Reviews selected issues including learning, cognition, perception, foraging and feeding, migration and navigation, defense, and social activities including conflict, collaboration, courtship and reproduction, and communication. The interacting contributions of environment and heredity are examined and the approaches of psychology, ethology, and ecology to this area of study are treated. The relation of human behavior patterns to those of nonhuman animals is explored. Additional readings and a paper are required for graduate credit.

This exercise is designed to familiarize the student with ethology, the study of animal behavior, by observing the behavior of several different arthropods.

Most of the major categories of adaptive behavior can be seen in all animals. This course begins with the evolution of behavior, the driver of nervous system evolution, reviewed using concepts developed in ethology, sociobiology, other comparative studies, and in studies of brain evolution. The roles of various types of plasticity are considered, as well as foraging and feeding, defensive and aggressive behavior, courtship and reproduction, migration and navigation, social activities and communication, with contributions of inherited patterns and cognitive abilities. Both field and laboratory based studies are reviewed; and finally, human behavior is considered within the context of primate studies.

This resource includes a detailed description and instructional information for carrying out an undergraduate laboratory exercise in ecology, behavioral biology, and evolution. It includes student outlines, instructors notes, and suggested questions for laboratory reports.

This laboratory exercise can be used to examine the anatomical, physiological, behavioral, and ecological components involved in reproduction in animals using a simple animal model.

Animal behavior is often downplayed in general biology labs. Problems include where to deal with the topic in the syllabus, time constraints and special equipment needs, and the unpredictable nature of behavioral responses. Birdsong playback offers a solution to these problems. Birdsong relates well to several important conceptual areas of biology. Its acoustic features can be investigated easily using desktop computers, and it is a fairly reliable behavioral response obtainable in the field. This lab provides general background information about birdsong, explores the structure of birdsong using acoustic analysis computer software, and offers field experience in playback techniques.

Use to develop experimental design of sex pheromone concentrations, and observing courtship behavior of cockroaches. This may be used in entomology or physiology laboratory classes.

A "Conversion Immersion" workshop was convened to provide a forum for instructors to work together to convert traditional "cookbook" laboratories to a more investigative format. This paper summarizes some of the ideas that emerged from the two sessions of the workshop, which included labs on the following topics: chick development, soils, antimicrobial agents, effects of pH and heavy metals on microbial processes, DNA isolation, immunohistochemistry, enzymes, osmosis, invertebrate diversity, plant diversity, microscopy and cells, muscle contraction, fermentation, and genetic engineering.

A laboratory exercise to study insect courtship behavior using Melittobia digitata, WOWBugs.

The instructor's section of this chapter considers some of the general challenges associated with converting a descriptive laboratory exercise to an inquiry exercise. It also contains the detailed methods of our current version of this animal behavior investigation. The second major section of this chapter contains the current student's version of this exercise. In this section students are led through initial observations of crickets and through the process of hypothesis formation about relationships between dominance hierarchies and mating behaviors. They then design and conduct an experiment using crickets to evaluate their hypothesis.

In this exercise, students place food at various distances from an ant hill or nest. Ants are then observes as they find the bait and lead other ants to it. At the completion of the exercise, students construct a graph which shows the establishment of trails, recruitment of workers, and depletion of the bait.

This inquiry lab activity involves students working to observe and describe to how worms will interact/adapt with their environment.

Insect predators use one of three general feeding strategies with associated morphologies (mandibles, raptorial forelegs, and unmodified legs) to capture prey. Evolutionarily, species subjected to strong predation pressure may respond by developing defenses (including poison) or by producing more offspring. This exercise examines the interplay between three potential prey species and three insect predator types played by the students. Simulations are conducted over 5 to 10 generations with changes in population size being tracked. In response to foraging, one prey type becomes poisonous, one prey type becomes semi-poisonous, and one prey type remains palatable. To simulate the cost of defense, prey reproduction rate is dependent on the level of prey defense. Co-evolution and predator specialization are simulated by allowing one predator type to adapt to poisonous prey species.

Studies of invertebrate locomotion and biomechanics provide unusual opportunities to interrelate biology, physics, and math in engaging ways. The authors have produced an original videotape and CD, entitled, "Invertebrate LocOlympics," which document locomotion in numerous invertebrates including: nematode, oligochaetes, leech, Daphnia, ostracod, copepod, centipede, millipede, and springtail. This documentation, together with the following write-up, allow quantitative investigation and analysis of several types of locomotion, namely: undulatory swimming, swimming with appendages, walking, running, jumping, ciliary gliding, and others. Direct measurements from freeze-frame video or PowerPoint file images (on CD) allow inter-species comparisons of movement trajectory, forward velocity, wave velocity, wave frequency, and Reynolds Numbers.

The pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, is a versatile laboratory organism. This experiment investigates the response of pea aphids to an alarm pheromone normally produced in response to predator attack. The responses of aphids feeding on good quality and on poor quality long bean plants will be compared and discussed in terms of the costs and benefits of antipredator behaviors. The life cycle of the pea aphid is demonstrated and information about obtaining, rearing, and working with pea aphids is provided.

This activity will allow students to observe the orientation behavior of several organisms and practice formulating and testing hypotheses based on their observations.

A laboratory exercise to explore the predator-avoidance mechanisms of the freshwater snail Phsella

This laboratory exercise utilizes a zoological collection to teach vertebrate zoology in an introductory biology lab. Many colleges are near major vertebrate collections kept in zoos and aquariums. Most of these institutions maintain education departments with extensive information about individual collections. Major zoos are engaged in research in the areas of conservation, behavior, genetics and reproduction of endangered species, and animal health and nutrition. Students utilize the animal collection to observe and identify distinguishing characteristics of the various orders of vertebrates, relate structures to physiological function, correlate physiological adaptations to habitat, and observe and interpret behavioral characteristics.

This resource is a detailed manual of protocols and instructional information for carrying out an undergraduate laboratory exercise in physiology and animal behavior, including student outlines, instructors notes, and suggested questions for laboratory reports.