Exploring Animal Behavior in Laboratory and Field: An Hypothesis-testing Approach to the Development, Causation, Function, and Evolution of Animal Behavior

✍ Scribed by Bonnie J. Ploger, Ken Yasukawa

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 493
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This is a fantastic and much-needed book. As a resource for someone setting up a laboratory course in animal behavior, this book is full of excellent ideas, and I would advise anyone to get a copy of this book. The problem with adopting it as a lab book for students is that there are over 30 labs presented here. As many are multiweek projects, the most that could reasonably be done in a semester is 7-10 labs. Anyone who has taught students knows that having them purchase a book ... for which they will only use 1/4 or 1/3 of the chapters is only inviting a tremendous amount of griping. This is my only complaint with this book, which the publisher was pushing as a lab manual for students, instead of a resource for instructors.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Inside Cover......Page 4
Contents......Page 6
Contributors......Page 10
Preface......Page 14
INTRODUCTION......Page 22
PART 1 - Describing Behavior......Page 30
1 Learning to Describe and Quantify Animal Behavior......Page 32
2 Developing Operational Definitions and Measuring Interobserver Reliability Using House Crickets (Acheta domesticus)......Page 52
PART 2 - Causation......Page 62
3 Courtship, Mating, and Sex Pheromones in the Mealworm Beetle (Tenebrio molitor)......Page 64
4 Courtship and Mate Attraction in Parasitic Wasps......Page 80
5 Chemoreception in Lizards......Page 94
6 Behavioral Thermoregulation in Field Populations of Amphibian Larvae......Page 100
7 Temperature Dependence of the Electric Organ Discharge in Weakly Electric Fish......Page 106
8 Observing and Analyzing Human Nonverbal Communication......Page 116
9 Foraging Behavior of Ants, or Picnics: An Ant's-Eye View......Page 134
10 Hummingbird Foraging Patterns: Experiments Using Artificial Flowers......Page 148
11 Honey Bee Foraging Behavior......Page 154
12 Individual Constancy to Color by Foraging Honey Bees......Page 168
PART 3 - Development......Page 178
13 Dog Training Laboratory: Applied Animal Behavior......Page 180
14 Paternal Care and Its Effect on Maternal Behavior and Pup Survival and Development in Prairie Voles (Microtus ochrogaster)......Page 188
15 The Effect of Prenatal Visual Stimulation on the Imprinting Responses of Domestic Chicks: An Examination of Sensitive Periods Durin 2 Development......Page 198
16 Development of Thermoregulation in Altricial Rodents......Page 208
17 Aggregation and Kin Recognition in African Clawed Frogs (Xenopus laevis)......Page 220
PART 4 Adaptation and Evolution......Page 232
SECTION I - Foraging......Page 234
18 Diving Birds: A Field Study of Benthic and Piscivorous Foragers......Page 236
19 Found A Peanut: Foraging Decisions by Squirrels......Page 242
20 Economic Decisions and Foraging Trade-offs in Chickadees......Page 252
21 Seed Selection by Foraging Birds......Page 260
22 Competitive Behavior of Birds at Feeders......Page 268
SECTION II - Avoiding Predators......Page 278
23 Vigilance and the Group-size Effect: Observing Behavior in Humans......Page 280
24 The Function of "Chat" Calls in Northern Mockingbirds (Mimus polyglottos): Vocal Defense of Nestlings......Page 300
25 Diving and Skating in Whirligig Beetles: Alternative Antipredator Responses......Page 308
26 The Response of Tree Squirrels to Conspecific and Heterospecific Alarm Calls......Page 316
SECTION III - Agonistic Behavior......Page 322
27 Competition for Breeding Resources by Burying Beetles......Page 324
28 Learning to be Winners and Losers: Agonistic Behavior in Crayfish......Page 330
SECTION IV - Courtship and Parental Care......Page 340
29 Costs and Benefits of Maternal Care in Earwigs......Page 342
30 Vocal Behavior and Mating Tactics of the Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer): A Field Exercise in Animal Behavior......Page 348
31 The Role of Multiple Male Characters in Mate Choice by Female Guppies (Poecilia reticulata)......Page 362
32 Investigating Human Mate Choice Using the Want Ads......Page 372
SECTION V - Games......Page 378
33 Demonstrating Strategies for Solving the Prisoner's Dilemma......Page 380
34 Using Empirical Games to Teach Animal Behavior......Page 400
SECTION VI - Evolution......Page 408
35 The Evolution of Behavior: A Phylogenetic Approach......Page 410
APPENDIX A......Page 420
APPENDIX B......Page 432
APPENDIX C......Page 436
GLOSSARY......Page 468
INDEX......Page 484