Animal Behaviour: Psychology 3750

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Animal BehaviourPsychology 3750

• Fall 2009 Week 1

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Instructor Teaching assistant

• Anne Storey, SN3091/SN3092a, MF, 1000-1130
  (astorey_at_play.psych.mun.ca)
• Elysia Dutton, SN3093b, (elysia.dutton_at_mun.ca)

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Course Materials

• TEXT Dugatkin, L. 2009, Principles of Animal
  Behaviour, Norton, 2th ed.
• Powerpoint lecture outlines available on
  Psychology website

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Lecture Outlines on WEB

• http//dogsbody.psych.mun.ca (no www)
• Scroll down to Psychology 3750
• PowerPoint files. If no PP, to view, get
  PowerPoint viewer from Microsoft.com
• To Print BW, handouts

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Evaluation

• 25, Midterm Exam
• 40 , Final Exam
• 35 laboratory reports (some group work)

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Reading in Dugatkin

• Friday Chapters 1 (Principles/Intro)
• Monday Chapter 2 (Evolution)

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MUN is a great place to study Animal Behaviour

• Cognitive and Behavioural Ecology Graduate
  Programme
• Plus faculty in the Psychology and Biology
  departments

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Why learn about animal behavior?

• Interest in animals and their behaviour
• - Historical interest
• - Current general and applied

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Applications of Animal Behavior Knowledge

• Commercial enterprises. Examples?
• Conservation. Examples?
• Application to our species?

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Application to our species?
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COURSE FOCUS

• Behaviour is the organisms interface between the
  environment and its physiology /genes

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COURSE FOCUS

• Interaction between ultimate (shaped over many
  generations) and proximate (individual) causation
  of behaviour

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brain and hormones
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Proximate vs Ultimate Causation of Behaviour
(Tinbergens 4 questions)

• Ultimate Questions (Evolution)
• 1. Function of behaviour (why)
• 2. Evolution of behaviour (how)
• Proximate questions (Immediate)
• 3. Mechanisms of behaviour
• 4 Development of behaviour

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Why do birds sing?(White-crowned sparrow)
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Why do birds sing/animals display? Ultimate
Causation 1. Function

• Function - The WHY question
• How to test for function?
• How does behavior increase survival and/or
  reproductive success

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Function Red epaulet display - red-winged
blackbirds (Hansen Rohwer, 1986)
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Function Effects of darkening red epaulets

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Ultimate causation 2. Evolution

• How does behaviour evolve?
• a. Adaptation to habitat
• b. Ancestral versus derived species
• c. Evolutionary constraints

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a. Adaptation to habitat

• Different frequencies work best in different
  environments

• Habitat Frequency (kHz)
• Forest 2.2
• Grassland 4.4
• Morton, 1975

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b. Ancestral vs derived function

• Use related species to track change of function

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Why do birds sing instead of marking territories?

• b. Evolutionary constraints on ecological
  solutions

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Proximate Questions 3. mechanism

• Why do birds sing? External Triggers
• Photoperiod changes
• Conspecific behavior

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Proximate Questions 3. mechanism

• Why do birds sing? Internal factors
• neural and hormonal factors

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Hormone changes in birds during reproduction
testosterone

• Ball, 1991

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• Brain areas associated with bird song

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Proximate Questions 4. Development

• Is singing innate or learned?
• When does song learning occur?
• Critical period?

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Young white crowned sparrows learn song from
their fathers