Chapter 51
Behavioral Ecology
Teaching Objectives
Introduction to Behavior and Behavioral Ecology
1.Define behavior.
2.Distinguish between proximate and ultimate questions about behavior. Ask a proximate question and an ultimate question about bird song.
3.Explain how the classical discipline of ethology led to the modern study of behavioral ecology.
4.Define fixed action patterns and give an example.
5.Define imprinting. Suggest a proximate cause and an ultimate cause for imprinting in young geese.
Many Behaviors Have a Genetic Component
6.Explain how genes and environment contribute to behavior. Explain what is unique about innate behavior.
7.Distinguish between kinesis and taxis.
8.Distinguish between signal and pheromone.
9.Explain how Berthold’s research demonstrated a genetic basis for blackcap migration.
10.Describe Insel’s research on the genetic and physiological controls on parental behavior of prairie voles. Describe Bester-Meredith and Marler’s research on the influence of social behavior on parental behavior of California mice.
Learning
11.Explain how habituation may influence behavior.
12.Describe Tinbergen’s classic experiment on spatial learning in digger wasps.
13.Distinguish between landmarks and cognitive maps.
14.Describe how associative learning might help a predator to avoid toxic prey.
15.Distinguish between classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
16.Describe an experiment that demonstrates problem solving in nonhuman animals.
Behavioral Traits Can Evolve by Natural Selection
17.Explain how Hedrick and Riechert’s experiments demonstrated that behavioral differences between populations might be the product of natural selection.
18.Use an example to show how researchers can demonstrate the evolution of behavior in laboratory experiments.
19.Explain optimal foraging theory.
20.Explain how behavioral ecologists carry out cost-benefit analyses to determine how an animal should forage optimally. Explain how Zach demonstrated that crows feed optimally on whelks.
21.Explain how predation risk may affect the foraging behavior of a prey species.
22.Define and distinguish among promiscuous, monogamous, and polygamous mating relationships. Define and distinguish between polygyny and polyandry.
23.Describe how the certainty of paternity influences the development of mating systems.
24.Explain why males are more likely than females to provide parental care in fishes.
25.Suggest an ultimate explanation for a female stalk-eyed fly’s preference for mates with relatively long eyestalks.
26.Agonistic behavior in males is often a ritualized contest rather than combat. Suggest an ultimate explanation for this.
27.Explain how game theory may be used to evaluate alternative behavioral strategies.
28.Define inclusive fitness and reciprocal altruism. Discuss conditions that would favor the evolution of altruistic behavior.
29.Relate the coefficient of relatedness to the concept of altruism.
30.Define Hamilton’s rule and the concept of kin selection.
Social Learning and Sociobiology
31.Define social learning and culture.
32.Explain why mate choice copying by a female may increase her fitness.
33.State the main premise of sociology.
Student Misconceptions
1.Clarify to your students that proximate and ultimate questions are both legitimate approaches to the study of behavior. “How” (proximate) and “why” (ultimate) questions about animal behavior are related in their evolutionary basis. Proximate mechanisms were favored by natural selection because they produce behaviors that increase fitness in some way.
2.Provide examples to your students to show them that the answer to “nature or nurture?” is usually “nature and nurture.”
3.Students may have difficulty understanding that our genetic makeup influences human social behaviors, but does not rigidly determine that behavior. Some students may entirely discount the genetic basis of complex human behaviors. Other students may take the opposite view, imagining that there are single genes determining complex human behavioral traits such as depression, alcoholism, or overeating leading to obesity.
Chapter Guide to Teaching Resources
Overview: Studying behavior
Concept 51.1Behavioral ecologists distinguish between proximate and ultimate causes of behavior
Transparencies
Figure 51.3Sign stimuli in a classic fixed action pattern
Figure 51.4Proximate and ultimate perspectives on aggressive behavior by male sticklebacks
Figure 51.5Proximate and ultimate perspectives on imprinting in graylag geese
Figure 51.6Imprinting for conservation
Instructor and Student Media Resources
Investigation: How can pillbug responses to environments be tested?
Video: Ducklings
Concept 51.2Many behaviors have a strong genetic component
Transparencies
Figure 51.7A kinesis and a taxis
Figure 51.9Minnows responding to the presence of an alarm substance
Figure 51.10Are the different songs of closely related green lacewing species under genetic control?
Concept 51.3Environment, interacting with an animal’s genetic makeup, influences the development of behaviors
Transparencies
Figure 51.12How does dietary environment affect mate choice by female Drosophila mojavensis?
Table 51.1Influence of cross-fostering on male mice
Figure 51.14Does a digger wasp use landmarks to find her nest?
Figure 51.15Associative learning in zebrafish
Instructor and Student Media Resource
Video: Chimp cracking nut
Concept 51.4Behavioral traits can evolve by natural selection
Transparencies
Figure 51.19Aggressiveness of funnel web spiders (Agelenopsis aperta) living in two environments
Figure 51.20Evolution of foraging behavior by laboratory populations of Drosophila melanogaster
Figure 51.21Evidence of a genetic basis for migratory orientation
Concept 51.5Natural selection favors behaviors that increase survival and reproductive success
Transparencies
Figure 51.22Energy costs and benefits in foraging behavior
Figure 51.23Feeding by bluegill sunfish
Figure 51.24Risk of predation and use of foraging areas by mule deer
Figure 51.28Sexual selection influenced by imprinting
Figure 51.31Male polymorphism in the marine intertidal isopod Paracerceis sculpta
Instructor and Student Media Resources
Video: Snake wrestle ritual
Video: Albatross courtshipritual
Video: Blue-footed boobies, courtship ritual
Video: Chimp agonistic behavior
Video: Wolves, agonistic behavior
Video: Giraffe courtship ritual
Concept 51.6The concept of inclusive fitness can accountfor most altruistic social behavior
Transparencies
Figure 51.34The coefficient of relatedness between siblings
Figure 51.35Kin selection and altruism in Belding’s ground squirrel
Figure 51.36Mate choice copying by female guppies (Poecilia reticulata)
Instructor and Student Media Resource
Video: Bee pollinating
For additional resources such as digital images and lecture outlines, goto the Campbell Media Manager or the Instructor Resources section of
Key Terms
agonistic behavior
altruism
associative learning
behavior
behavioral ecology
classical conditioning
coefficient of relatedness
cognition
cognitive ethology
cognitive map
communication
culture
ethology
fixed action pattern (FAP)
foraging
game theory
habituation
Hamilton’s rule
imprinting
inclusive fitness
innate behavior
kin selection
kinesis
landmark
learning
mate choice copying
monogamous
operant conditioning
optimal foraging theory
pheromone
polyandry
polygamous
polygyny
promiscuous
proximate question
reciprocal altruism
sensitive period
sign stimulus
signal
social learning
sociobiology
spatial learning
taxis
ultimate question
Word Roots
agon- 5 a contest (agonistic behavior: a type of behavior involving a contest of some kind that determines which competitor gains access to some resource, such as food or mates)
andro- 5 a man (polyandry: a polygamous mating system involving one female and many males)
etho- 5 custom, habit (ethology: the study of animal behavior in natural conditions)
gyno- 5 a woman (polygyny: a polygamous mating system involving one male and many females)
kine- 5 move (kinesis: a change in activity rate in response to a stimulus)
mono- 5 one; -gamy 5 reproduction (monogamous: a type of relationship in which one male mates with just one female)
poly- 5 many (polygamous: a type of relationship in which an individual of one sex mates with several of the other sex)
socio- 5 a companion (sociobiology: the study of social behavior based on evolutionary theory)51-2Instructor’s Guide for Campbell/Reece Biology, Seventh EditionChapter 51Behavioral Ecology51-3Instructor’s Guide for Campbell/Reece Biology, Seventh EditionChapter 51Behavioral EcologyInstructor’s Guide for Campbell/Reece Biology, Seventh Edition