Descriptive list of the sections this
Fall
These are from 2000-- some topics may differ this
fall.
#1
Behavioral Observations
This first section will help you get started with the three major means
of interacting during the semester: 1) discussion sections, 2) your journal
and 3) the Bio_45 web discussion. It will also help you get started with
recording data on animal behavior. As a practice, we will watch a short
video of bison behavior -- bring your journal to section.
This video contains a single short behavior sequence that you will watch
and take notes on. Be sure to bring your journal to write in during section.
You will compare your notes with those of other students watching the
same video and then with the descriptions of the person who made the video.
A major problem in behavioral studies is inter-observer reliability. Each
of us sees slightly different things or describes them in different ways.
As a result, there has been considerable emphasis in animal behavior on
identifying, describing, and naming behavioral units.
At the end of this handout are some notes on how to access the Bio 45
web page and what you can expect to find there. We’ll help you get
started on the web and from there you can learn about sending e-mail and
reading and contributing to the bio 45 electronic discussion.
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#2 Oystercatcher Film
We will watch a film about birds, oystercatchers, that eat mussels and
other marine invertebrates. Oystercatchers obtain mussels in one of two
ways: stabbing and hammering. Stabbers sneak up on mussels and stab their
beak between the shells (mussels in water have their shell open slightly
to feed). Hammerers take a more direct approach and break through the
shell to get at what is inside. Individual oystercatchers use only one
of the two methods for their entire life. Interestingly, the offspring
use the method their parents use.
This discussion section relates to three aspects of the course. First,
it provides background on how animals find and capture food effectively
-- foraging behavior. Second, it gives us an opportunity to explore the
interplay of genes and environment in behavior. Finally, it provides a
chance to explore the designing of experiments. After the film, you will
design an experiment to answer the following question:
"How do chicks acquire the feeding method their parents use?"
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#3 Evolution and Behavior
You need to be comfortable with some basic evolutionary principles and
definitions in order to make use of the behavioral ecology way of thinking
about behavior. The goal of this discussion is to get us to a common starting
point. You should work together to reach an understanding of the evolutionary
terminology used in this course. When you answer a question in section
try to do it in a way that helps others see your perspective rather than
merely demonstrating that you know the (an) answer. The basics of adaptationist
thinking must be clear to you for the rest of the course!
Our second goal is to get familiar with reading and interpreting the original
literature in behavior. We will do this while we examine the testing of
adaptation hypotheses. We will start with a paper on fiddler crab claw
waving by Pope. We will concentrate on the messages of the paper and on
the structure of the paper. There is a guide to reading the paper on the
reverse of this handout.
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#4 Optimal Foraging
One goal of this course is learning to evaluate original scientific literature.
Today you will analyze a paper by Norris (1999) on the limits to optimal
prey choice by oystercatchers. You will evaluate the work he did, and
suggest modifications of or extensions to his study.
READINGS:
Alcock – Ch. 10 pp. 361-365
Norris, K. 1999. A trade-off between energy intake and exposure to parasites
in oystercatchers feeding on a bivalve mollusc. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond.
B 266:1703-1709.
ASSIGNMENT: .
Read The pages in Alcock to get some background on optimal prey choice
by oystercatchers, The study he discusses (1986) is great background to
Norris’ study. Then read Norris (1999) paper twice, carefully. First
time through, identify the context within which he did his work. Identify:
(1) the hypothesis he set out to test, (2) the predictions he made, (3)
how he designed his tests, and (4) any assumptions or approximations he
made - stated or not. Look carefully at his methods and experimental design,
his results and his analysis of these results. Finally, examine the conclusions
he drew. The second time through, look for strengths and weaknesses throughout
the paper. You’ll need at least an hour to read the paper in detail.
Consider the questions below as you read.
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#5 Communication
It is time to focus on a core topic for animal behavior -- communication.
Think about the questions below and be prepared to share your ideas with
others in section. We will start with a video that will give you lots
to think and talk about. You have also observed a lot of communication
behavior for your journals. Sit back and let your ideas flow. Help each
other with the questions below. Use what you have learned so far to explore
new ground.
Questions you want to think of answers for:
1) How should communication be designed by selection?
2) How can we tell when two animals are communicating?
3) How should communication systems be designed by evolution?
What issues emerge as you think about how such systems ought to work
for the benefit of the animals communicating? When we say that A does
something in order to get B to do something in response, how might selection
act on A and B and their interaction? Should it favor information content
of the message, or its efficiency, or what? Share your ideas with the
section.
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#6 The
Nature of Sex
One of the more popular stories about the evolution of behavior is that
of the nature sexual behavior – especially the nature of males and
females. You will see an example of this story in the video (The Nature
of Sex – Part 1 “Primal Instinct -- a Nature Series film by
Genesis Film Productions Ltd.) we will watch in section. Males are presented
as competitive, aggressive, attractive and committed by their genes to
a focus on mating. Females are cautious, choosy and focused on their offspring.
I thought the film might be an interesting starting place for the next
set of lectures. Here you will see a popularized version of the story.
The part of the video we will watch will only take 30 min. The rest of
the time is open to a general discussion of the issues raised by the video
and the graph below. Your goal for today is not so much to identify and
correct mistakes of interpretation or overt sexism by the makers of the
video, but to get a sense for the kinds of generalizations being made.
How far are you willing to go with such generalizations about the way
males and females are or ought to be – try to ignore humans for
now.
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#7 Peacock Trains and Mate Choice
Ever since Darwin, people have used the peacock's elaborate train (“tail”)
as an example of the product of sexual selection by female choice. Now,
finally, Marion Petrie and her colleagues at The Open University have
actually tried to test the validity of Darwin's tale of the peacock's
train.. We will read the first paper from their study and see a video
about their study. Your can compare the "book" with the "film".
As usual we will not be satisfied with looking at what has been done.
We will explore what should be done in the future as well.
This section brings together a lot of the ideas in the lectures on sexual
selection. The video gets across the problem that Darwin was faced with
when trying to fit flamboyant male secondary sexual characters into his
theory of natural selection. Photos of a peacock's train are impressive,
but the full sense of the power of sexual selection requires seeing the
show he puts on with his train.
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#8
Seahorses, Operational Sex Ratio and Mating Systems
This week we make a transition from sexual selection theory to parental
care and mating systems. A great way to do that is to return to pipefish,
seahorses and other fish. Here we can see the interplay of a number of
factors that influence male and female behavior in the contexts of parental
care and mating systems. It will help us grasp the importance of Operational
Sex Ratio for both sexual selection and mating systems.
Seahorse and pipefish were first thought to be the ultimate in reversed
parental investment. We tend to get carried away with parental investment
and ignore other ways in which one sex can become the limiting factor
for the other's reproductive potential. These fish and guppies let us
see those other things more clearly.
We will watch a recent film on seahorses. The film and the papers by Vincent,
et. al. (1992) and Jirotkul (1999) give us the background to work on the
questions below.
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#9 Termites
We will watch an amazing film about termite social behavior. This film
will fit in well with the topics of inclusive fitness and the evolution
of social behavior.
Termites are among the most highly social animals in the world. Like many
social Hymenoptera (ants, bees and wasps) and at least one mammal (naked
mole-rats) they have sterile worker castes. The 'big' question for the
evolution of such social behavior is: "How do you get some of your
offspring to give up their own reproduction to help you reproduce?"
The proposed answers have varied from 'it is good for the family' to 'the
workers actually do better this way than they would on their own'.
Hamilton's inclusive fitness theory offers an explanation for the evolution
of sterile worker castes in ants, bees and wasps. His theory basically
takes advantage of the fact that male Hymenoptera are haploid. That makes
relatedness among sisters higher (all else being equal - like having the
same father) than between workers and their own offspring! With this neat
insight a lot was explained. However, we will be watching a film about
an insect in which males and females are diploid and in which both sexes
are workers and soldiers. Thus Hamilton's “two-thirds relatedness”
trick does not help us as much. The question of why termites live in family
groups with reproduction restricted to a small subset of offspring remains
unanswered.
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#10 Shared Brainstorming
Time to get a sense of what others have been thinking about in their
journal brainstorms. This section will be devoted to sharing ideas you
have been playing with.
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