BIOL 3062 Lecture Notes - Brood Parasite, Optimal Design, Behavioral Ecology
Document Summary
Behavioral ecologists are interested in the function of the behavior and why it"s an adaptive behavior. Do not think about the good of the species (evolution by natural selection) Phenotypic plasticity: a lifestyle/strategy decision made by development. Individuals can be from the same species but look differently because one eats different things than the other. Brood parasitism and deciding how many eggs to lay and where. * if its design has effects that increase fitness. Main methods of behavioral ecology: optimal design. Predictions should be logical, testable, and exclusive. Try to rule out other hypotheses (i. e. exclusive) Two approaches: see the behavior and then ask what it"s for, consider a problem and ask what behavior is best. Lay out logic in a transparent way. Make quantitative and precise predictions and tests. Two general approaches: optimality models for one individual, game theory for > 1 individual. How to do an optimality model: define the behavior as a simple decision, define constraints.
