SU14- MYTHS AND SCIENCE OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOR
USF-SM Campus, Room A214, Mondays 9-10:30 AM, June 2-July 28
How can we make sense of animal behavior? We will go from a primer on philosophy of science and the scientific method to specifics of how ethology and comparative psychology get done. The myths we find in media presentations need to be examined in light of how these sciences approach animal behavior. Tinbergen’s framework of finding proximate cause and development and relating those to function and evolution will serve us well in looking at examples in text, video, and in the field. We will also look at classical and operant conditioning as means of changing behavior. Our text will be Animal Behavior, edited by Tim Halliday, 1994, Oklahoma University Press, ISBN 0-8061-2647-7.
Course leader Wesley R. Elsberry has a B.S. in zoology from the University of Florida, an M.S. in computer science from the University of Texas at Arlington, a Ph.D. in wildlife and fisheries sciences from Texas A\&M University, and took a post-doc position at Michigan State University. He taught at Washington State University Tri-Cities, Columbia Basin College, and Texas A\&M University, and has also mentored undergraduate and graduate students. His work career has included life science research, software engineering, data science, and science education advocacy. He blogs personally and for a group science blog. His interests include falconry, photography, and skin diving.
Course Goals
Get acquainted with the science of animal behavior.
Get in touch with animals by observation
Be able to spot problems in popular treatments of animal behavior
Learn ways to learn more about animal behavior
Introduction
As a science, animal behavior seeks to catalog and explain the actions emitted by animals. A basic operational premise of animal behavior is that researchers need to clearly distinguish between what the action actually is, and what the interpretations of that action are.
The fields of study that are usually involved in animal behavior research are ethology and comparative psychology.
Overarching Questions
Do (some) animals have consciousness?
Cheap answer: sure, humans do
Real answers still a work in progress
Do (some) animals express altruism?
If so, why?
Do (some) animals have personality?
How can one effectively train animals?
How should humans relate to animals?
These are big issues that are often the basic motivations for why a researcher works on animal behavior, or why someone would want to pay attention to the research. However, these are open questions, and definitive answers are slow in coming. Often, a researcher will have to settle for working on a narrower question in the expectation that this will provide the groundwork to approach one or more of the bigger questions.
Question of Animal Consciousness
There was a recent incident in Bakersfield, California where a dog attacked a 4-year boy, and was in turn attacked by the family cat, Tara. Much discussion online speculates about the possibility of conscious behavior on the part of Tara, and possible altruism as well.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by0wv7ufZ8g
But almost anywhere consciousness can be discussed, there are possible alternative explanations. What about resource-guarding, either territory in general, or the boy in particular? These explanations, and others, should be considered.
A thirty-year interaction between a researcher, Irene Pepperberg, and an African grey parrot, Alex, is well-known. Research done with Alex goes toward issues of natural language understanding and abstract reasoning.
Videos:
Interview with Pepperberg about “Alex And Me” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62rXKjXgr60
Video about Alex https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKvVaRlz0Y4
Video about Pepperberg ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzPiTwDE0bE
Mirror self-recognition is a widely-accepted test of possible consciousness. Several members of species other than humans have passed a mirror self-recognition test. Dolphins are among those:
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHBfp6QC-MY
Question of Animal Altruism
Altruism is a variety of mutualism that is characterized by putting oneself at risk for the benefit of another without a benefit accruing to oneself.
If we consider the recent case of Tara the cat again in the context of considering whether her act is one of altruism, we again have to note that there may be alternative explanations. Does altruism require consciousness, and can we exclude consciousness on Tara’s part?
Another case given for possible altruism in animals is the observation that dolphins have been observed keeping other dolphins in trouble near the ocean’s surface such that they are able to breathe. (Dolphins very rarely drown; the reflexive state of their blowhole is closure, and that has to be altered by voluntary motor signals. Dolphins can and do suffocate if they cannot reach the water’s surface.)
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLiSJv-5EFU
Question of Personality in Animals
Given that we don’t usually have the possibility of self-report from animals, the underlying question behind the question of personality is how would we go about recognizing it?
A technical definition exists for personality: Personality is considered an ensemble of consistent individual differences in behavior. For some animals, their entire behavioral repertoire (or ethogram) can be completely described in terms of reflex and instinct, without individual differences, and obviously members of such species can’t be said to have personalities. At the opposite extreme, there could be species animals whose behavior individually covers the entire set of alternative actions, and without consistency distinguishing one individual in its actions from another individual, we again don’t have a basis to assert that personalities are evident. So, personalities are only possible to establish in species whose actions can be variable under the same circumstances, but whose individuals tend to settle into consistent use of one or a few such actions. And, again, we have to consider possible alternative explanations before we can confidently assert the existence of personalities.