Behavioural Ecology 1

Flashcards on Behavioural Ecology

Behavioural Ecology

The study of animal behaviour, and how it relates to the environment and evolutionary history of species.

Ethology

The study of animal behaviour in the environments they evolved in.

Comparative Psychology

The intensive study of a few species in controlled environments to examine animal behaviour.

Adaptive Function

Focuses on how behaviour can evolve through natural selection.

Behaviour

The physical action of an animal in response to a stimulus.

Fitness

The success of an organism to contribute offspring to future generations.

Phenotypic Gambit

Studying the contribution of behaviours to fitness without needing to know the underlying genetic architecture.

Tinbergen's Four Questions

Function, evolution, causation, and development. These address proximate and ultimate questions.

Proximate Questions

Address the immediate cause of a behaviour (how and what).

Ultimate Questions

Address the evolutionary significance of a behaviour (why and when).

Common Garden Experiment

An experiment to test if behaviour can be inherited by examining similarity between parents and offspring.

Cross-breeding Experiments

Used to test if behaviour can be inherited.

Artificial Selection Experiments

Used to test if behaviour can be inherited.

Optimality Approach

Making predictions about the optimal (best) behaviour based on costs and benefits, and testing these predictions.

Conditional Decisions

Decisions that depend on the animal's or environment's conditions where there is no global 'best decision'.

Heritability of Behaviour

An evolutionary approach that assumes that behaviour is heritable for the purpose of natural selection.

Animal Behaviour

The action of animals in response to stimulus.

Innate Behaviour

Behaviour that is instinctive and does not require learning.

Plasticity

Flexibility in behaviour in response to the environment.

Adaptive Decisions

Decisions that enhance an animal's chances of survival or reproduction through natural or sexual selection.