Lets dialogue here about which chat times will work best for everyone registered for Behavioral Ecology, WFSC 622 SSI. This is also a way to demonstrate our “positive problem solving approach”.
During this first week of behavioral ecology, we read the first two chapters. These introductory chapters cover the basic concepts of natural selection and how they apply to hypotheses about the adaptation of animal behavior. The lecture notes do not correspond one-to-one with the textbook chapters, because the notes attempt some “remedial coaching” about the “big picture ideas”.
In the first lecture, the three big picture ideas are the same as the words in the chapter title: behavior, ecology and natural selection. So in this Blog post, we want to discuss your understanding of these concepts and how they apply to examples. Some students find it easier to relate to examples from the textbook and others find it easier to relate to examples from their own experience then bridge to the examples in the textbook. Which works best for your personal learning style? Which examples help you remember and explain these three “big picture concepts”? Does the analogy of individual performer and orchestrated performance work for you to understand how the time and space scale fits into behavioral adaptations? Why or why not?
The first chapter explains why behavioral ecologists phrase their questions and hypotheses in a manner consistent with the theory of natural selection. The second chapter elaborates on this, to explain different approaches that have been used to test these hypotheses. The two main concepts you will want to master, are “comparative approach” and “optimality theory”. Using examples from the Krebs & Davies (1996) chapters and supplements that you have chosen (Assignment 1), how would you compare and contrast the merits of the comparative and optimality approaches to testing hypotheses about behavioral adaptations?
introductory: Ethology (WFSC 422/WFSC 689) fall semester; on-campus and on-line
intermediate: Behavioral Ecology of the Vertebrates (WFSC 622); summer I; on-line
Advanced: Vertebrate Ethology (WFSC 620 see link at right menu); spring semester; on campus; field lab 1-week before classes start; on-campus meetings completed by spring break