EEB 492 Behavioral Ecology

BehavioralEcology2009

Instructor: Anderson

Prereq.: Two college-level courses in biology or permission of instructor.

Meets on Mondays and Thursdays.

This course emphasizes the fascinating behaviors that animals use to solve ecological problems. We have good theoretical reasons to expect male animals to try to mate with many females; do males do that, and if so, what behaviors lead to success? Predators searching for prey ought to abandon areas that seem to be unproductive; can we successfully predict what their "optimal giving-up time" is? Sibling animals fight with each other; after taking the course, you'll understand how natural selection produces these aggressive behaviors. Class time is split between lectures and ambitious, original research projects. Taught in odd-numbered years.