Week 11 - Nov. 11th
Student Presentations (Discussion Question Day)

Don't forget to bring to class the evaluations for the 3 websites that were assigned to you to critique.
READ:
See Moodle for Posted Papers and Discussion Questions.
Choose 2 papers to read and prepare typed answers for the questions supplied by the presenter.

 

 

Week 11 - Nov. 13th
Foraging Behavior
(after we finish behavior genetics/genomics)
crow

The principles of foraging are common to all animal species, even if the actual behaviors exhibited are very diverse. The foraging process can be though of as a number of decisions made by the forager. These decisions must be made based upon available information, past experience, and neural calculations.

READ:
Essential Animal Behavior
chapter 6

This is a classic paper that you will see summarized in most text books.
Zach, R. (1979)
Shell droppin: decision making and optimal foraging in nothwestern crows. Behaviour 68:106-117.

mole

Extra:
Catania & Remple (2005) Asymptotic prey profitability drives star-nosed moles to the foraging speed limit. Nature 433:519.

This is one of my favorites! Every year at neuroscience I look to see what new work has been done with this amazing animal. I enjoy this research program because it really considers all 4 of Tinbergen's questions simultaneously (you won't see that in this paper but, read more and you will).