BIO 263 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Behavioral Ecology, Energy Flux, Organism
Document Summary
Behavioral ecology deals with how organisms deal with things going on in their environment. Example question would be why hummingbirds prefer red flowers over any other kind of flower. Behavioral ecology questions can be divided into two categories proximate and ultimate explanations. Ultimate explanations are not necessarily better than proximate explanations. Genetic developmental physiological mechanisms or type of examples. Why do male ground squirrels disperse from the natal burrow. Answers within the categories are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Hypotheses at different levels can all be true. Female pups injected with testosterone vs oil. Led to 75% of them dispersed with testosterone and 8% of them didn"t. Supports the idea that testosterone is one of things that leads to. Early dispersers disperse earlier than late dispersers because they obtain the correct body mass earlier than the late dispersers. Males become more investigative of surrounds and ready to move. Realized they don"t disperse due to lack of food overcrowding or parasites.
