BIOL 1001 Lecture 29: 29.1 Lecture 29 - Behavioural Ecology is a sub-set of Organismal Ecology (pre-lecture)
18 Jan 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Ethology: the scientific study of animal behavior. Behavioral ecology: the scientific study of the behaviors of organisms in the. Behavioral ecology is multidisciplinary & multi scaled: genetics there is a genetic foundation to all behavior. Behavior is, therefore, subject to natural selection: hormonal signals, neural signaling, natural selection, evolutionary history, ecological interactions. Conferring an advantage to the individual exhibiting it . Spread / maintained by natural selection: fitness. Contributed by an individual to the next generation. Inflexible patterns: instinct = innate = not learned, fixed action pattern. Unchangeable triggered by a well-defined, simple stimulus: but purely innate patterns are relatively rare. Operant conditioning: trial & error learning, behavior is modified according to the delivery of rewards, behavioral reinforcement. Imprinting: an irreversible learning, an exposure to certain key stimuli early in life, form an association with the stimulating object. Range of responses: most organisms have a range of responses, condition-dependent behavior. Biologists analyze this with cba (cost-benefit analysis)
