Methods for studying animal behavior.
Research would be great if you could just ask animals questions. I mean, yes research with humans is still complicated because you have to consider that people sometimes lie, and maybe aren't that good at self reporting, but I can't help but feel like it would be loads easier if I could just ask 'why' questions instead of only observing actions.
About animal behavior, Tinbergen had four main questions. Two deal with proximate, or immediate behaviors and causes, and two deal with ultimate, or long term evolutionary causes. Tinbergen asks what mechanism causes the behavior and how it develops, what the function is, and how it evolved. I spent a while trying to figure out which of those questions was the most important but I think like most things the sum of the interaction is more important than any of its parts. To fully understand a behavior I think one should be able to answer all four questions.
I also read that some seahorses are truly monogamous. I kind of wondered about that statement, because I had never thought about animals other than humans differing in respect to promiscuity and monogamy. I figured species of animals either were monogamous or not, but now I'm wondering if male seahorses sit at home all fat and pregnant eating shrimp cocktails wondering if their women are cheating on them. We could observe them all we want, we still won't know what they're thinking about.
I also thought it was interesting that the book talked about the three R's. Replacement, refinement, and reduction. I always learned about the three R's being reduce, reuse, and recycle, so at first glance the heading had me confused. Both sets of three R's have important messages but I would not advise using both of them in reference to research. Reducing is essentially the same concept in both slogans, reusing subjects has its benefits I suppose, and I guess recycle could be considered replication which is good but difficult to get funded usually. okay, I seem to have made an opposite point so I guess I would advise using both. I also found it interesting that animal care only applies to vertebrates and octopodes.
An interesting/ sad note to end on: my computer tried to correct my propper spelling of the word octopodes to octopuses.
About animal behavior, Tinbergen had four main questions. Two deal with proximate, or immediate behaviors and causes, and two deal with ultimate, or long term evolutionary causes. Tinbergen asks what mechanism causes the behavior and how it develops, what the function is, and how it evolved. I spent a while trying to figure out which of those questions was the most important but I think like most things the sum of the interaction is more important than any of its parts. To fully understand a behavior I think one should be able to answer all four questions.
I also read that some seahorses are truly monogamous. I kind of wondered about that statement, because I had never thought about animals other than humans differing in respect to promiscuity and monogamy. I figured species of animals either were monogamous or not, but now I'm wondering if male seahorses sit at home all fat and pregnant eating shrimp cocktails wondering if their women are cheating on them. We could observe them all we want, we still won't know what they're thinking about.I also thought it was interesting that the book talked about the three R's. Replacement, refinement, and reduction. I always learned about the three R's being reduce, reuse, and recycle, so at first glance the heading had me confused. Both sets of three R's have important messages but I would not advise using both of them in reference to research. Reducing is essentially the same concept in both slogans, reusing subjects has its benefits I suppose, and I guess recycle could be considered replication which is good but difficult to get funded usually. okay, I seem to have made an opposite point so I guess I would advise using both. I also found it interesting that animal care only applies to vertebrates and octopodes.
An interesting/ sad note to end on: my computer tried to correct my propper spelling of the word octopodes to octopuses.
Danielle,
ReplyDeletePromiscuous seahorses was a funny thought!
I agree that understanding animal behavior begins with trying to answer all four of the questions. I personally think the best/most interesting research deals with evolution and causation! I spent a while looking up why male seahorses get pregnant, and the search results were hilarious. There doesn't seem to be a clear reason why they do that, but I'd love to figure out how that is an adaptive trait. Great post!