• Grant proposals
• Focal animal observations
• Readings, Spring 2003 
• For Mon, 28 April: Operationally defining home range:temporal dependance exhibited by Cotton Rats.  Spencer, S. R., Cameron, G. N., and Swihart, R. K.  1990.  Ecology 71: 1817-1822. (Note: use the "print" or "download" buttons at the top or bottom of the screen to get your hardcopy; what you're seeing is not actually a PDF file).
  
• For Mon, 21 April: Do cuttlefish (Cephalopoda) signal their intentions to conspecifics during agonistic encounters?, S.A. Adamo & R.T. Hanlon.  Animal Behavior.  Vol 52: 73-81
  
• For Mon, 7 April: Female reproductive strategies, paternity and community structure in wild West African chimpanzees, P. Gagneux, C. Boesch and D. Woodruff, Animal Behaviour.  Vol 57: 19-32.
  
• For Mon, 31 March: Reed warblers guard against cuckoos and cuckoldry, N. B. Davies, S. H. M. Butchart, T. A. Burke, N. Chaline and I. R. K. Stewart, Animal Behaviour.  Vol. 65, Pages 285-295
• For Mon, 24 March: Predation risk reduces male-male sexual competition in the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata).  Kelly, CI; Godin, JG, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. Vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 95-100. Dec 2001.
• For Mon, 10 March:  Low aggression levels and unbiased sex ratios in a prey-rich environment: no evidence of siblicide in Ngorongoro spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta).  Wachter et al., Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol (2002) 52: 348-356.  You may want to review the material on siblicide in your text in conjunction with the article.
• For Mon, 16 February: Extraocular Circadian Phototransduction in Humans, Science 279: 396-399, Scott Campbell and Patricia Murphy.  You may want to get a good overview of the general topic and the paper's findings by reading the Enhanced Perspectives article, Tweaking the Human Circadian Clock with Light, Science 279: 333-334, Dan Oren and Michael Terman. 
• For Mon, 31 January: A test of imitative learning in starlings using a two-action method with an enhanced ghost control , Animal Behavior 64(4), 547-556,  Tim  Fawcett, Andrew Skinner, and Arthur Goldsmith 
• For Mon, 27 January:   Genotype and rearing environment affect honeybee perception and foraging behaviour, Animal Behavior 64(4): 663-672 Tanya Pankiw, David R. Tarpy and Robert E. Page, Jr 

Observations
The purpose of this ongoing exercise is to give you hands-on experience in making careful observations and designing and conducting simple field experiments.  The emphasis here is on the process, not on specific results.  By the end of the semester, you should recognize improved skill in observing animals, recording your observations in useful ways, asking good questions, and thinking of ways to answer those questions.  I hope you will also gain some appreciation for the 
animals you observe and the kind of hard work and creativity that are involved in the scientific study of animal behavior. 
 

• Mechanics :

Select a type of organism that is easily observed either here on campus or someplace convenient to your home.  Your organisms should be reliably present, conveniently located, available in decent numbers, and capable of becoming habituated to your presence over time. Your site should also permit simple manipulations, such as the addition of food trays.  “Urban wildlife” species, such as pigeons and squirrels, are good candidates. 

Plan on spending 15 to 30 minutes each week observing your animals.  You may, of course, spend more if you wish!  I suggest that you set aside specific times each week, with one or two “backups” in case of bad weather.  Note that you will only be excused from making your observations in the event of extreme weather -- a little rain or cold is tolerable for the short periods you need.  You may wish to vary your observation times initially in order to figure out the time(s) of day your animals are most active and/or most interesting, then focusing your observations on those times. 

No special equipment is necessary for this exercise, although a few items will be helpful. Binoculars or a spotting scope will let you stay farther away from the animals and, consequently, minimize any disruption your presence might cause.  You will need a stopwatch or other timing device occasionally.  Observations may be recorded in writing, but it’s easier to use a tape recorder if you have one available.  Of course, you are welcome to co-opt family members or friends to help you out as well!  Field experiments may require the purchase of food items and use of basic household equipment and supplies (trays, paper, etc.). 

I will provide guidance on the kinds of observations you need to make each week during the recitation.  You may, of course, make additional observations as well. 

• Write-ups:

You should plan on spending 15 to 30 minutes each week writing up your observations from your notes.  Write-ups must be posted to the discussion forum/bulletin board in order for you to receive credit.  We’ll go over specific instructions for using the bulletin board in class.  In brief, each student will be assigned a “main message” folder.  To post observations, open the message and select “reply” from the menu.  Type or copy/paste your observations in the space provided. Be sure the subject line includes the date and title of the observation.  When you’re done, post the message using the appropriate buttons. 

 I encourage you to read each others’ posts, and reserve the right to test you on them. 

• Evaluation and grading

This exercise will be scored on completeness.   Posts will be scored as either “good” (3 points), “adequate” (2 points), or “inadequate” (0 points).  I will allow you to miss two posts during the semester, and will base your final score on the top posts if you have missed none.  I’ll take the percentage of possible points you earned out of a total of 20 points for the assignment as your final score. 

The writeup will follow the standard laboratory report format; I anticipate that each will be 3-5 pages long (typed, 12 point font, double-spaced, with one-inch margins) exclusive of graphs, charts, etc.  For the discussion, in addition to evaluating your hypothesis in light of your results, you should briefly discuss (1) any problems and/or drawbacks you found in your procedure and how those might be remedied; and (2) new questions raised during your investigation that you would like to try to answer in future studies.  No literature review is required. 

The complete project is worth 15 points, with 3 points for the experimental design itself and 12 points for the writeup.  For the design, I will be looking at how well controlled and how adequately replicated your experiment is (5 replicates is plenty; fewer than that is probably insufficient).  In the writeup, I will look for the following: 

• Introduction: is the question and specific hypothesis clearly stated, with adequate background information to justify each? 

• Materials and methods: do I have enough information to replicate the experiment myself? 

• Results: are the data presented and summarized clearly and logically; are graphs and tables used appropriately?

• Discussion: is the hypothesis clearly and appropriately evaluated in terms of the results; are procedural problems (if any) clearly identified and appropriate remedies suggested; is at least one line of further study clearly explained (not just stated)?

• Mechanics

Approaches to developing  writing grant proposals  as well as specific content guidelines can be found at Dr. Wilkerson’s animal behavior web site at The University of Maryland. 

As he notes, you may want to begin by browsing back issues of relevant journals.  In addition to print subscriptions, you can browse abstracts of animal behavior articles on-line by using Cambridge Scientific Abstracts, accessed via the  Old Dominion University Library - Home Page .  You can also use the library web page to retrieve full-text copies of articles from Animal Behaviour (we don’t carry it in print). 

 I will follow his recommended content and style guidelines, with the following caveats: (1) Your proposal must be typed, double-spaced.  That means that the length should run no more than 10 pages, exclusive of tables, figures, and literature cited (and you’ll want to double his suggested section lengths).  You will probably not be able to do an adequate job in under 7 pages.  (2) Your proposal must follow the his outline and include a “potential results” section that clearly outlines the possible outcomes of each experiment/analysis you propose.  (3) Undergraduates must have a minimum of 10 primary sources; graduate students must have a minimum of 15.  I encourage graduate students to develop proposals based on their study organisms, but will not accept a thesis or dissertation prospectus in lieu of this assignment.  If you have any questions about this, see me for clarification.

• Evaluation and grading

• Purpose and objectives (statement of the question/hypothesis; a good paper will also identify of alternative hypotheses): 10 points
• Background/literature review (discussion of existing research that provides the background and context for your study; explain what is already known and where your question “fits”): 20 points
• Proposed work (description of methods, including timeline and analyses; feasibility is an important consideration): 20 points
• Potential results (for each experiment/analysis, clearly state the possible outcomes in terms of the specific predictions of each of the hypotheses you are testing): 20 points
• Impact (discussion of how your study will affect current knowledge of your chosen topic): 10 points
• Overall presentation quality (organization, grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.): 20 points 

• Dates (Spring 2003)

 To keep you on track (and to let me offer suggestions periodically), you must turn in preliminary materials according to the schedule below.  You will be penalized 5 points from your final paper score for each calendar day the materials are late, unless you make arrangements with me.  I will also be happy to meet with you individually to discuss your project provided you give me a reasonable amount of time in advance of the deadlines.
 
• Mon 2/24: Topic and preliminary bibliography.  Turn in a typed, double-spaced one-paragraph general description of the topic and method(s) you’ve chosen and a preliminary bibliography in author/year format. 
• Mon 3/17: Proposed work.  Submit the “proposed work” section of your proposal, typed, double-spaced, in what you consider to be its final format. 
• Mon 4/21: Proposals due.  Do not use cover sheets; include your name in the upper right-hand corner of the first page and staple the paper with a single staple in the upper left-hand corner.

For this assignment you will need to find a location where you can observe at least three different individuals of a single (non-human!) species over a continuous 45-60 minute period.  You will spend about 15 minutes familiarizing yourself with the common behaviors exhibited by the species.  You will then observe a minimum of three different individuals for a minimum of 10 minutes each and record their behaviors.  If you wish to work with a partner, you may submit a single paper, but you must observe a minimum of six different individuals.

You should record the behaviors you observe as both incidents (the number of time each behavior is performed) and durations (the length of time each incident lasts). You can then report your observations with a histogram showing the frequency of each behavior and with a bar chart showing the total duration of each (the sum of the durations of each incident). 

To complete the assignment, write a one or two paragraph summary of your observations, including your impressions and hypotheses about the behaviors you observe.  If you could select one behavior to investigate more rigorously, which would it be, and why?

To receive credit, turn in a TYPED, double-spaced  document that includes the following:

• Your name
• The date, place, and time of your observations
• The scientific name of the species you observed
• A list and brief description of each of the behaviors you observed
• A histogram of behavior frequency and a bar graph of the duration of the different behaviors, each clearly and correctly labeled.
• The one-two paragraph summary as explained above, clearly and concisely written with proper attention to grammar, spelling, and punctuation.