Animal Behavior Screencasts
Summary: Dr. David B. Miller, Professor of Psychology at The University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, U.S.A., is joined by Honors students enrolled in his Animal Behavior course for weekly discussions about course content and issues related to animal behavior and ethology.
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- Artist: David B. Miller
- Copyright: (c) 2017 David B. Miller
Podcasts:
Examples of altruism and reciprocal altruism, plus mechanisms of kin recognition.
Examples of altruism, cooperation, kin selection, and animal hybrids.
A discussion about 3 units of natural selection: Individual (Darwinian), Genic, and Group Selection, and how Group Selection is not necessarily inconsistent with Individual Selection.
Evolution's scorecard in terms of its coverage in schools in the United States. Also, a brief look at how creationism may have played a role in undermining the public's understanding of evolution. Finally, a look at Darwin's "missing evidence"—industrial melanism.
The distinction between innate and instinctive behavior. Also, an examination of fixed action patterns, consummatory acts, action-specific energy, and Konrad Lorenz’s model of instinctive behavior.
Examples across a wide range of species of threat displays, courtship displays, distraction displays, appeasement displays, intention movements, vacuum activity, displacement activity, redirected activity, and simultaneous & successive ambivalent behaviors.
Sir Julian Huxley's concept of ritualization describing 3 mechanisms by which non-communicative behaviors evolve into displays that take on communicative functions.
Ethograms, sign stimuli, configurational sign stimuli, releasers, supernormal stimuli, and innate releasing mechanisms.
An examination of animal welfare and animal rights, including regulations, alternatives, and illegal activities by extremists.
Numerous examples of how nonhuman organisms conceal themselves with various forms of camouflage for the purposes of predation and hiding from prey.
Mimicry is an extraordinary evolutionary adaptation, typically involved in predator-prey relationships. Here, we examine both Batesian and Müllerian mimicry.
An examination of the difference between homologous traits (traits found in different species traceable to a common ancestor) and analogous traits (traits that appear to be similar but have no common descent).
An examination of the phylogenetic tree (which reconstructs evolutionary relationships based on homologous data) and the phylogenetic scale (which is a non-evolutionary ordering usually based on degree of presumed complexity).
An examination of the cognitive capabilities of a wide range of animal species, including dung beetles, assassin bugs, ants, archer fish, chimps, African Grey Parrots, New Caledonian Crows, and dogs, the latter including fMRI brain scans.
The ability to generalize is important in animal behavior. Here, we explore 6 dimensions of generalization: species, domestication, context, behaviors, rewards, & sensory modalities. Dangers of sloppy generalization are also discussed.
