Biol 349: Animal Behavior Lab syllabus (Fall 2015) Animal Behavior Laboratory (Biol 349) Instructor: Liam J. Revell (liam.revell@umb.edu) Office hours: Fridays 10 am – noon or by appointment. ISC-4150. Meeting time: Wednesdays, 11 am – 2 pm Description: The Animal Behavior Lab course complements Animal Behavior (Biol 348) with the goals of bringing to life (literally!) concepts introduced in lecture and providing you with hands-on experience collecting, analyzing, and interpreting behavioral data. Activities will include experiments involving live animals, field collection of behavioral data, computer simulations, and game playing. Prerequisites: Current enrollment in or successful prior completion of Animal Behavior (Biol 348). Grading: Participation (40%) Your presence and engagement in lab activities is crucial to the success of this course, and your grade is weighted to emphasize this fact. The participation component of your grade is based on satisfactory completion of worksheets that you turn in before you leave the lab, participation in the Franklin Park Zoo field trip (including successful completion of the associated assignment), and constructive involvement in all discussions and activities in the lab. Lab reports (60%) Labs are designed to show you how the scientific process is applied to understand animal behavior. To reflect this goal, each lab report will have the form of a (brief) scientific paper with introduction, methods, results, and discussion. Every lab session will have a lab report due the following week unless otherwise indicated in the syllabus or in class. A total of 11 labs will be completed during the duration of the course for which lab reports are due the following week, excluding a make-up lab session at the end of the semester and the introductory week. Participation and successful completion of all lab sessions is mandatory; however if only one lab is missed, students will be permitted to make up this lab session in the final meeting of the semester. All lab reports have equal value towards your final grade and no lab reports will be accepted from a student who did not attend that lab session. Attendance: You are expected to attend every lab. Lab reports will not be accepted for a lab you did not attend. For those of you who encounter an unavoidable conflict during the semester, I have scheduled a make-up lab during the final week. Note, however, that some labs cannot be made up, and I may have to assign an alternative activity for that week. 1 Biol 349: Animal Behavior Lab syllabus (Fall 2015) Schedule: **Some activities are conducted outdoors so the schedule is SUBJECT TO CHANGE** Date Sept. 3 Topic Introduction: How to study animal behavior. Description In this session, students will be introduced to the scientific methodology & hypothesis testing framework that is associated with the contemporary study of animal behavior and will be used throughout the class. No lab report. Sept. 10 Observing and recording behavior using ethograms. In this lab, which is conducted in the field around campus, students will systematically observe animals and objectively describe what they do. The goals for this lab are the following: (i) learn how to objectively describe behavior; (ii) try out different sampling strategies for observing & recording behavioral data; (iii) construct quantitative summaries of behavior called ‘ethograms’; and (iv) evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of each sampling strategy. Sept. 17 Animal foraging I: Food availability vs. predation risk in squirrel foraging behavior. In this lab students will collect data in the field to test the alternative hypotheses that wild grey squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) will forage to maximize caloric gain or minimize predation risk. Concepts that are explored with this lab include foraging strategy, predation risk, habituation, and field-based hypothesis testing. Sept. 24 Animal foraging II: Optimal foraging theory, exploring ‘your inner optimal forager.’ In this lab students ‘forage’ for different types of food (candy & dried beans) in a patchy environment of the lab. They then measure energy gain per unit time and effort in different environments to understand key concepts in optimal foraging theory. Primary objectives of this lab include: (i) to learn about energy return as a function of prey abundance; (ii) to generate & interpret a functional response curve; and (iii) to assess optimality of different, alternative foraging strategies. Oct. 1 In this lab students will learn about game theory models that can be used to study and predict how animal behaviors should evolve through time under what is referred to as ‘frequency dependent selection’ – that is, natural selection that depends on what other members of a population are doing. Specifically, the lab focuses on a very important model in the evolution Game theory: The hawkdove model. 2 Biol 349: Animal Behavior Lab syllabus (Fall 2015) of animal behavior, the so-called ‘hawk-dove model.’ Objectives of the lab include the following: (i) to learn about game theory and its application to animal behavior; (ii) to use the statistical software & computing environment R to analyze & predict population dynamics and evolution under various flavors of the hawk-dove model; and (3) to explore circumstances in which multiple competing behavioral strategies may evolve to co-exist in a population through time. Oct. 8 Territoriality in crickets: Territory-holders vs. intruders. In this lab students will explore territorial behavior in male house crickets (Acheta domesticus) via a manipulative experiment in which interactions are staged between ‘resident’ crickets (i.e., territory holders) and non-residents (‘intruders’). The objectives of the lab include learning about territoriality in animals generally, and then understanding why animals may evolve to use different behaviors in different circumstances. Oct. 15 Finding your way: Navigation and habitat selection in pillbugs. In this lab students conduct an experiment exploring habitat preference, selection, and navigation in the pillbug (a crustacean isopod, Armadillium vulgare). The lab involves first observing movement behaviors in pillbugs, and then manipulating their environment to measure and experimentally test navigational behavior in this species. Learning objectives include learning about kinesis and taxis, as well as exploring how & why animals choose where to live. Oct. 22 Animal conflict: Body size and fight escalation in crayfish. In this lab students explore the ‘rules’ of animal conflict using the freshwater crayfish, Procambrus clarkii. Students observe and record crayfish fighting behavior, and test the hypothesis that assessment via ritualized behavior is important in whether individuals engage in fights over territory or resources. Major learning objectives of this segment include understanding the evolutionary benefit of ritualized behavior, and learning how animals decide when, and with whom, to fight. Oct. 29 Pheromones and mating behavior in crayfish. In this lab, also conducted with crayfish (Procambrus clarkii), students observe mating behavior, and then experimentally test for a role of pheromones (chemical signals) in eliciting mating in this species. Students 3 Biol 349: Animal Behavior Lab syllabus (Fall 2015) will learn about the role of behavior, and the importance of chemical pheromones, in animal mating. Nov. 5 Mate choice: Female choice in fiddler crabs. This lab is conducted with the sand fiddler crab (Uca pugilator), a sexually dimorphic crustacean in which males possess one dramatically enlarged claw which they use to advertise to females. In this lab, students will observe male fiddler crabs and then conduct an experiment to test the hypothesis that females prefer males with larger claws or more vigorous displays. Major learning objectives including a better understanding of how sexual selection and female choice can drive the evolution of both male morphology and behavior in animals. Nov. 12 Comparative analysis of behavior: Evolution of visual displays in Anolis lizards. In this lab, students will use the R statistical software to analyze an existing dataset for display behavior in Caribbean lizards in the genus Anolis. They will test the hypothesis that the visual ‘noise’ in an environment can influence the rate and properties of signal (display) evolution in animals. Learning objectives include: (i) understanding how the environment can affect the evolution of animal communication; and (ii) learning how phylogenies and the among-species comparative method can be used to study the evolution of animal behaviors. Nov. 19 Franklin Park Zoo field trip. In this lab, students will explore the Franklin Park Zoo on their own or in groups, make observations on animals that they encounter, and then submit three research questions inspired by their observations. Students are encouraged specifically to make observations on collective behavior (herding, flocking, schooling), social behavior & group social structure, parental care, mate choice, and animal behavior in captivity. The objective of this lab is to help the students understand how field observations (with the zoo as a proxy) can be used to inspire genuine animal behavior research questions that might be addressed by future study in the laboratory or field. A secondary objective that is achieved by giving students feedback on their questions is to help students learn what kind of questions can (& cannot) be used to generate testable hypotheses that can be investigated using the scientific method. No lab report due next week, but 4 Biol 349: Animal Behavior Lab syllabus (Fall 2015) questions due by the end of the day. Dec. 3 Human behavior: Pheromones, gender recognition, and attractiveness (aka. the sweaty t-shirt experiment). Dec. 10 Make up lab. In this classic lab, students will first take home white t-shirts which they sleep in for several nights prior to the experiment. T-shirts are then sealed inside impermeable plastic bags and marked with a number. Students then sniff & score each bag based on the offensiveness or attractiveness of the odor they detect. The learning objective of the lab is to understand how humans and other animals choose mates, and to better appreciate how our evolutionary history influences human behaviors even today in the modern world. Accommodations: The University of Massachusetts Boston is committed to providing reasonable academic accommodations for all students with disabilities. This syllabus is available in alternate format upon request. If you have a disability and feel you will need accommodations in this course, please contact the Ross Center for Disability Services, Campus Center, Upper Level, Room 211 at 617-287-7430 (http://www.umb.edu/academics/vpass/disability/). After registration with the Ross Center, a student should present and discuss the accommodations with the professor. Although a student can request accommodations at any time, we recommend that students inform the professor of the need for accommodations by the end of the Drop/Add period to ensure that accommodations are available for the entirety of the course. Academic support: Information about tutoring and other services available to students and faculty through the Office of Academic Support Programs can be found at the URL (http://www.academicsupport.umb.edu/). Code of conduct: Students are required to adhere to the University Policy on Academic Standards and Cheating, to the University Statement on Plagiarism and the Documentation of Written Work, and to the Code of Student Conduct as delineated in the Catalog of Undergraduate Programs. The Code is available online at: http://www.umb.edu/life_on_campus/policies/community/code. 5