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Biology 441: 9/13/07

Biology 441: 9/13/07. Last time History of Ethology & Evolution review Today Types of questions (Proximate vs. Ultimate) Behavioral research methods Next time Discussion: P vs. U & infanticide Cricket set-up. Practice with Observation. Video clip: Trials of Life #1: Arriving.

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Biology 441: 9/13/07

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  1. Biology 441: 9/13/07 • Last time • History of Ethology & Evolution review • Today • Types of questions (Proximate vs. Ultimate) • Behavioral research methods • Next time • Discussion: P vs. U & infanticide • Cricket set-up

  2. Practice with Observation Video clip: Trials of Life #1: Arriving

  3. Two types of Questions • 1) How questions (proximate) • What mechanisms cause the behavior? • How is the behavior (activity) carried out?

  4. Two types of Questions • 1) How questions (proximate) *Operational mechanisms within the organism*

  5. Two types of Questions • 1) How questions (proximate) • 2) Why Questions (ultimate) • Why did the animal evolve the mechanism for the behavior? • What is the ultimate function or survival value of the behavior?

  6. Two types of Questions • 1) How questions (proximate) • 2) Why Questions (ultimate) *Evolutionary mechanisms*

  7. Ultimate vs. Proximate • Example: Why does your cat rub against your leg when you come home? • Proximate questions

  8. Ultimate vs. Proximate • Example: Why does your cat rub against your leg when you come home? • Proximate questions • How do cats select which people to rub on?

  9. Ultimate vs. Proximate • Example: Why does your cat rub against your leg when you come home? • Proximate questions • How do cats select which people to rub on? • Do cats ‘rub’ at the same time every day?

  10. Ultimate vs. Proximate • Example: Why does your cat rub against your leg when you come home? • Proximate questions • How do cats select which people to rub on? • Do cats ‘rub’ at the same time every day? • How does the sight of their owner lead to the muscle movements necessary to produce the rubbing behavior?

  11. Ultimate vs. Proximate • Example: Why does your cat rub against your leg when you come home? • Ultimate questions

  12. Ultimate vs. Proximate • Example: Why does your cat rub against your leg when you come home? • Ultimate questions • What benefit does the cat get from rubbing your leg?

  13. Ultimate vs. Proximate • Example: Why does your cat rub against your leg when you come home? • Ultimate questions • What benefit does the cat get from rubbing your leg? • Why do cats rub on humans and not on other cats?

  14. Ultimate vs. Proximate • Example: Why does your cat rub against your leg when you come home? • Ultimate questions • What benefit does the cat get from rubbing your leg? • Why do cats rub on humans and not on other cats? • Did this behavior exist prior to the domestication of cats?

  15. Ultimate vs. Proximate • Example: Monarch butterfly migration

  16. Details of Monarch Migration(from http://www.monarchlab.umn.edu/biology/AnnualLifeCycle.aspx)

  17. Details of Overwintering Monarchs clustered in an Oyamel Fir tree at the Sierra Chincua overwintering site in central Mexico.

  18. Ultimate vs. Proximate • Example: Monarch butterfly migration • Proximate questions? • Ultimate questions?

  19. Ultimate vs. Proximate • Example: Monarch butterfly migration • Proximate questions? • How do individuals ‘know’ in which direction to fly? • How do they find their overwintering location? • What mechanism causes them to delay breeding? • Ultimate questions? • Why do they overwinter in the same spot every year? • Why is it more beneficial for them to migrate 2000 miles each year than to stay in Mexico year-round?

  20. Practice with Observation Video clip: Trials of Life #1: Arriving

  21. Behavioral Research Methods • 1. Observational Methods • Systematic recording of behavior

  22. Behavioral Research Methods • 1. Observational Methods • Systematic recording of behavior • Multiple individuals • Marking vs. naming

  23. Behavioral Research Methods • 1. Observational Methods • Systematic recording of behavior • Multiple individuals • Marking vs. naming • Multiple times (e.g., varying seasons; day vs. night) • Multiple observers • Construction of Ethograms

  24. Behavioral Research Methods • 1. Observational Methods • Systematic recording of behavior • Observation techniques • Focal animal • Scan sampling • One-zero sampling

  25. Behavioral Research Methods • 1. Observational Methods • Tools for studying cryptic animals • Trapping • Radio transmitters • Fluorescent dye • Animal sign

  26. Behavioral Research Methods • 1. Observational Methods • Goals: • Generate questions and hypotheses *inability to yield causal conclusions; lack of experimental control*

  27. Behavioral Research Methods • 2. Experimental Methods • Manipulating something (independent variable) and measuring its affect on something else (dependent variable) while holding other factors constant • Best suited for lab situations; psychology

  28. Behavioral Research Methods • 2. Experimental Methods • Example: Method of isolation • Bird song in white-crowned sparrows

  29. Behavioral Research Methods • 2. Experimental Methods • Problems with laboratory studies • Difficult to generalize • Artificial situation affects behavior

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