Download The grading scale is: A: 90 - 100%, AB: 87 - 89%, B: 80

Course Information and Syllabus
Behavioral Ecology (Zoo 425)
Spring 2012
Instructor:
Office:
e-mail:
Dr. John Orrock
Birge 356
[email protected]
Teaching Assistants:
Office:
email:
Office hours:
Caleb Hickman
Birge 363
[email protected]
Tuesdays 3-5pm; Thursdays 4:30-5:30
Important Note: The schedule, topics covered, and timing of exams are all tentative and may change
over the course of the semester.
Student responsibilities: It is the student’s responsibility to attend class, check the course webpage, and
stay abreast of changes in scheduling. Students are responsible for all material presented in class lectures
and all portions of the lecture text relevant to material discussed in lectures. In addition to lectures and
the text, students will also be assigned readings from the primary scientific literature.
Course overview: This course is designed to explore how organisms make decisions and how these
decisions may affect their survival. These decisions are key aspects of an organism’s life, e.g. deciding
where to look for food, what to eat, who to mate with, who to cooperate with, who to fight with, and
where to live. The course approaches these questions with the perspective that understanding the
proximal and ultimate basis of behavior requires understanding the ecological and evolutionary context
of behavior.
Course text: Introduction to Behavioural Ecology, Krebs and Davies, Blackwell Publishing, 1993.
Note that this text is optional.
Discussion section: A discussion section will be held each week. During this time, students can
discuss assigned readings from the primary literature, as well as any other topics from lecture that are
relevant. Attendance will not be taken at discussion sections. However, students are encouraged to
attend and should be aware that material that is assigned for discussion is fair game for inclusion on
exams even if that material was not explicitly discussed in class.
Grading and exams: The course grade is determined by performance on examinations administered
during class. There will be four exams in this course. Each exam is cumulative; i.e. exams may contain
topics covered at any prior point in the semester. Topics on the exam may be taken from readings in the
text, assigned readings from the scientific literature, or from material presented in class. At the end of
the semester, your lowest exam grade will be dropped. The remaining three exams will contribute
equally to your grade. No makeup exams will be given. If you are forced to miss an exam, that exam
will become your dropped exam grade. On exam days, please arrive a few minutes early to class so you
will have the maximum time available to work on the exam. Please do not wear hats on exam days.
The grading scale is: A: 90 - 100%, AB: 87 - 89%, B: 80 - 86%, BC: 77 - 79%, C: 70 - 76%, D: 60 69%, F: 0 - 59%. For students taking the class on a pass/fail basis, a C- is considered a passing grade.
Although it is unlikely that grades will be curved, the final decision regarding implementation of a curve
will be made after each exam.
Zoo 425 Spring 2013 Tentative Syllabus; January 24, 2012
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Dr. Orrock and the course TA (Mr. Hickman) do everything possible to insure that your exams are
graded in an accurate and objective manner. However, if you believe that your test was incorrectly
graded, you may request that the test be re-graded. To request that your exam be re-graded, students
must follow this procedure: obtain a re-grade request form from the instructor, staple it to the exam, and
submit the request and exam by 4:30 pm within two days of the day the exam is returned (e.g. if the
exam was returned on Wednesday, you must submit your re-grade request by 4:30 pm Friday). Nothing
on the exam pages may be changed. If additions or alterations are made to the graded exam, the regrade request will be invalidated and disciplinary action will be taken. The formal re-grade policy is to
insure that all re-grade requests are treated fairly and objectively. During the window of time when regrades can be submitted (i.e. 48 hours after the test is returned), the professor and TAs will not be
available to discuss the test; it is the student’s responsibility to review the key to the exam and determine
if an error was made. Please note that your entire exam will be re-graded as part of this process. As a
result, if additional errors are found on your exam during the re-grading process, these will be applied to
your final grade on the exam. Simple errors of addition (e.g. you missed 10 points on the test but the
score was incorrectly calculated as an 88) can be remedied without the submission of a formal re-grade
request.
Academic honesty and integrity: All students are expected to strictly adhere to the University of
Wisconsin’s policy regarding academic integrity. Evidence of cheating or attempted cheating will be
dealt with by the staff following published UW-Madison policies. A confirmed cheater will receive
a failing grade for the course. The situation may be referred to the office of the Student Assistance
and Judicial Affairs, and a Dean for further action. Please refer to the undergraduate student
Academic Misconduct information on the UW-Madison website at:
http://students.wisc.edu/saja/misconduct/UWS14.html.
Disability Services: Students who are seeking disability information or support for a disability
should contact the McBurney Center http://www.mcburney.wisc.edu/information/mission.php or
263-2741. The McBurney Center is responsible for approving and helping to arrange all
accommodations for UW-Madison students. If you require special accommodations for exams or
other lecture activities, please see Dr. Orrock immediately so that these accommodations can be
made well in advance of exam dates or other course deadlines. Bring your McBurney
documentation to support your request.
Attendance policy: Learning is a proactive experience. As such, students are encouraged to attend
every lecture. The instructor and TA are not responsible for providing students with materials for
classes they did not attend. While in class, turn off your cell phones and do not use any electronic
devices unless you are using them to take notes. If student laptop use becomes distracting to other
students (e.g. because of internet surfing unrelated to class, checking e-mail, etc.), the instructors
reserve the right to ask students to shut-down their laptops or to leave the classroom.
Getting assistance: The TA will hold regular office hours, and appointments with Dr. Orrock can also
be made by appointment. Be sure to seek assistance in time to receive it – for example, if you e-mail
Monday night about a test on Tuesday, I may not have time to respond to your e-mail.
Zoo 425 Spring 2013 Tentative Syllabus; January 24, 2012
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Tentative course schedule
Date
Topic
Chapter in
Krebs & Davies
24
Introduction: the foundations of behavioral ecology
1
26
Natural selection and adaptation
1
31
Natural selection; Behavior and hypothesis testing
2
February 2
Hypothesis testing and approaches to behavioral ecology
2
7
Foraging and optimality
3
9
Foraging, energy, and predation risk
3
14
Predation, anti-predator behavior, crypsis, warning coloration
4
16
Predator-prey arms races; parasites and behavior
4
21
Exam 1
23
Competition – habitat selection and IFD, territoriality
5
28
Territory size, balancing competition and predation
5
March 1
Group living: costs and benefits
6
6
Aggression, fighting, bluffing
7
8
Sexual selection
8
13
Mate selection: the male’s perspective
8
15
Exam 2
8
20
Mate selection: the female’s perspective
22
Parental care, Mating systems
9
27
Mating systems
9
29
Mating systems, alternative strategies
9-10
April 3-6
Spring Break (No Classes)
10
Kin selection and altruism
11
12
Cooperation and game theory
11
17
Cooperation continued
12
19
Exam 3
Zoo 425 Spring 2013 Tentative Syllabus; January 24, 2012
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24
Signals and communication
14
26
Communication and information
14
May 1
Behavior and landscape ecology
3
Behavior and conservation
8
Behavior and biological invasions
10
Behavior and evolution
15
Exam 4
Discussion Readings (by week):
Week of:
Jan 26: No paper
Feb 2: Lima 1984. Downy woodpecker foraging behavior: efficient sampling in simple stochastic
environments. Ecology 65:166-174.
Feb 9: Rattenborg, Lima, and Amlaner. 1999. Half-awake to the risk of predation. Nature 397: 397398
Feb 16: Exam next week (exam review during discussion time)
Feb 23: Morris 2006. Moving to the ideal free home. Nature 443: 645-646
March 1: Pravosudov 2008. Mountain chickadees discriminate between potential cache pilferers and
non-pilferers. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 275:55-61.
March 8: Exam week (exam review during discussion time)
March 15: Evans and Margurran. 2000. Multiple benefits of multiple mating in guppies. PNAS
97:10074-10076
March 22: Emlen and Oring 1977. Ecology, sexual selection, and the evolution of mating systems.
Science 197: 215-223.
March 29: Emlen and Oring 1977 continued
April 6: Spring break
April 12: Nowak 2006. Five rules for the evolution of cooperation. Science 314:1560-1563
April 19: Exam day (no discussion)
April 26: Caro 2007. Behavior and conservation: a bridge too far? Trends in Ecology and Evolution
22: 394-400
May 3: Schlaepfer, Sherman, Blossey, and Runge. 2005. Introduced species as evolutionary traps.
Ecology Letters 8:241-246
May 10: Exam review during discussion time
Zoo 425 Spring 2013 Tentative Syllabus; January 24, 2012
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