Introduction to Animal Behavior
Ethology: Proximate and Ultimate Causation
Animal Communication
Innate and Learned Behavior
Types of Signals
Optimality, Cost-Benefit Analysis and Energy Return on Investment
Signal Honesty
Optimality and Game Theory
Sexual Selection
Cognition and Problem Solving
Behavioral Ecology
Mating Behavior, Mate Choice Selection, and Mating Systems
Host-Parasite, and Predator-Prey Dynamics
Animal Self-Medication
Altruism, Inclusive Fitness, and Kin Selection
Genetics of Behavior
Parasite Driven Behavior
Sociality and Group Cooperation
Eusociality
Sociobiology
Human Behavior
Ethology: Proximate and Ultimate Causation
- Birdsong: Biological themes and variations. The main thrust of this book is to suggest that the two main functions of song are attracting a mate and defending territory.
Animal Communication
- Infrastructure construction without information exchange: the trail clearing mechanism in Atta leafcutter ants
- Teaching in wild meerkats
- Habronattus jumping spiders: Information and courtship displays, and courtship display with audio.
- Video: Fiddler crab claws
- Searcy, W. A., & Nowicki, S. (2005). The evolution of animal communication: reliability and deception in signaling systems. Princeton University Press. Chapter 1: Introduction.
- Wyatt, T. D. (2003). Pheromones and animal behaviour: communication by smell and taste. Cambridge university press. Textbook.
- Lindquist, E. D., & Hetherington, T. E. (1996). Field studies on visual and acoustic signaling in the" earless" Panamanian golden frog, Atelopus zeteki. Journal of Herpetology, 347-354. Panamanian golden frog communication.
- Animal signals: What are their functions? What information do they transmit? How are they produced? And why did they evolve?
Innate and Learned Behavior
- Catchpole, C. K., & Slater, P. J. (2003). Bird song: biological themes and variations. Cambridge university press. (Full Text)
- Whitfield, C. W., Cziko, A. M., & Robinson, G. E. (2003). Gene expression profiles in the brain predict behavior in individual honey bees. Science, 302(5643), 296-299.
Types of Signals
- Madsen, P. T., & Surlykke, A. (2013). Functional convergence in bat and toothed whale biosonars. Physiology, 28(5), 276-283.
- Knörnschild, M., Jung, K., Nagy, M., Metz, M., & Kalko, E. (2012). Bat echolocation calls facilitate social communication. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 279(1748), 4827-4835.
Optimality, Cost-Benefit Analysis and Energy Return on Investment
- Cristol, D. A., & Switzer, P. V. (1999). Avian prey-dropping behavior. II. american crows and walnuts. Behavioral Ecology, 10(3), 220-226.
- Pritchard, J., & Er, P. (1990). Strategies of mussel dropping by Carrion Crows Corvus. Bird Study, 37, 12-17.
- Desprez, M., Gimenez, O., McMahon, C. R., Hindell, M. A., & Harcourt, R. G. (2018). Optimizing lifetime reproductive output: Intermittent breeding as a tactic for females in a long‐lived, multiparous mammal. Journal of Animal Ecology, 87(1), 199-211.
- Tao, Y., Börger, L., & Hastings, A. (2016). Dynamic range size analysis of territorial animals: an optimality approach. The American Naturalist, 188(4), 460-474.
- Ydenberg, R. C., & Krebs, J. R. (1987). The tradeoff between territorial defense and foraging in the great tit (Parus major). American Zoologist, 27(2), 337-346.
- Werner, E. E., Gilliam, J. F., Hall, D. J., & Mittelbach, G. G. (1983). An experimental test of the effects of predation risk on habitat use in fish. Ecology, 64(6), 1540-1548.
- O’Brien, W. J., Browman, H. I., & Evans, B. I. (1990). Search strategies of foraging animals. American Scientist, 78(2), 152-160.
Signal Honesty
- Rendall, D., Owren, M. J., & Ryan, M. J. (2009). What do animal signals mean?. Animal Behaviour, 78(2), 233-240.
- Honest signalling theory: Introduction. Web module.
Optimality and Game Theory
- Packer, C., & Pusey, A. E. (1982). Cooperation and competition within coalitions of male lions: Kin selection or game theory?. Nature, 296(5859), 740.
Sexual Selection
- Kuijper, B., Pen, I., & Weissing, F. J. (2012). A guide to sexual selection theory. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 43, 287-311.
- Andersson, M., & Simmons, L. W. (2006). Sexual selection and mate choice. Trends in ecology & evolution, 21(6), 296-302.
- Plavcan, J. M. (2004). Sexual selection, measures of sexual selection, and sexual dimorphism in primates. Sexual selection in primates, 230.
- Female control over multiple matings increases the opportunity for postcopulatory sexual selection
- Wedekind, Claus, et al. MHC-dependent mate preferences in humans. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences 260.1359 (1995): 245-249.
- Hamilton, W. D., Axelrod, R., & Tanese, R. (1990). Sexual reproduction as an adaptation to resist parasites (a review). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 87(9), 3566-3573.
- Testing the sexy son hypothesis—a research framework for empirical approaches
Cognition and Problem Solving
- Scientists Are Totally Rethinking Animal Cognition. What science can tell us about how other creatures experience the world
- The Nature and Evolution of Intelligence in Orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus)
- Tool use in crows
Behavioral Ecology
- Davies, N. B., Krebs, J. R., & West, S. A. (2012). An introduction to behavioural ecology. John Wiley & Sons. Chapter 3: Economic decisions and the individual.
- McFarland, D. J. (1977). Decision making in animals. Nature, 269(5623), 15.
- Decaestecker, E., Gaba, S., Raeymaekers, J. A., Stoks, R., Van Kerckhoven, L., Ebert, D., & De Meester, L. (2007). Host–parasite ‘Red Queen’dynamics archived in pond sediment. Nature, 450(7171), 870.
- The Cicada’s Love Affair With Prime Numbers. 2013. New York Times.
Mating Behavior, Mate Choice Selection, and Mating Systems
- Lukas, D., & Clutton-Brock, T. H. (2013). The evolution of social monogamy in mammals. Science, 341(6145), 526-530.
- Taylor, M. L., Price, T. A., & Wedell, N. (2014). Polyandry in nature: a global analysis. Trends in ecology & evolution, 29(7), 376-383.
- Andersson, M. (1982). Female choice selects for extreme tail length in a widowbird. Nature, 299(5886), 818-820.
- Borgia, G. (1985). Bower destruction and sexual competition in the satin bowerbird (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 18(2), 91-100.
- Schillaci, M. A. (2008). Primate mating systems and the evolution of neocortex size. Journal of Mammalogy, 89(1), 58-63.
- Emlen, S. T., & Oring, L. W. (1977). Ecology, sexual selection, and the evolution of mating systems. Science, 197(4300), 215-223.
- Naturally Speaking Podcast: Cutting edge research and ecology banter from the Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health & Comparative Medicine
- Gabor, C. R., & Halliday, T. R. (1997). Sequential mate choice by multiply mating smooth newts: females become more choosy. Behavioral Ecology, 8(2), 162-166.
- Does A Universal Genetic Recipe for Monogamy Exist? NOVA
Host-Parasite, and Predator-Prey Dynamics
- Nunn, C. L., & Dokey, A. T. W. (2006). Ranging patterns and parasitism in primates. Biology Letters, 2(3), 351-354.
- Rifkin, J. L., Nunn, C. L., & Garamszegi, L. Z. (2012). Do animals living in larger groups experience greater parasitism? A meta-analysis. The American Naturalist, 180(1), 70-82.
- Altizer, S., Nunn, C. L., Thrall, P. H., Gittleman, J. L., Antonovics, J., Cunningham, A. A., ... & Poss, M. (2003). Social organization and parasite risk in mammals: integrating theory and empirical studies. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 34(1), 517-547.
- Preisser, E. L., Bolnick, D. I., & Benard, M. F. (2005). Scared to death? The effects of intimidation and consumption in predator–prey interactions. Ecology, 86(2), 501-509.
- Ngô, H. M., Zhou, Y., Lorenzi, H., Wang, K., Kim, T. K., Zhou, Y., ... & Roberts, C. W. (2017). Toxoplasma modulates signature pathways of human epilepsy, neurodegeneration & cancer. Scientific reports, 7(1), 11496.
Animal Self-Medication
Altruism, Inclusive Fitness, and Kin Selection
- Mateo, J. M., & Johnston, R. E. (2000). Kin recognition and the ‘armpit effect’: evidence of self–referent phenotype matching. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 267(1444), 695-700.
- West, S. A., & Gardner, A. (2013). Adaptation and inclusive fitness. Current Biology, 23(13), R577-R584.
- Romiguier, J., Borowiec, M. L., Weyna, A., Helleu, Q., Loire, E., La Mendola, C., ... & Keller, L. (2022). Ant phylogenomics reveals a natural selection hotspot preceding the origin of complex eusociality. Current Biology, 32(13), 2942-2947.
Genetics of Behavior
- Behavioral Genomics. Nature Education
- Robinson, G. E., & Barron, A. B. (2017). Epigenetics and the evolution of instincts. Science, 356(6333), 26-27.
- Ridley, M. (2004). Evolution. Malden
- Hu, C. K., & Hoekstra, H. E. (2017, January). Peromyscus burrowing: a model system for behavioral evolution. In Seminars in cell & developmental biology (Vol. 61, pp. 107-114). Academic Press.
- Audet, J. N., Kayello, L., Ducatez, S., Perillo, S., Cauchard, L., Howard, J. T., ... & Lefebvre, L. (2018). Divergence in problem-solving skills is associated with differential expression of glutamate receptors in wild finches. Science advances, 4(3), eaao6369.
- Persson, M. E., Wright, D., Roth, L. S., Batakis, P., & Jensen, P. (2016). Genomic regions associated with interspecies communication in dogs contain genes related to human social disorders. Scientific reports, 6, 33439.
Parasite Driven Behavior
- Sutterland, A. L., Fond, G., Kuin, A., Koeter, M. W. J., Lutter, R., Gool, T., ... & Haan, L. (2015). Beyond the association. Toxoplasma gondii in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and addiction: systematic review and meta‐analysis. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 132(3), 161-179.
- House, P. K., Vyas, A., & Sapolsky, R. (2011). Predator cat odors activate sexual arousal pathways in brains of Toxoplasma gondii infected rats. PloS one, 6(8), e23277.
Sociality and Group Cooperation
Eusociality
- Hamilton’s rule and the causes of social evolution
- Gilbert, N. (2010). Altruism can be explained by natural selection (Nature News).
- Nowak, M. A., Tarnita, C. E., & Wilson, E. O. (2010). The evolution of eusociality. Nature, 466(7310), 1057. For the past four decades kin selection theory, based on the concept of inclusive fitness, has been the major theoretical attempt to explain the evolution of eusociality. Here we show the limitations of this approach. We argue that standard natural selection theory in the context of precise models of population structure represents a simpler and superior approach, allows the evaluation of multiple competing hypotheses, and provides an exact framework for interpreting empirical observations.
- Abbot, P., Abe, J., Alcock, J., Alizon, S., Alpedrinha, J. A., Andersson, M., ... & Barton, N. (2011). Inclusive fitness theory and eusociality. Nature, 471(7339), E1. ARISING FROM M. A. Nowak, C. E. Tarnita & E. O. Wilson Nature 466, 1057–1062 (2010)
- Wilson, E. O., & Hölldobler, B. (2005). Eusociality: origin and consequences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102(38), 13367-13371.
- Linksvayer, T. A. (2010). Subsociality and the evolution of eusociality. In Encyclopedia of animal behavior (Vol. 3, pp. 358-362). Academic Press Oxford, UK.
Sociobiology
- Seyfarth, Robert M., and Dorothy L. Cheney. "The Structure of Social Knowledge in Monkeys." Animal Social Complexity: Intelligence, Culture, and Individualized Societies (2003): 207–29.
Human Behavior
- Evolution of monogamy in humans the result of infanticide risk, new study suggests
- China's Kingdom of Women: The Mosuo of Lugo - Bonded by a walking marriage. BBC Travel
- Mateo, J. M., & Johnston, R. E. (2000). Kin recognition and the ‘armpit effect’: evidence of self–referent phenotype matching. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 267(1444), 695-700.
Bioacoustics Resources
Macaulay Library - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Xeno-Canto
eBird
AviBase
BirdLife International
IBC Bird Collection
AVoCet: Avian Vocalization Center
enjoynature.net
Audio Field Guide to Bird Songs of Eastern, Central N. America (1 of 6)
Audio Field Guide to Bird Songs of Eastern, Central N. America (2 of 6)
Audio Field Guide to Bird Songs of Eastern, Central N. America (3 of 6)
Audio Field Guide to Bird Songs of Eastern, Central N. America (4 of 6)
Audio Field Guide to Bird Songs of Eastern, Central N. America (5 of 6)
Audio Field Guide to Bird Songs of Eastern, Central N. America (6 of 6)
RAVEN Video Tutorials
Macaulay Library - Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Xeno-Canto
eBird
AviBase
BirdLife International
IBC Bird Collection
AVoCet: Avian Vocalization Center
enjoynature.net
Audio Field Guide to Bird Songs of Eastern, Central N. America (1 of 6)
Audio Field Guide to Bird Songs of Eastern, Central N. America (2 of 6)
Audio Field Guide to Bird Songs of Eastern, Central N. America (3 of 6)
Audio Field Guide to Bird Songs of Eastern, Central N. America (4 of 6)
Audio Field Guide to Bird Songs of Eastern, Central N. America (5 of 6)
Audio Field Guide to Bird Songs of Eastern, Central N. America (6 of 6)
RAVEN Video Tutorials