l2: Principles of animal behaviour

What are proximate analysis?

immediate causes

1. mechanism

2. Development

What are ultimate causes?

1. Survival value

2. Evolutionary history

Mechanism?

what causes behaviour?

neurological and hormonal changes

Development?

How foes behaviour develop

innate and learned behaviours

Survival values?

function of behaviour

How it affects survival and reproduction

Evolutionary history?

How did behaviour evolve?

evolutionary history

phylogeny

first appearance

Behaviour meaning

coordinated responses of whole living organisms to internal and/or external stimuli

What are the three foundations of animal behaviour?

1. Natural selection

2. Individual learning 

3. Cultural Transmission

Natural selection for animal behaviour

Any behavioural trait provided by animal with a reproductive advantage are favoured by natural selection

• behaviour has to be heritable 

Xenophobia

fear of unknown individuals from outside one’s group

Individual learning?

alter frequency of behaviours displayed within lifetime of an organism

may not happen without cultural transmission

Cultural tranmission

situations in which animals learn something by copying behaviours of others 

(social learning)

newly aquired traits can spread though populations + across generations at very quick rate