Biology, Eighth Edition (Raven)

Chapter 54: Behavioral Biology

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the evolutionary importance of animal behavior.
• Distinguish between proximate and ultimate causation and give examples of each.
• Understand the integration of genetics and neurology with ethology.
• Differentiate among instincts, non-associative learned and associative learned behaviors.
• Understand the evolutionary limitations of learning, classical, and operant conditioning.
• Define imprinting and sensitive phase to explain how behaviors develop.
• Understand the complications associated with the determination of cognitive behaviors in animals.
• Explain how information is communicated among group members of non-human and humans.
• Give some examples to illustrate.
• Define migration and explain why and how migration patterns change over time.
• Discuss the concept of the stimulus/response chain as it relates to courtship behaviors. Explain why these behaviors are species specific. Give examples.
• Understand the genetic basis for behavior among eusocial insect societies.
• Define behavioral ecology. Understand its association with adaptive significance and fitness.
• Compare foraging behaviors of generalists and specialists and understand how the optimal foraging theory explains foraging efficiency.
• Explain the need for territoriality in animals and the economic risks associated with such behavior.
• Understand the associations between parental investment and mate choice and how these interactions affect the evolution of mating systems.
• Explain how sexual selection and secondary sexual characteristics affect reproductive competition.
• Explain how inclusive fitness is related kin selection and under what circumstances it can lead to altruistic behavior.
• Explain the benefits of engaging in reciprocal altruism
• Define sociobiology. Cite advantages and disadvantages of living in social groups.
• Compare the complexity of vertebrate societies with that of eusocial insects. Understand the value of such activities as cooperative breeding and alarm calling in vertebrate societies.