Syllabus
A list of topics for lectures of Ethology and Sociobiology. Their number and order does not correspond to the number of consecutive lectures.
1. Introduction, history and theory of the discipline Ethology, zoopsychology, behavioural ecology, sociobiology, behavioural sciences, proximate and ultimate causes of behaviour, four Tinbergen's questions
2. Behavioural genetics Ontogenetic factors, innate versus acquired behaviour, experiments testing heritability of behavioural traits, mechanisms of inheritance of behaviour.
3. Advantages of sociality, reciprocal altruism and cooperation Aggregation as antipredatory strategy. Prisoner's dilemma and similar games. Fate of altruistic mutation. Reciprocal altruism and conditions required for its persistence. Other types of cooperation.
4. Kin altruism, helpers and family, eusociality Hamilton's rule, coefficients of relatedness, alarm signals, helping, family and its stability in animals. Social systems in ants, wasps, termites, and eusocial mammals. Theories explaining evolution of eusociality.
5. Infanticide, siblicide and conflict of interests between relatives Infanticide in langurs, lions and rodents. Siblicide, asynchronous hatching in birds. Parental investment and parental care. Evolution of parental care. Parent-offspring conflict.
6.-7. Aggression, territoriality, and conflict Defining aggression. Genetic and physiological regulation of aggression. Conflict, territoriality, and hierarchy.Evolutionary stable strategies. Signals and communication.
8. Mating systems, promiscuity, lek Roles of males and females, sperm competition, promiscuity and its causes, advantages of multiple mating,
9. Polygyny, monogamy, and extrapair paternity. Polyandry and conflict between sexes Models explaining polygyny, monogamy and paternal investment, correlates of extrapair paternity. Tropical birds. Dunnock as an example of polyandry. Conflict between males and females.
10. Classical ethology Inherited behavioural patterns, Lorenz, Tinbergen and von Frisch. Innate versus learned.
11. Learning Associative learning, insight learning, play, aversive learning, taste aversion, imprinting, song learning, spatial cognition, imitation, tradition.
12. Personality in animals Concepts of personality in animals, behavioural syndromes, heritability and environmental influence, ontogeny, stability, and repeatability.
13.Antipredatory strategies and predator behaviour Camouflage, aposematism, mimicry, and other antipredatory strategies; perceptual and cognitive abilities of predators; searching mechanisms; predator reactions to prey warning signals; avoidance learning; recognition and generalization of warning signals.
14. Antipredatory behaviour Behavioural strategies reducing the risk of predation. Practical course: One-day practical course takes places in Prague zoo. It consists of the observations of behaviour of selected species , categorization and interpretation of the behaviour, creation of an ethogram and discussion. The list of usually observed species: Equus przewalski, Pecari tajacu, Nasua nasua, Canis lupus, Speothos venaticus, Chrysocyon, Mellivora capensis, Procavia capensis, Helogale parvula, Cynictis penicillata, Suricata suricatta, Lemniscomys barbarus, Arvicanthis niloticus, Acomys cahirinus, Cynomys ludovicianus, Capromys pilorides, Cyclura nubila. Literature for practical course: Martin P. & Bateson P. (1993): Measuring Behaviour: An Introductory Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
1993.
Annotation
The course of Ethology and Sociobiology introduces students to the basic concepts of classical ethology, sociobiology and behavioural ecology, and related fields of studies of animal behaviour. After a brief introduction about the history of the discipline, basic concepts and their founders, the lecture focuses on the meaning of the concrete behaviour and the mechanisms of innate instinctive behavioural responses and heritability of behavioural traits. Topics concerning sociobiology and behavioural ecology are arranged according to the three areas of life: 1) positive area (social behaviour, living in a group, cooperation, altruism, eusociality), 2) negative area (aggression, territoriality and conflict) and 3) sexual interactions (social systems, mate choice, parental behaviour). Optimality theories and models, such as optimal foraging theory, optimal territory size and optimal group size will be discussed in these contexts. An important part of the course is focused on basic concepts of learning (imprinting and song learning in birds, classical and operant conditioning, discrimination learning, aversion learning, insight learning, and observation learning). Another topic includes spatial orientation and navigation, antipredatory strategies, perceptual and cognitive mechanisms of prey detection and recognition in predators, and concepts of animal personalities and behavioural syndromes.
The lectures are complemented by a practical course taking place in Prague Zoo during the winter semester, which is focused on the biology and social systems of selected species. The usual financial participation of a student is CZK 200 (the price of student admission to the Prague Zoo). Moreover, in addition to the information given in the lectures students receive selected literature for additional reading, which is annually actualised on Moodle (https://dl2.cuni.cz).
The graduates of Ethology and Sociobiology should obtain theoretical fundamentals of classical ethology and sociobiology, which are required for the studies of animal behaviour and following specialised courses of sociobiology and behavioural ecology, animal cognition, neuroethology, and behavioural biology.
Lectures are given in English for Erasmus students (course MB170P106).
In the case of distance learning, the MS Teams platform will be used.