BIOL-534 FUNDAMENTALS OF ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR-
UNIT I-
Selection of habitat: Factors affecting survival, dispersal, behaviour, Physical and chemical factors, Choice of breeding sites, Environmental cues and Determinants of habitat preference, Patterns of behaviour: Tropism, Taxes, Reflexes, Drives.
UNIT II-
Territoriality and Aggression, Conflict:Territory and foraging, Territory and breeding, Interspecific territoriality and Aggression Types, Endogenous factors and aggression, External stimuli and aggression, Threat displays.
Antipredator behaviour: Strategies adopted to escape from predators.
UNIT III-
Learning: Characters, types, learning in invertebrates and vertebrates.
Motivation: Measurements, Studies of motivation on guppies, newts and Phesus monkeys, Lorenz’s model and neurophysiology of motivation.
UNIT IV-
Biological communication and Biological clock: Crypsis, forms of signals, receptors for communication, nature of biological clock, types of rhythms.
Social behaviour: Types, advantages, social behaviour in insects.
UNIT V-
Sexual Behaviour: Mating systems, courtship patterns and significance.
Hormones and behaviour: Hormones important to behavioural regulation, hormones controlling sexual behaviour, maternal behaviour.
Suggested Reading: