SYLLABUS
ANIMAL BEHAVIOR
SPRING SEMESTER 2005
INSTRUCTOR: Verna
Miller Case
CLASS
TIMES: Lecture - MWF 11:30 am (Dana 146)
Lab/Discussion: M and W
POLICIES: 1) All work must be pledged.
2) Midterm and final are take home. They may be picked up in the biology office
on dates specified below and returned no later than
LECTURE
SCHEDULE:
Dates Topics
1/10 - 1/14 Natural Selection
1/17 No class – Martin Luther King Day
1/19 – 1/26 Introduction Principles of
Socioecology and Sociobiology
1/21 Library – Frank Molinek
1/28 – 2/25 Competition
Agonistic behavior
Social Dominance
Social Spacing
2/18 No class
2/24 - 2/25 Midterm
3/7 – 4/15 Cooperation and Altruism
Male/Female Strategies
Mating Systems and
Parental Care
Kin altruism
4/18 – 5/4 Human socioecology
SPECIES
PROJECTS:
Each
student will analyze the socioecology of a mammalian species. After choosing a
species for your project, you will read primary literature and books pertaining
to the social behavior and ecology of that species. By the end of the semester, you must have a minimum
of 15 sources that focus on the social system of your chosen species,
only 5 of these sources can be web sources.
You may also include in your bibliography sources that generally discuss
the type of social system your species exhibits, even if these sources don’t
directly refer to your species. For
example, if your species exhibits monogamy as a mating system, you may want to
include in your readings sources that discuss the evolution of monogamy in
mammals.
By April 15, you will turn in an annotated
bibliography based on your readings. The
annotated bibliography will be compiled using the computer program EndNote4.
EndNote4 will be available on the computers in Watson 157.
In
addition to the bibliography, each individual will create a web page on the
social behavior of his or her species. The web page you design should be based
on your literature review. It should be
a comprehensive overview of the socioecology of your species and should include
text discussing the social system of your species, illustrations, your
bibliography (with references cited within the web page) and appropriate links
to other web sites. The web pages will
be due on April 29.
Guidelines
for the web page:
You
may create your web pages using any program.
Dreamweaver is available on the computers in Watson 157. When you create your pages:
1. Name your home page: yourlastname.html. Please link all of your pages in your web
site to that home page.
2. On your home page be sure to put the title
for your page, your name and email address with statement that comments
regarding the web page should be directed to you are your email.
3. On your home page you should also have a
statement something like: “This web site
was completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Biology 323,
Animal Behavior, at
4. Limit the levels of links to 2 or 3. Readers stop following links after about that
number.
5. Make sure that all pages are well
organized. As the reader moves through
the page, he/she should be “led” from one topic to another in a logical
sequence.
6. Watch your choice of colors, font size,
background and placement of
illustrations to make sure that text on your page is easy to read.
7. Any figures or pictures you use from another
source must have permission for their use and the appropriate citation.
8. Cite references within the body of the text
on each of your pages. Link the cited
references in the text to a separate bibliography page. Use parenthetical citations in text….(Author,
date).
9. All pages should have return links to your
home page. Your home page should have
links to the animal behavior home page, the biology home page and Davidson home
page (optional). The reader should be
able to easily navigate around your pages and back to home.
10. Make sure all links are functioning after you
load your pages!!!
11. Check pages carefully for spelling and
grammatical errors. Remember this will
be available to individuals both on- and off-campus. You want the page to reflect well on you, as
well as
12. Directions for
loading web page on Biology Web Site:
1. Open
Dreamweaver
2. Click on
Site, then go to Define Site
3. Select New
4. Local Info
Give "site name" any name.
Local folder will be the folder where you
have located your web files (e.g., on your "z:/" drive).
HTTP address: http://www.bio.davidson.edu
5. Remote Info
Access - click arrow and select FTP
FTP host is: www.bio.davidson.edu
Host directory is: Behavior/your last name
(not your username!)
Login: davidson\username (note - uncheck
save password)
OK
6. Click and
drag files into the folder - the actual location is: web/people/vecase/
In
order to help you prepare for your readings and web page, I have listed some
questions below. Use these questions to
focus your reading and analysis of your species.
Questions
for consideration:
1.
What is the basic social system of the species?
2.
How do the individuals of this species utilize space?
3.
What are the specific environmental requirements for the individuals in
this species? How do these environmental
factors shape the social interactions within the species?
4.
What are the strategies of males and females in this species? What conflicts arise between males and
females because of these strategies? How
are these conflicts resolved?
5.
What are the key social relationships within this species (male/female;
parent/offspring; family; group)? What
factors shape these relationships (competition for resources; cooperation based
on kin selection, reciprocal altruism, mutualism)?
6.
What theories are supported or rejected by the data reported in your
references? Are there conflicting
conclusions by different investigators?
How did the conclusions differ?
7.
Do you detect any bias in the investigators’ work (e.g., male or female
bias; favoritism to certain theory)?
8.
How do the sources you found fit into the current
socioecological/sociobiological framework and how may they influence future
directions or theories in this discipline?
REVIEWS
AND FINAL:
Midterm Pick up on February 23, due on
February 25 (
Final Pick up on May 4, due on or
before May 10 (
LABORATORY:
In
the laboratory portion of this course, you will learn techniques of behavioral
observation and the use of those techniques to formulate and to test hypotheses
related to observed behaviors. You and a partner will observe 4 animal species,
including: zebra finches and gerbils (in the animal facility) and mockingbirds
and squirrels (in the field). To prepare for your observations you will read
primary literature on each species. This
literature is on reserve in the College library and available through
Blackboard.
Each pair of students will be given a specific
question to investigate during each three week period of observation (see Lab
Schedule below). Pairs will design a 3-week
study to address the question and will spend 3 hours during each of those 3
weeks gathering and analyzing their observational data. The week following the conclusion of observational
studies, each laboratory section will meet. Pairs will make a Power Point
presentation summarizing the results of their investigative question. In this Power Point presentation, pairs
should be specific about the methods they used to try to answer the question,
their times of observation, their observational findings, and any preliminary
conclusions they might draw about their findings.
Additionally,
at the beginning of each laboratory section meeting, pairs will be given a “why”
question relating to each species studied.
Pairs will be asked to think about the question for a short time and
then discuss possible answers with the rest of the lab section. When discussing
the why question, pairs should focus on identifying adaptive values and
selection pressures that may give rise to hypotheses.
Lab
Schedule:
Jan.
10 & 12 Animal
care training
Jan.
17 – Feb. 4 Gerbil observations
Feb.
7 & 9 Gerbil
presentations
Feb.
7 – Feb. 25 Zebra
Finch observations
Mar. 7 & 9 Zebra
Finch presentations
Mar. 7 – Apr. 1 Squirrel
observations
Apr. 4 & 6 Squirrel
presentations
Apr. 4 – Apr. 22 Mockingbird
observations
Apr. 25 & 27 Mockingbird
presentations
GRADING:
Midterm 100
pts
Final 150 pts
Social System Analysis
Annotated
bibliography 50 pts
Web
page 100
pts
Lab
Investigative questions
(25 pts each) 100 pts
“Why” questions (5 pts
each) 20 pts
Class participation 30 pts
Grade
Distributions:
A 95-100
A-
91-94
B+ 87-90
B 83-86
B-
79-82
C+ 75-78
C 71-74
C-
67-70
D+ 63-66
D 59-62
F 0-58