An ETHOLOGICAL Approach to Animal Behavior

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An ETHOLOGICAL Approach to Animal Behavior

• Causes and consequences of behavior are both
  proximate and ultimate
• Complementary questions representing relevant
  biological variables (DDEEP ETHOLOGY)
• Epigenetic cascade of interacting biological and
  environmental influences

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An ETHOLOGICAL Approach to Animal Behavior

• Causes and consequences of behavior are both
  proximate and ultimate
• Complementary questions representing relevant
  biological variables (DDEEP ETHOLOGY)
• Epigenetic cascade of interacting biological and
  environmental influences

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CAUSES and CONSEQUENCES

• Behavioral patterns are presumed to have CAUSES
  and a CONSEQUENCES
• It is helpful to distinguish endpoints on a
  continuum from PROXIMATE to ULTIMATE causes
• Scientific investigations are informed by an
  accurate Description of the behavioral pattern we
  are concerned with and by the questions and
  methods of several biological disciplines
• Development
• Ecology
• Evolution and
• Physiology

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DETERMINISM

• Variables determining behavior are rarely
  exclusively
• Biological (genetic or nature) or
  Environmental (nurture)
• They are
• Epigenetic reflecting the cascade of interacting
  genetic and environmental variables (Open and
  Closed Genetic Programs)

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DECIPHERING DETERMINISM

• . . . grant me the serenity to accept the things
  I cannot change,
• courage to change the things I can,
• and the wisdom to know the difference.
• (from Reinhold Neibuhrs adaptation of a 14th c
  English prayer)

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DECIPHERING DETERMINISM

• Although real wisdom is beyond science
• . . . the aim of science is not to open the
  door to everlasting wisdom, but to set a limit on
  everlasting error.
• (from Bertolt Brechts Life of Galileo)

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Domains of Ethology

• Description (morphology)
• Development
• Ecology
• Evolution
• Physiology

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DESCRIPTION

• MORPHOLOGY The structures from cells to
  systems to body form that act in the world
• Anatomy, cytology . . .
• The structural phenotype
• Objective description of behavior emphasizing the
  parts of the body involved

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Domains of Ethology

• Morphology
• Development
• Ecology
• Evolution
• Physiology

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Development

• The progressive change in the nature of the
  organism often occurs in phases.
• Ontogeny The delicate stages requiring great
  stability occurs in a protected environment (egg,
  womb)
• Experience The flexible stage that must adjust
  to the vagaries of a less protected environment
  (the world with which one must cope)

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Development

• All changes in organisms (including their
  development) can be traced back to the activation
  or suppression of genes.
• Genomics Between the activation of a gene and
  the consequences for the organism, there are
  typically many steps, most of which involve
  protein synthesis.
• Proteomics There are far more proteins than
  genes. Activating a gene initiates a cascade of
  effects some of which are collateral effects,
  side-effects.

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Domains of Ethology

• Morphology
• Development
• Ecology
• Evolution
• Physiology

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Ecology

• The environment, internal and external
• Ecosystem geology, climate . . .
• Social family, tribe, populatrion . . .
• EPIGENESIS genes and the ENVIRONMENT interact,
  resulting in the manifest form (morphology) and
  behavior of the living organism
• THE ENVIRONMENT is the editor of traits
  (natural selection) selection pressure

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ECOLOGY

• The environment in which the organism is born
  develops, prospers, and dies.
• Context of life internal (the milieu interieur)
  and external (climate and geology)
• Determines Fitness

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ECOLOGY revisited

• The environment in which the organism is born
  develops, prospers, and dies.
• The environment drives adaptive change in
  organisms. Adaptations are traits that
  contribute to fitness (direct and indirect)
• It also epigenetically structures what we can and
  cannot know or understand, in a sense we are
  inseparable from the environment we are in it
  and it is within us, the interstices of our
  brains . . . It is the matrix in which we are
  embedded . . .
• It informs our brains of what is or is not (or
  can or cannot) be real.
• There is manifest reality (what we see) and
  latent reality (what lies beneath the surface and
  cannot be directly known).
• Art enlarges our capacity to understand the
  latent possibilities of our worlds

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Domains of Ethology

• Morphology
• Development
• Ecology
• Evolution
• Physiology

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Evolution

• Evolution is about being in the right place at
  the right time
• Blind variation, selective retention
• Darwins observations
• 1. Species overproduce young
• 2. Populations in nature remain stable
• 3. Resources are limited
• 4. Individual young are variable
• 5. Variability can be inherited
• Inferences
• Struggle for survival among individuals
• DIFFERENTIAL SURVIVAL and REPRODUCTION (natural
  selection)
• Changes accrue over many generations

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EVOLUTION

• Involves transmission of information across
  generations.
• Genetics Genes are biological units of
  inheritance. The program by which they are
  translated into manifest phenotype can be
  open or closed with respect to the influence
  of the environment. Most traits are polygenic,
  most genes are pleiotropic.
• Memetics Memes are cultural units of
  inheritance such as words, ideas fashions . . .
• Epigenetics interaction of genes and environment

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Domains of Ethology

• Morphology
• Development
• Ecology
• Evolution
• Physiology

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Physiology

• Neurobiology
• Endocrinology
• The nervous systems work with the endocrine
  system to help the organism cope with its NEEDS
  most of which are created by the changing
  internal and external environments
• INPUT INTEGRATION OUTPUT

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PHYSIOLOGY

• The proximate causation of behavior.
• Requires a stabile milieu interieur maintained
  by homeostasis the dynamic balance of multiple
  systems
• Neurology Central and peripheral nervous
  systems
• Endocrinology The glands and hormones that can
  be stimulated by the nervous system but also feed
  back to affect the nervous system