitter

Question 6

What is evolution?

Answer 6

Makes the population fitter

Question 7

What is the control (causation) of a cat purring?

Answer 7

when wanting attention or are enjoying company

Question 8

What is the development of a cat purring?

Answer 8

Gone from a way of communicating between other cats to communicating with humans

Question 9

What is the function of a cat purring?

Answer 9

To get food or attention

Question 10

What is the evolution of a cat purring?

Answer 10

by being a human pet, they have evolved to understand how to communicate with us to get what they need