Define: Ethology
scientific study of what an animal does and how and why they do it
ethos- custom/character/manner/behavior
logos- description
Define: latency
time to start of a behavior
Define: frequency
number of times a particular behavior is done
Define: duration
amount of time a particular behavior lasts
Ethology (Nobel laureates year/names)
Konrad Lorenz, Karl von Frisch, Nicholas Tinbergen
1973- discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behavior patterns
4 questions
(Tinbergen's)- logically distinct/not mutually exclusive How does it work How did it develop What is it for How did the behavior evolve
Canine signaling
“soft” language of canines toward humans, method of communication between canines; system of signals developed which facilitate the maintenance of this organization with minimal overt aggression
Benefits of animal research
public perception/attitude has changed
1992- creation of Assoc. for the Study of Animal; Behavior in the UK; Animal Behavior Society in US
Formed the ethical committee and the animal care committee respectively; have joint guidelines for the use of animals in research
Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals
published in 1996; 8th edition published in 2011; compare research quality with animal suffering and determine acceptable research proposals
Steps to studying behavior
Ask a question
Make preliminary observations and formulate hypotheses
Make predictions from the hypotheses
Identify which behavioral variables need to be measured in order to test these predictions
Choose suitable recording methods for measuring these behavioral variables
Collect sufficient data
Use appropriate statistics
Empirical results
first-hand description, relying on or derived from observation or experiment
Technology results
use of recording devices
Event
behavior pattern of relatively short duration, salient feature is frequency of occurrence (# times cat grooms itself in an hour)
State
behavior pattern of relatively long duration, such as prolonged activities, body postures, or proximity measures; salient feature is duration (total time a cat spends grooming over a one hour period)
Ad libitum
observe an animal and make general notes about what it is doing, or what it is doing of interest
Focal
observe one animal (sometimes 2) for a fixed amount of time and record all the behaviors that you are looking for
Point or Instantaneous
at predetermined moments inn time, record all the behaviors the animal is doing
All occurrences
record all occurrences of one or a small number of behaviors and ignore all others (used with large groups of animals)
Intra-observer reliability
one observer consistent in how they measure and count or does it change
Inter-observer reliability
do 2 or more observers measure in an identical or similar fashion
Complete ethogram
list of all behaviors exhibited by a species
Practical ethogram
list of behaviors of interest
Displacement activity
inappropriate behavior which occurs when an animal is experiencing conflict between 2 opposing drives
Vacuum activity
instinctive behavior performed in the absence of the stimulus to which it would normally be directed
Redirected behavior
motivation to perform an activity toward an appropriate target, interrupted or prevented from reaching that target, behavior gets directed toward a less appropriate target