Why measure animal behaviour?

Question 1

Why measure animal behaviour? (LO1)

Answer 1

• Behaviour has a large role in shaping evolution and can determine the overall fitness of a species and its offspring.
• Each species has their own way in of overcoming issues to survive, and it is often different species – species.
• By measuring behaviour – we can form theories on why it has evolved, and the intrinsic/not intrinsic properties of animal behaviour.
To help us understand behaviour as a whole (with the underlying mechanisms), and how social and ecological niches can change behaviour. We need to measure behaviour, so we can pair it with underlying mechanisms, to understand how, why, and when it will occur.

Question 2

What is behaviour? (LO3)

Answer 2

Behaviour can be:

1. Learned from the environment – social learning.
2. Innate – is a behaviour that an animal performs with no prior experience. It can be in response to an internal/external stimuli and is intrinsic to the animal itself.
3. Internally coordinated responses to internal and/or external stimuli.

Question 3

What is the difference between proximal and ultimate causation?

Answer 3

Proximal causation:
• “How does this behaviour work?”
• “How did this behaviour develop in this individual?”
! Ultimate causation is
• “What is the survival value of this trait?”
• “How did it evolve?”

Question 4

What is proximal current cause

Answer 4

What are the mechanisms underlying this behaviour?
How do internal/external stimuli stimulate a behaviour?
What is regulating this behaviour?
1. Pheromones
2. Hormones – e.g. testosterone in a bird at mating season – causing sexual libido when presented with a female.
3. Neural pathways
4. Muscle contraction

Question 5

What is the proximal historical cause?

Answer 5

! “How did this behaviour develop in this individuals life?”
• The critical period is important here – as this is the period of the majority of developmental learning in an organism.
• What factors influences this development?
• How much does environment and genetics contribute?
o Social learning (environment in the developmental period)
o Innate – Genes.

Question 6

What is the ultimate current cause?

Answer 6

! What is its survival value?
• “How does this trait function to increase fitness/survival in their environment?”
• E.g. The singing of a male robin aids in female mate choice, and the ‘better’ his singing is, the higher chance he will get chosen.
• His singing genes may give his offspring a better chance at survival.

Question 7

What is the ultimate historical cause?

Answer 7

! How did it evolve?
• What is the history of the behaviour?
• What ancestors possessed this behaviour trait?
• What was an alternative form of this behaviour, and why was it changed?
• How did selection shape this behaviour?
• How has this behaviour shaped evolution?