Animal Behaviour lecture 1.2

Animal Behaviour lecture 1.2 Asking the right questions We couldn’t ask if dolphins were happy, but we can study stress in cows, for example. Example: A dog and a possum are held back from food by a lead around a stake. The dog will pull at the lead, unable to reach the food. The possum, however, will backtrack and so reach the food. Someone might ask why the possum is smarter than the dog, but this is a specific situation, and can’t be used to ascertain the intelligence of the animals. In fact, measuring intelligence varies between the animal studied, not to mention it can be hard enough even to measure human intelligence. We can ask why the possum can solve the problem and the dog can’t, however:

Avoid Anthropomorphism It is easy to attribute human attributes and emotions to animals. However, we don’t know if animals experience emotions as we do, and we need to be able to test questions scientifically. The lecturer then spoke about PTSD and how childhood trauma and disruptions to familial bonding processes can lead to aggressive adults. This relates to orphaned elephants that grow up to become hyper aggressive. Is it PTSD?

Differing Answers

There are 4 types of answers (according to Tinbergen): causation, adaptive value, evolutionary history, development.