ITA | ENG
B000370 - ETHOLOGY
Main information
Teaching Language
Course Content
Suggested readings
Learning Objectives
Prerequisites
Teaching Methods
Further information
Type of Assessment
Course program
Academic Year 2010-11
Course year
Third year - Second Semester
Belonging Department
Neurosciences, Psychology, Drug Research and Child Health (NEUROFARBA)
Course Type
Single education field course
Scientific Area
BIO/05 - ZOOLOGY
Credits
6
Teaching Hours
40
Teaching Term
01/03/2011 ⇒ 03/06/2011
Attendance required
No
Type of Evaluation
Final Grade
Course Content
show
Course program
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Lectureship
Teaching Language
italian
Course Content
The general aim of the course is to provide a biological background for the study of animal and human behaviour. Main ethological concepts are proximate and ultimate causes of behaviour in a Darwinian logic; development of behaviour (roles of genes and environment); control of behaviour (neural, hormonal and organizing mechanisms); evolution of communication (signal, song, human speech); evolution of sex differences.
Suggested readings (Search our library's catalogue)
J. Alcock, Animal Behaviour. An evolutionary approach (VIII ed), Sinauer Associates, MA [Chapters I-VI, IX-X, Glossary].
Learning Objectives
To appreciate the heuristic value of animal models. To frame basic questions about animal categories into two categories: "How" and "Why". How do genes, environment and physiological mechanisms cause an individual to behave in particular ways? Why have certain behavioural traits persisted in species to the present?
Prerequisites
no one
Teaching Methods
I test alternative hypotheses by means of a critical analysis of selected study cases: whether proximate or ultimate, whether based on theory X or theory Y.
Further information
no one
Type of Assessment
written and oral examination
Course program
The basic levels of analysis in the study of animal behaviour: questions about proximate and ultimate cause, the lesson of Charles Darwin, Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen. Instinct or learning? gene-environment interactions in bird song and human language. The development of behaviour: genetic differences and alternative phenotypes, interactive theory, imprinting, behavioural flexibility and homeostasis. The control of behaviour: neural, hormonal and organizing mechanisms. Analyzing communication: historical pathways, adaptation in signalers and receivers, sensory exploitation, honesty and deception. Adaptive responses to predators and coevolution prey/predator: mobbing, stotting, warning coloration, batesian mimicry and further darwinian puzzles. The enigma of sex. Evolution by sexual selection: competition among rivals and mate choice, armaments and ornaments.