Animal behaviour and humans Initially, animals were probably - PDF document

25/02/2011 Animal Behaviour and human relations with other animals useful links: http://cas.bellarmine.edu/tietjen/Ethology/introduction_and_history_of_anim.htm http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Animal_Behavior/History SE307 Dr. T. Humle Animal behaviour and humans � Initially, animals were probably observed for practical reasons because early human survival depended on knowledge of animal behaviour. � Whether hunting wild game, keeping domesticated animals, or escaping an attacking predator, success required ���������������������������������������� . Prehistory 1

25/02/2011 Ancient Mythology & Beliefs Natural History-Ancient Greece Plato (428-348 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC) Natural History-Middle Ages � The Bestiaries 2

25/02/2011 Natural History-The Renaissance � René Descartes and science: � Unity of all sciences through deductive reasoning � Never accept anything as true that is not known clearly to be such � Divide problems into as many parts as possible, and proceed from the simplest to the (1596-1650) hardest Natural History- 17 th to 19 th Century � The father of British ���������������� � � John Ray sweeps away the litter of mythology and fable... and always insists upon accuracy of observation and description and the testing of every new discovery ����������������� 1942:10) John Ray (1627-1705) Natural History- 17 th to 19 th Century � The natural history approach of Darwin and his predecessors gradually evolved into the twin sciences of animal ecology , the study of the interactions between an animal and its environment, and the biological study of animal behaviour Charles Darwin (1809-1882) 3

25/02/2011 The Study of Animal Behaviour � Psychological & Behaviourism Physiological Questions � Ecological & Ethology Evolutionary Questions Behaviourism � Studies of dogs by the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov � Classical conditioning Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) Behaviourism � Early Classical Conditioning with Humans- John B. Watson � ������������������������������� (1921) J.B. Watson (1878-1958) 4

25/02/2011 Behaviourism � ������ me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select � doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years. �� [Behaviorism (1930), p. 82 Behaviourism � Pigeons and rats by American psychologist B.F. Skinner � Studied of how accumulated experiences shape the behaviour of organisms � Operant conditioning http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ctJqjlrHA B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) Behaviourism and the deductive approach � Testing hypotheses through experimentation on captive animals. � Blank slate ( tabula rasa) � Argue for Nurture John Locke (1632-1704) 5

25/02/2011 Ethology � � Return to ������� reaction against the tendency prevalent among psychologists to study just a few behavioural phenomena observed in a handful of species that were kept in impoverished laboratory environments. Ethology � Interested in how instincts are triggered by various environmental stimuli- ������������������������ beh �� � � The study of the evolution and functional significance of behaviour � - C.O. Whitman (1842-1910) The Nobel Prize Winners 1973 6

25/02/2011 Ethology-Konrad Lorenz � Interested in critical developmental periods in young and evolution of aggression � Imprinting in geese http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U � IU9XH-mUI Ethology-Niko Tinbergen � Fixed action patterns and super-stimuli � ABCDE mnemonic A -- Animal B -- Behaviour C -- Causation D -- Development E -- Evolution F -- Function � The four questions Ethology-Niko Tinbergen e.g. Why does a dog wag its tail? 7

25/02/2011 TYPE OF EXPLANATION QUESTION ANSWER Sensory cell s detect a companion, and ������ CNS 1a. Causation (physiological sends impulses to motor mechanisms) neurons that activate tail PROXIMATE CAUSE muscles . The dog recognizes 1b. Causation (cognitive companion and decides to mechanisms) wag its tail. Tail-wagging is genetically programmed into the dog, 2. Development/Ontogeny but he learns which individuals are his companions. Tail wagging signals the ������ friendly intentions to members of its social 3. Function group , thereby maintaining ULTIMATE CAUSE the group and fostering the ������ survival and reproduction . In the past, tail wagging occurred sporadically when dogs interacted physically. 4. Evolutionary History Over time, tail wagging became modified into a ������������������������������������ Aubrey Manning Richard Dawkins Marian Stamp Dawkins Iain Douglas Hamilton Desmond Morris Ethology-Karl von Frisch � ����������������������������������� bees http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFDGPgXtK-U � (1886-1982) 8

25/02/2011 Ethology-Irenus Eibl-Eibesfelt � Applied ethological methods to study of human behaviour- Human Ethology � Compared gestures and body language across cultures & identified numerous innate behaviour patterns in humans. Ethology and the inductive approach � Observing and describe � Why do these animals behave as they do? � ����� do the specific behaviours of these animals lead to differential reproduction ��� � Stress direct observation of a broad array of animal species in nature- The comparative perspective Behaviourism vs. Ethology Behaviourism Ethology � Captivity/Lab � Wild � Controlled � Naturalistic obs. � ��������� � �������� 9

25/02/2011 The Descendants of Ethology � Behavioural Ecology � Socio-biology � Evolutionary Psychology � Evolutionary and biological anthropology... Ethnozoology � Study of the past and present interrelationships between human cultures and the animals in their environment. � It broadly includes: � classification and naming of zoological forms � cultural knowledge � use of wild and domestic animals Aristotle to the middle ages 10

25/02/2011 John Ray � History of plants ( 1686): � "... no surer criterion for determining species has occurred to me than the distinguishing features that perpetuate themselves in propagation from seed. Thus, no matter what variations occur in the individuals or the species, if they spring from the seed of one and the same plant, they are accidental variations and not such as to distinguish a species... Animals likewise that differ specifically preserve their distinct species permanently;Ϳ one species never springs from the seed of another nor vice versa ". Carl Linnaeus (von Linné) � Systema Naturae (1707-1778) Linnaean Classification System 1. Kingdom - (most general) 2. Phylum 3. Class Binomial nomenclature 4. Order 5. Family 6. Genus 7. Species - (most specific) 11

25/02/2011 Binomial nomenclature Homo sapiens Pan troglodytes Ethnozoology and classification e.g. Henderson & Harrington (1914) Classification & cultural knowledge e.g. Roy Ellen (1993) The cultural relations of classification: an analysis of Nuaulu animal categories from central Seram . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press 12

25/02/2011 Gordon Childe � �������������������������� � ��������� (1951) hypothesis that domesticating plants and animals gave humans a revolutionary new control over their food sources. Vere Gordon Childe (1892-1957) Domestication � ca. 8,000 � 5000 BC? � Enabled humans to switch from foraging, hunting, and gathering to agriculture and triggered a shift from a nomadic or migratory lifestyle to settled living patterns. The animal connection � The animal connection is universal among humans, is capable of powerfully transforming behavior, and is absent or extremely rare among other species ������������� 2010:521) 13

25/02/2011 Charles Darwin Konrad Lorenz The gray wolf ( Canis lupus ) The Goyet Dog 32,000 years ago from Goyet Cave, Belgium Germonpre et al. (2008) Journal of Archaeological Science 14