Lecture 1

18 February 2014

Today is the first lecture of Behavioural Ecology. During this lesson I will describe the course to you, outline my expectations, and learn more about your interests. We will then discuss two classic papers, and review core concepts from the first Chapter of your text book: 

1. Natural selection
2. Tinbergen’s questions
3. Genes and behaviour
4. Individuals or groups

In addition, we will discuss the review paper that you will write this term, and the peer review process. Together we will explore a variety of potential topics.

I will post the PowerPoint for the first lecture here after class. 

Do not forget to provide me with anonymous feedback on the lesson as well as taking the short survey at the bottom of the page!

Lecture slides


Using Tinbergen's Four Questions: 
Recently, researchers found (using Google Earth) that cows align themselves with the globe's magnetic fields. This interesting behaviour had not yet been reported, and appears to be shared by other ungulates. Currently, there is little agreement on how or why these animals exhibit this behaviour. We will use Tinbergen's four questions to explore potential explanations and develop working hypotheses. This exercise is not about being correct, but about how to formulate questions.

You may be interested in reading the original research article published in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

We will watch this video (from Stonyfield organic's YouTube channel - with a few modifications) to observe cows grazing. This will be useful for us to collect our own data, and for us to develop working hypotheses.

Here is the video:



Genes and behaviour
Drosophila courtship involves song production which varies by species. This trait is controlled by the period gene. Interestingly, researchers have found that when a small piece of the period gene was transferred from D. simulans to D. melanogaster, males tend to produce the D. simulans song instead of their own. These flies also produce a wing display for courtship that differs by species, and again these behaviours are under relatively simple control. Here is a recent PloS One paper on the topic: link. Click the video below to see both the song and "dance" of the flies.