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B029632 - ELEMENTS OF ETHOLOGY WITH LABORATORY
Main information
Teaching Language
Learning Objectives
Course Content
Prerequisites
Teaching Methods
Type of Assessment
Course program
Suggested readings
Further information
Academic Year 2021-22
Course year
Second year - Second Semester
Belonging Department
Biology (BIO)
Course Type
Single education field course
Scientific Area
BIO/05 - ZOOLOGY
Credits
6
Teaching Hours
52
Teaching Term
21/02/2022 ⇒ 17/06/2022
Attendance required
No
Type of Evaluation
Final Grade
Course Content
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Course program
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Lectureship
Teaching Language
Italian
Learning Objectives
Knowledge acquired: naturalistic observations and experiments, the development, the phylogeny, the physiology and the adaptive value of behaviour.
Competence acquired: to frame the diversity of animal behaviour inside an evolutionary background, to apply the comparative method.
Skills acquired at the end of the course: appropriate ethological terminology, evaluation of costs and benefits of behaviour in terms of fitness by testing the evolutionary hypotheses.
Competence acquired: to frame the diversity of animal behaviour inside an evolutionary background, to apply the comparative method.
Skills acquired at the end of the course: appropriate ethological terminology, evaluation of costs and benefits of behaviour in terms of fitness by testing the evolutionary hypotheses.
Course Content (Search our library's catalogue)
Foundations of ethology: Darwin, Pavlov, Lorenz, Tinbergen, Von Frisch. Basic knowledge of biology and ethology in an evolutionary perspective. Neuroethology.
Prerequisites
None
Teaching Methods
Lectures
Type of Assessment
Final oral examination. Laboratory: student’s PPTX elaboration and discussion.
Course program
Evolutionary approach: costs and benefits of behavior. The first scholars of behavior. Darwin ethologist: non-verbal communication. Lorenz: psycho-hydraulic model, imprinting, childlike signals. Tinbergen's contribution to the study of ethology. The integrated study of behavior: proximate causes, effects and ultimate causes of ythe song in birds. Experience, development and central control of singing. Evolution and functions of singing in sexual selection. The cultural variants.
Genetic and evolutionary basis of behavior: the evo-devo approach. Genes / environment interaction. Epigenetics. Developmental homeostasis. Phenotypic plasticity and behavioral polymorphisms.
The neural basis of behavior: Instinct, innate trigger mechanism, stimulus and stereotyped responses. detection, perception, filteringn and processing of useful stimuli: touch, sight, hearing.
Animal cognition: learning and memory, attention, decision making, concept formation, reasoning and inference, emotions, metacognition, awareness and consciousness, theory of mind.
The physiological basis of behavior: neurons and hormones. Endogenous rhythms and environmental signals. Hormonal mechanisms. Androgens, Estrogens and Reproductive Behavior. Glucorticoids and response to environmental changes.
Supplementary topics:
The birth of ethology (Forestiero)
Darwin and ethology. The expression of emotions (Dessì).
Puppies: by playing you learn (Beani).
Animals that dream (Beani).
Bioetica (Baracchi & Baciadonna 2020. Insect sentience and the rise of a new inclusive ethics. Animal Sentience, 5 (29), 18.
LABORATORY".
Visit to the Pistoia zoo: building an ethogram
Scientific dissemination: Journal club (presentation and discussion of case studies) and PPT on a topic of your choice.
Suggested readings
- Reviews and research articles.
- J D.R. Rubenstein & J.Alcock, Ethology (IV Italian Ed. XI American Ed.) Zanichelli 2020.
- E.Coco e R.Cervo. Atlante. Il comportamento degli animali. Giunti 2008-2017.
- J D.R. Rubenstein & J.Alcock, Ethology (IV Italian Ed. XI American Ed.) Zanichelli 2020.
- E.Coco e R.Cervo. Atlante. Il comportamento degli animali. Giunti 2008-2017.
Further information
Seminars on specific issues of animal behaviour: expression of emotions, cognitive ethology, dream, play, theory of mind, language, culture.