Behavioral Ecology - Tinbergen's Four Questions

What are Tinbergen’s four categories of questions?

1) Causation

2) Development or acquisition

3) Adaptive significance

4) Evolutionary history

What is causation?

The mechanisms that cause an animal to behave in a certain way. Ex: sensory and nervous systems, hormonal mechanisms, and skeletal-muscular control

What is development or acquisition?

How a behavior is acquired which relates to genetic and developmental mechanisms

What is adaptive significance?

How does the behavior contribute and affect an animal’s fitness (survival and reproductive success)

What is evolutionary history?

The history behind the evolution of a certain trait

What are the two categories of Tinbergen’s questions?

1) Proximate

2) Ultimate

What is proximate causation?

Explains why an individual behaves in certain way during its lifetime

What is ultimate causation?

Explains why and how population/species has evolved certain behavior

Which questions fall under proximate causation?

1) Causation

2) Development or acquisition

Which questions fall under ultimate causation?

1) Adaptive significance

2) Evolutionary history

What are the four categories of the Theory of Natural Selection

1) Variation

2) Inheritance

3) Selection

4) Time and adaptation

What is variation?

Individuals within a species differ in their morphology, physiology, and behavior

What is inheritance?

Some of this variation is heritable

What is selection?

There is competition between individuals for limited resources. Some individuals will be more successful than others at survival reproduction

What is time and adaptation?

Over time, some variants of individuals will leave more offspring than others. Through this process, after many generations, advantageous traits will be passed to more and more offspring, allowing the population to be adapted to its environment

What are the three criteria that determines when behavior can evolve through selection?

1) Is variable

2) Is heritable

3) Influences fitness

Natural selection is acting on…

Alleles

What is simple inheritance?

One gene affects the expression of one trait

What is polygenic inheritance?

Multiple genes affect the expression of one trait

Most behavioral traits are typically…

Polygenic