9.20 | Fall 2013 | Undergraduate

Animal Behavior

Lecture Notes

There are no lecture notes for the midterm review, Lecture 22 or Lectures 31-35.

LEC # TOPICS
1 Lecture 1 Notes: Introduction: class requirements, various approaches to animal behavior and its study (PDF)
2 Lecture 2 Notes: Introduction to ethology; three–spined stickleback fish (PDF)
3 Lecture 3 Notes: Introduction to ethology (cont.); field studies of birds; Niko Tinbergen’s questions (PDF - 1.6MB)
4 Lecture 4 Notes: Ethology (cont.); Konrad Lorenz’ Jackdaws (PDF)
5 Lecture 5 Notes: Ethology of geese; fixed action patterns and the CNS (PDF)
6 Lecture 6 Notes: Fixed action patterns and the CNS (cont.) (PDF)
7 Lecture 7 Notes: Input and output sides of innate behavior; motivation (PDF)
8 Lecture 8 Notes: Innate behavior and motivation (cont.); Lorenz on fundamentals of ethology: The “fixed action pattern” (PDF)
9–11

Lecture 9 Notes: Lorenz on fundamentals of ethology (PDF)

Lecture 10 Notes: Lorenz on fundamentals of ethology (PDF)

Lecture 11 Notes: Lorenz on fundamentals of ethology (PDF)

12–13

Lecture 12 Notes: Evolution; development & plasticity of behavior (PDF)

Lecture 13 Notes: Evolution; development & plasticity of behavior (PDF)

14–15

Lecture 14 Notes: Communication; Meerkats of the Kalahari Desert (PDF - 1.1MB)

Lecture 15 Notes: Communication; Meerkats of the Kalahari Desert (PDF - 1.1MB)

16 Lecture 16 Notes: Foraging; anti-predation behavior (PDF - 2.2MB)
17 Lecture 17 Notes: Anti-predation behavior (PDF - 1.2MB)
  Midterm Review 
18 Lecture 18 Notes: Mating & reproduction (PDF - 1.4MB)
19 Lecture 19 Notes: Introduction to sociobiology (PDF)
20

Lecture 20 Notes: Sociobiology subject matter (PDF)

Lecture 20 Supplement: Wilson path analysis (PDF)

21 Lecture 21 Notes: Genetic influences on social behavior (PDF)
22 Video: Domestic cat
23 Lecture 23 Notes: Domestic cat; scientific method in sociobiology (PDF - 1.4MB)
24 Lecture 24 Notes: Discoveries of sociobiology (PDF - 1.1MB)
25

Lecture 25 Notes: Discoveries of sociobiology (cont.) (PDF)

Lecture 25 Supplement: E. O. Wilson’s Sociobiology (PDF)

26 Lecture 26 Notes: Critique of cultural determinism (PDF)
27 Lecture 27 Notes: Sociobiology and culture; Practical issues and sociobiology (PDF - 1.1MB)
28 Lecture 28 Notes: “The triumph of sociobiology”; Konrad Lorenz on learning (PDF)
29 Lecture 29 Notes: Konrad Lorenz on learning (cont.) (PDF)
30 Lecture 30 Notes: Konrad Lorenz on learning (cont.); Video: The Great Apes (PDF)
31 Video: The Great Apes (cont.)
32–35

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Course Info

As Taught In
Fall 2013
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