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This module examines how animals interact with each other and their environment from a behavioural perspective. Using natural selection and evolution as guiding principles, students will examine key behavioural concepts including feeding, mating, parental care, sociobiology, altruism, and predation. Students will be required to undertake their own animal behaviour project during this module and to consider the legal and ethical frameworks guiding animal behaviour research. The material covered in this module is further developed in NS6201 Evolutionary and Behavioural Ecology.

Topics covered include:

Natural selection, genes and behaviour. The comparative approach and adaptation. The neurology of behaviour. Predators and prey. Fighting and assessment. Reproduction, sex and mating systems. Altruism and sociobiology. Students will undertake a student-led project on an animal behaviour system supported by the module tutor.

A student passing this module should be able to:

1. Critically discuss the many ways in which animals behave and the different methods of studying and understanding behaviour
2. Understand the legal and ethical frameworks governing the use of animals in behavioural studies
3. Frame discussions of animal behaviour within strict natural selection and evolutionary contexts.
4. Devise behavioural hypotheses and design experiments to test these hypotheses
5. Carry out suitable experiments to test behavioural hypotheses within the relevant ethical and legal frameworks
6. Write a concise, coherent, well-referenced scientific report, including statistical analysis where appropriate

Scheduled learning and teaching activities: 24% (36 hours: lectures, practical classes)

Guided independent study: 76% (114 hours: further reading and assessment preparation)

The Library Catalogue contains full details of the current reading list for this module. Further details may also be found in the Module Guide.