BIOL 354 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Spatial Memory, Bluegill, Nikolaas Tinbergen
11 Oct 2017
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Document Summary
Niko tinbergen (1963) - one of the founders of the scienti c study of animal behaviour in the wild - four di erent ways of answering why questions about behaviour: In terms of causation: for example the mechanisms that cause starling birds to sing - the inc. amount of daylight that causes hormonal changes and the way the air vibrates through their vocal chords which is a musculo-skeletal mechanism. In terms of development or ontogeny: they sing because they have learned the songs from their parents or neighbours. They have a genetic disposition to learn the song. In terms of adaptive advantage or function: they sing to attract mates for breeding. And so singing inc. reproductive success of males. In terms of evolutionary history or phylogeny: how has song evolved from their avian ancestors. causal vs functional explanations. Causal: concerned with mechanisms that explain the behaviour of an animal during it"s lifetime (1 & 2)
