Behavioural Ecology

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This unit covers the broad area of behavioural ecology ��� how an animal���s behaviour is adapted to its physical and social environment. The unit comprises five modules: (1) Foundations of Behavioural Ecology; (2) Sexual Selection; (3) Sex allocation; (4) Predator-prey interactions; (5) Perception and Signalling; and (6) Kinship, Conflict, Cooperation and Social Behaviour. The unit is taught by a team of lecturers who combine expertise in all of these areas. The unit integrates these themes within an evolutionary framework that explores the adaptive basis of behaviour, individual plasticity and the genetic basis of behaviour, ecological interactions governing social, sexual and antipredator behaviours, along with a strong mechanistic understanding of how perceptual systems work. This is a required unit for the Zoology major, but it should also be relevant to any student with interests in animal biology, ecology, evolutionary biology and natural history.