Animal Behavior

Catalog description

Ultimately the success or failure (i.e., life or death) of any individual animal is determined by its behavior. This course will be an integrative approach emphasizing experimental studies of animal behavior. You will be introduced to state-of-the-art approaches to the study of animal behavior, including neural and hormonal mechanisms, genetic and developmental mechanisms and finally ecological and evolutionary approaches. We will read and discuss examples of current scientific papers, and learn how animal behaviorists conduct observations and experiments. We will feature guest appearances by research scientists studying subjects relevant to animal behavior. Group discussions will be emphasized. This course may be used as a population/ecology subject area elective for the B.A. and B.S. Biology degrees, and one of the elective core courses required for the Neuroscience B.S. degree. Offered as BIOL 358 and BIOL 458 . Prereq: (Undergraduate Student and BIOL 214 , BIOL 215 and BIOL 216 ) or Requisites Not Met permission.