Description
Prerequisite: general biology or permission of instructor. Ethology is the branch of zoology that focuses on the scientific study of animal behavior. This course is designed to introduce students to the specialized field of animal behavior analysis and the various conditions that shape both simple and complex behavioral constructs. In this course students explore animal behavior through the study of function, causation, development, and evolutionary history. We consider in-depth studies of fixed action patterns, animal communication, and imprinting, and use these analyses to shed light on the development of behaviors throughout vertebrate and invertebrate taxa.