2021-2022 Catalog and Student Handbook

BIOL 320 Animal Behavior

This course will explore the vast diversity of animal behavior, how animals process and respond to environmental stimuli. Through laboratory exercises, lecture and reading of scientific literature, we will attempt to answer two question s: 1) how do animals behave the way they do? and 2) why do animals behave this way? In other words, we will discuss both the mechanisms of animal behavior and the ecology and evolution of animal behavior. We will focus on diverse topics such as the role of nature and nurture in development of forager honey bees, evolutionary benefits of infanticide in lemurs and the Mafia hypothesis to explain why magpies raise cuckoo bird young.

Credits

4

Prerequisite

Complete BIOL 106

Distribution

Scientific Inquiry/Lab