A session-by-session listing of reading assignments and accompanying study questions are included in the table below. Useful general texts and treatises and more specialized books are also listed below.
Most required and recommended readings are from the following texts:
Scott, Graham. Essential Animal Behavior. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2005. ISBN: 0632057998.
Alcock, John. The Triumph of Sociobiology. Oxford, UK; New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN: 0195143833.
Lorenz, Konrad Z. King Solomon's Ring: New Light on Animal Ways. New York, NY: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1952. ISBN: 0415267471.
———. The Foundations of Ethology. New York, NY: Springer, 1981. ISBN: 0387816232.
Tinbergen, Niko. Curious Naturalists. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1958. ISBN: 0870234560.
Readings files.
| LEC # | TOPICS | STUDY QUESTIONS | READINGS |
| 1 | Animals in Human History
Amateur and Professional Studies | | Please do the following:
- Review the book list: How many of these authors/books have you read/seen/heard of? Which books would you suggest adding?
- Review the topics list. We will not have time to deal with all of these topics, but most of them will come up in the readings or the classes. Students are welcome to make additional or alternative suggestions. (PDF)
- Read the outline. (PDF) |
| 2 | Introduction to Ethology
Tinbergen's Four Questions
Field Studies of Birds | (PDF) | Tinbergen, pp. 187-204.
Scott, pp. 1-18. |
| 3-4 | Lorenz' Jackdaws | (PDF) | Lorenz. King Solomon's Ring, pp. 128-180. |
| 5 | Ethology of Geese
Fixed Action Patterns and the Central Nervous System | (PDF) | Scott, pp. 19-41. |
| 6 | Input and Output Sides of Innate Behavior
Motivation | (PDF) | Scott, pp. 42-56. |
| 7 | Motivation (cont.) | (PDF) | Lorenz. The Foundations of Ethology, pp. 107-135, 153-188, and 235-253. |
| 8 | Lorenz on Fixed Action Patterns | (PDF) | Lorenz. The Foundations of Ethology, pp. 107-135, 153-188, and 235-253. |
| 9 | Lorenz on Innate Releasing Mechanisms | (PDF) | Lorenz. The Foundations of Ethology, pp. 153-175. |
| 10 | Models, Hierarchies and Chains of Action Patterns | (PDF) | Lorenz. The Foundations of Ethology, pp. 176-210 and 235-253. |
| 11 | Spatial Orientation
Multiple Motivations | (PDF) | Lorenz. The Foundations of Ethology, pp. 176-210 and 235-253. |
| 12 | Interlude: Evolutionary Genetics - Guest Lecturer, R. Lewontin
| (PDF) | Lewontin Handout (PDF)
Scott, pp. 57-92. |
| 13 | Evolution of Behavior, Genes, Learning | (PDF) | Scott, pp. 57-92. |
| 14 | Navigation, Migration, Communication | (PDF) | Scott, pp. 93-118. |
| 15 | Communication (cont.) | (PDF) | Scott, pp. 93-118. |
| 16 | Foraging | (PDF) | Scott, pp. 119-142. |
| 17 | Anti-predator Behavior | (PDF) | Scott, pp. 143-165.
Schneider, G. E. "Four hours in the life of a Syrian hamster." (Unpublished manuscript.) |
| 18 | Anti-predator Behavior (cont.) | | |
| 19 | Mating and Reproduction, Introduction | (PDF) | Scott, pp. 166-196. |
| 20 | Sociobiology Introduction | (PDF) | Alcock, pp. 3-21. |
| 21 | Sociobiology Subject Matter | (PDF) | Alcock, pp. 23-40. |
| 22 | Genes and Behaviors | (PDF) | Alcock, pp. 41-56. |
| 23 | Sociobiology and Science | (PDF) | Alcock, pp. 57-91. |
| 24-25 | Discoveries of Sociobiology | (PDF) | Alcock, pp. 93-127. |
| 26 | Video: Portions of two programs on the behavior of the domestic cat, showing similarities with larger cat species | | |
| 27 | Videos on the Behavior of Apes | | |
| 28 | Cultural Determinism and Sociobiology | (PDF) | Alcock, pp. 129-147. |
| 29 | Sociobiology and Culture | (PDF) | Alcock, pp. 149-187. |
| 30 | Practical Issues in Study of Adaptation | (PDF) | Alcock, pp. 189-215. |
| 31 | The Triumph of Sociobiology | (PDF) | Alcock, pp. 217-223. |
| 32-35 | Student Project Presentations | | |
| 36 | Student Project Presentations (cont.), Review | | |
| 37 | Exam Review Session | | |
Useful General Texts and Treatises
Alcock, J. Animal Behavior: An Evolutionary Approach. 8th ed. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Assoc., 2005.
Barash, D. P. Sociobiology and Behavior. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Elsevier, 1982.
Brown, L., and J. F. Downhower. Analyses in Behavioral Ecology: A Manual for Lab and Field. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Assoc., 1988.
Cockburn, A. An Introduction to Evolutionary Ecology. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Science, Ltd., 1991.
Darwin, C. The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1965. ISBN: 0226136566. (Original 1872.)
Dewsbury, D. A., ed. Contemporary Issues in Comparative Psychology. Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Assoc., 1989.
Drickamer, L. C., S. H. Vessey and D. Meikle. Animal Behavior: Mechanisms, Ecology and Evolution. 5th ed. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown, 2001.
Gallistel, C. R. The Organization of Action: A New Synthesis. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1980.
———. The Organization of Learning. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990.
———, ed. Animal Cognition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992. (From Cognition 37, no. 1 and 2.)
Griffin, D. R. Animal Thinking. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984.
Hediger, H. Man and Animal in the Zoo. Translated by G. Vevers and W. Reade. New York, NY: Delacorte Press, 1969.
———. Wild Animals in Captivity. New York, NY: Dover, 1964.
Krebs, J. R., and N. B. Davies, eds. Behavioural Ecology, An Evolutionary Approach. 4th ed. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Science, Ltd., 1997.
Maxwell, M, ed. The Sociobiological Imagination. Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1991.
Ristau, C. A., and P. Marler, eds. Cognitive Ethology: The Minds of Other Animals. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1990.
Roitblat, H. L. Introduction to Comparative Cognition. New York, NY: W.H. Freeman & Co., 1987.
Wickler, W. The Sexual Code: The Social Behavior of Animals and Men. Translated by F. Garvie. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1973. ISBN: 0297768123.
Wilson, E. O. Sociobiology, The Abridged Edition. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard Univ. Press, 1980. ISBN: 0674816242.
More Specialized Books
Barnett, S. A. The Rat: A Study in Behavior. Chicago, IL: Aldine, 1963.
Byrne, R. W., and A. Whiten. Machiavellian Intelligence: Social Expertise and the Evolution of Intellect in Monkeys, Apes, and Humans. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1988.
Calhoun, J. B. The Ecology and Sociology of the Norway Rat. Public Health Service Publication No. 1008, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962.
Cheney, D. L., and R. M. Seyfarth. How Monkeys See the World: Inside the Mind of Another Species. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
Corbett, Jim. Jungle Lore. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1953. ISBN: 0195651855.
———. Man-Eaters of Kumaon. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1946. ISBN: 0195622553.
Eibl-Eibesfeldt, I. Human Ethology. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1989.
Fossey, D. Gorillas in the Mist. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1983.
Goodall, J. The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1986.
Hrdy, S. B. The Langurs of Abu: Female and Male Strategies of Reproduction. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1977.
———. Mother Nature: Maternal Instincts and How They Shape the Human Species. New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 2000.
———. Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection. New York, NY: Pantheon, 1999.
Konner, M. The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Owl Books, 2003.
Leyhausen, P. Cat Behavior: The Predatory and Social Behavior of Domestic and Wild Cats. New York, NY: Garland St PM Press, 1979. (English version of his Verhaltenstudien on Katzen.)
Lockley, R. M. The Private Life of the Rabbit. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1964.
Lorenz, K., and P. Leyhausen. Motivation of Human and Animal Behavior: An Ethological View. Translated by B. A. Tonkin. New York, NY: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1973. ISBN: 0442248857.
Max, D. T. "The Literary Darwinists." New York Times Magazine, November 6, 2005.
Ryden, H. Lily Pond: Four Years with a Family of Beavers. New York, NY: William Morrow and Co., 1989.
Siegel, H. I., ed. The Hamster: Reproduction and Behavior. New York, NY: Plenum Press, 1985.
Strum, S. C. Almost Human: A Journey into the World of Baboons. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1987.
Tinbergen, Niko. The Herring Gull's World. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1960.
Von Frisch, Karl. Bees: Their Vision, Chemical Senses, and Language. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1950.
Wrangham, R. W., W. C. McGrew, F. B. M. de Waal, and P. G. Heltne, eds. Chimpanzee Cultures. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994.
