1. Dr. Susan Raylman 4234 LSB Office hours: Mon Wed 12:15 – 2:00
Best way to contact me: or

2. Website

3. Evacuation Exit building from either of the two main doors
Move away from the building while avoiding parking lots
Do not congregate near building or parking lots

4. Proximate vs. Ultimate Observe: Bird removes eggshells from nest
Proximate Hypotheses about sensory physiology, what stimulus induces the behavior – Causal explanations of behavior
How? questions
Ultimate Hypotheses about adaptive significance
Why? questions

5. Niko Tinbergen - formulated 4 categories of questions when considering animal behavior:

6. What is the mechanism that causes a behavior?
1.Causation
What is the mechanism that causes a behavior?
Consider stimuli, sensation, perception, physiology
Ex: hormone levels in a ram, neural connections in
a fly

7. 2. Development (ontogeny)
How does the behavior develop? Development of behavior is the result of interaction of genes and environment.
Ex. A songbird learning to sing its specific song

8. 3. Evolution How did the behavior evolve through time?
Combine phylogeny with behavior data
Ex: evolution of
dance communication
in bees
euglossini = orchard bees
meliponini – stingless bees

9. Ex: Evolution of
echolocation in swiftlets

10. 4. Function
Why does the animal do this behavior? How does the behavior improve the fitness of the animal?
Ex: Why do some ground squirrels live in groups while gray squirrels do not?

11. Natural Selection Given:
Variation in traits exists among individuals of a population
This variation is associated with differing ‘fitness’
This variation is heritable
Then: With time traits associated with higher fitness become more prevalent in the population
Think of a colander w specific shape holes in it..say star shaped holes. Lots of shapes go in..only star shaped ones get thru. After the fact, you see the star indiv and say they are perfectly designed for their selection pressures..but there was all that variation before…the shapes are always changing..the colander is. Its just that the winners emerge..they weren’t designed to win..its just that selction happened to chose them.

12. Whose fitness do we consider when determining the function of a behavior?
Is a behavior used to further the species?
Lion movie

13. Lion infanticide Prides: 3-12 adult females and their cubs
Male committing infanticide
Prides: 3-12 adult females
and their cubs
Coalitions: 2-6 males
When females are nursing,
they do not have estrus
What causes infanticide? vs. What is the function?
causal might be strange smell of cubs
Prides 3-12 plus cubs, coalitions 1-6 – they all defend. Females rep from age Males leave group at age 3 – nomads, then try to take over
They will stay w group for 2-3 yrs until taken over by younger males.
Females in group have estrus at same time – raise cubs same time, helps w comm nursing, defense..male cubs will more likely have brothers
Females in heat copulate every 15 min 2-4 days. Many copulations when shes infertile but helps w paternity uncertainty to decrease infanticide
If male that commits infanticide raises more cubs than males that don’t, the infanticide behavior will spread via nat sel.
Takes 2 or more years to raise cubs to independence

14. Look at ecology…
Infanticide at first seems counterintuitive, but it can be explained through natural selection
Langurs also have infanticide and same social ecology as lions

15. “Good for the species” is incorrect…even with helpful behavior
To determine the function, consider how a behavior helps the ‘fitness’ of an individual
“Good for the species” is incorrect…even with helpful behavior
Ground squirrel calling in presence of predator

16. Reminder Using the word “species”
Species – subdivision of genus; a collection of individuals that resemble one another and can interbreed
Sometimes students use the word species when they really should use ‘individual’