Animal Behavior:Bees to Whales

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

This course is about animals, evolution, conservation, and behavior. We start with some basic evolutionary principles, based on Darwin's theory of organic evolution by natural selection. Studies of animal behavior focus on the how, when, where, and why animals behave in certain ways and not in others. General topics include parental, mating, cooperative, foraging, predation and aggressive behavior. We will also discuss nepotism (known more formally as kin selection), reciprocal altruism, cognition, culture, development, social networks, and life histories (how individual behavioral strategies change across the lifespan.) You will learn to interpret what scientists mean when using such terms as "innate" or "learned." Both field and laboratory studies are integral to the course. Specific animal species including representatives from mammalian, avian, reptilian, and insect groups will help illustrate how animal behavior systems work. We also discuss how climate change is impacting animal systems. I hope that by the end of the course you will have the interpretive framework to understand the complexity of animal life and appreciate the wealth of knowledge and insights animal behavior studies offer to a variety of fields