CFR 590 B: Current Topics in Behavioral Ecology

Credits: 3

Quarter: Autumn 2011

Time: Wednesdays, 9-11 am

Location: Anderson 306

Course website: http://faculty.washington.edu/wirsinga/SFR590B.htm

Course listserve: cfr590b_au11@u.washington.edu

Instructor

Aaron Wirsing, Winkenwerder 101, (206) 543-1585, wirsinga@u.washington.edu

Overview

Behavioral ecology is the study of relationships between behavior and the environments in which behavior has evolved or is expressed. Once focused largely of models of foraging and reproductive decisions, behavioral ecologists now explore a diverse range of topics and are particularly interested in the influence of behavior on population dynamics and community properties. My goal is to expose you to recent published research pushing the boundaries of this exciting field.

Course Structure and Requirements

We will meet weekly for a 2-hour discussion. During each meeting, one student will introduce the topic, provide context, recap the greatest hits of the assigned papers, and then lead the discussion. Discussion topics are listed below.

Expectations

Discussion Leaders – As discussion leader you will be expected to do three things: (1) Give a PowerPoint presentation that provides the proper background and context for the discussion topic (e.g., what are the key theoretical principles being invoked? What are the key papers leading up to those being presented?), defines important terms, and concisely summarizes the papers being discussed. (2) Have several discussion questions at the ready. (3) Really work to keep us engaged and return the discourse to the topic at hand following digressions.

Discussion Participants: Please read and critically think about the week’s papers before coming to class. Arrive with one or two questions, observations, and insights for discussion written down.

Grading

Your final grade will be determined by the extent of your course participation (i.e., contribution to weekly discussions, 50%) and the quality of your performance as discussion leader (50%).

Lecture Schedule

Date	Sub-field	Discussion Topic	Reading(s)
10/5	--	Organizational meeting	None
10/12	Optimality and Decision Making	Introduction: Do dugongs reshuffle their behaviors when exposed to predation risk? (Wirsing)	None
10/19		Individual foraging specialization (Houghton)	Tinker et al. (2008), Svanbäck et al. (2011)
10/26		Game theory (Hansen)	Vercken et al. (2010), Morand-Ferron et al. (2011)
11/2	Individual Differences	Behavioral syndromes (Seckel)	Rodël and Monclús (2011), Cote et al. (2011)
11/9	Reproductive Strategies	Courting and maternal effects (Harris)	Giesing et al. (2011), Johnson et al. (2011)
11/16	Survival Strategies	State-dependent risk taking and its population consequences (Richardson) (Lima&Dill 1990)	Biro et al. (2003), Kotler et al. (2010)
11/23	Social Behavior	Social learning (Gray)	Cornell et al. (2011), Sanga et al. (2011)
11/30		Open date – I’m out of town all week	None
12/7	Social Behavior	Social networks (MacIntyre)	Patriquin et al. (2010), Fenner et al. (2011)
12/14	--	Wrap-up meeting, course evaluations	None