Animal Behaviour: An Introduction (Online)

1. Introduction to the study and definition of animal behaviour

• What is the study of animal behaviour?
• Tinbergen’s four questions
• The sensory and nervous system

2. Evolution, genes and natural selection

• Darwin and Wallace
• Genetics and DNA
• Natural selection in action
• Genes and behaviour
• Adaption

3. Foraging behaviour

• Types of foraging
• Camouflage and mimicry
• Trade-off and co-evolution

4. Measuring and analysing animal behaviour

• Steps involved in studying behaviour
• Observing and recording animal behaviour
• The risk of anthropomorphism
• Using video and online resources in behaviour research
• Finding and understanding scientific papers

5. Signals, communication and sexual selection

• Animal senses
• Signals and stimuli
• Animal communication
• Sexual selection and mate choice
• Mating systems and strategies

6. Kin selection, inclusive fitness and social behaviour

• Types of altruism
• Group-living and cooperative breeding
• The ants and their societies

7. Decision-making and evolutionary stable strategies

• Long- and short-term decision-making
• Motivation and the mechanisms of decision-making
• Evolutionary stable strategies and game theory
• Inter-individual conflict and the Hawk–Dove game
• Cooperation, the Prisoner’s Dilemma and tit-for-tat strategies

8. Artificial selection, domestic animals and animal welfare

• Domestication
• Applied ethology and animal welfare
• Getting information from animals on their welfare and suffering
• Pets and human–animal interactions

9. Learning and memory

• Habituation and sensitisation
• Associative learning – classical conditioning
• Associative learning – instrumental learning
• Social learning
• Higher forms of learning and animal teaching
• Memory and brain structures

10. Animal cognition and tool use

• Problem-solving, insight learning and intelligence
• Examples of problem-solving in invertebrates
• Examples of problem-solving in birds and mammals
• Tool use
• Self-awareness and theory of mind

To participate in this course you will need to have regular access to the Internet and you will need to buy the following book:

Manning, A. and Dawkins, M. S. An Introduction to Animal Behaviour (Cambridge University Press, 2012)

To earn credit (CATS points) for your course you will need to register and pay an additional £10 fee for each course you enrol on. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online. If you do not register when you enrol, you have up until the course start date to register and pay the £10 fee.

See more information on CATS point

Coursework is an integral part of all online courses and everyone enrolled will be expected to do coursework, but only those who have registered for credit will be awarded CATS points for completing work at the required standard. If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.

Assignments are not graded but are marked either pass or fail.

All students who successfully complete this course, whether registered for credit or not, are eligible for a Certificate of Completion. Completion consists of submitting the final course assignment. Certificates will be available, online, for those who qualify after the course finishes.

This course aims to explore the variety of different behaviours found in a broad range of animal groups, using a scientific and evolutionary approach.

This course will enable participants to:

• Achieve an overview of the different types of animal behaviours and understand how proximate and ultimate explanations can be used to provide a theoretical framework.
• Understand how evolutionary thinking and the scientific analytical approach are applied to the study of animal behaviour.
• Apply this knowledge to analyse and understand behaviour in both wild and domestic animals.

By the end of this course students will be expected to :

• Be familiar with a range of different types of behaviours found in both lower and higher animals and understand the theoretical framework used to explain evolution of these behaviours.
• Understand how evolution has shaped behaviours in the long term through genetic adaptations, and in the short term, through enabling modifications of set behaviours by learning and behavioural flexibility.
• Have the skills to analyse behaviours and understand the functional reasons behind the expression of these behaviours

By the end of this course students will be expected to have gained the following skills:

• The ability to measure and analyse animal behaviours.
• The ability to apply evolutionary thinking to the analysis of animal behaviour.
• Research Skills: 1) The ability to read and evaluate scientific papers in animal behaviour. 2) The ability to understand and design experiments to test hypothesis in animal behaviour.

You will be set two pieces of work for the course. The first of 500 words is due halfway through your course. This does not count towards your final outcome but preparing for it, and the feedback you are given, will help you prepare for your assessed piece of work of 1,500 words due at the end of the course. The assessed work is marked pass or fail.

English Language Requirements

We do not insist that applicants hold an English language certification, but warn that they may be at a disadvantage if their language skills are not of a comparable level to those qualifications listed on our website. If you are confident in your proficiency, please feel free to enrol. For more information regarding English language requirements please follow this link: https://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/about/english-language-requirements

10 weeks, 100 study hours at FHEQ level 4