BIOL3046 Lecture Notes - Lecture 23: Accelerometer, Hawaiian Monk Seal, Bycatch
5 Jul 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Animal Behaviour BIOL3046 460381099
Lecture 23: Applied animal behaviour.
Domestication: Selection for tameness, docility and submissive behaviour in animals.
Compare behaviour of wolves against dogs. Example: experiment of red foxes, selected for
these desired behaviours, to get a domesticated strain. Interesting pleiotropic effects
(interaction of genes), to demonstrate that domestication is possible.
Courtship behaviour and mate choice: animals like to choose their mate. Example: Pigeons,
when allowed to choose their mate, breed more and produce more eggs. This has also been
studied in giant panda species. But, free choice may conflict with the goals of genetic
management. Therefore, you can see that courtship rituals and pair bonding are
fundamental in mating success.
Captive rearing can cause problems: Sexual imprinting (sees humans as mate), filial
imprinting (humans as family). Example: Whooping cranes, humans dressed up as the
species to teach them how to fly.
Learning: Animals miss out on continuous learning and critical learning periods in captivity.
Even translocation can be tricky. Example: Moving possums lead to 88% of them dying
within a week. They need to be transitioned gradually to allow for learning. This can be due
to predation risks, foraging (failure to forage effectively) and orientation. However, studying
behaviour has helped: Classical conditioning for predator, direct experience aids. Example:
Mosquito fish eating tadpoles.
Sociality: Understanding social structures is important in management, conservation and
production.
Aversive conditioning: Distasteful chemicals added to foods, to prevent animals eating it.
Example: Tigers found that ‘fake’ humans were distasteful, so they stopped eating them.
Migration training: White fronted goose, used barnacle geese to form new migration route
that was followed by the white fronted geese. Found that the group density of locusts in
their early development determines their plague potential. Less dense = less likely to
swarm.
Sensory ecology: Animal super sensors in dogs (drug detection), or bio-inspired sensing
mantis shrimp (visual capabilities for building computer storage) and soldier crabs (360 º
vision, used for building robotics to implement a band of vision).
Document Summary
Domestication: selection for tameness, docility and submissive behaviour in animals. Example: experiment of red foxes, selected for these desired behaviours, to get a domesticated strain. Interesting pleiotropic effects (interaction of genes), to demonstrate that domestication is possible. Courtship behaviour and mate choice: animals like to choose their mate. Example: pigeons, when allowed to choose their mate, breed more and produce more eggs. This has also been studied in giant panda species. But, free choice may conflict with the goals of genetic management. Therefore, you can see that courtship rituals and pair bonding are fundamental in mating success. Captive rearing can cause problems: sexual imprinting (sees humans as mate), filial imprinting (humans as family). Example: whooping cranes, humans dressed up as the species to teach them how to fly. Learning: animals miss out on continuous learning and critical learning periods in captivity. Example: moving possums lead to 88% of them dying within a week.
