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Project Guidelines for NPB 102 Animal Behavior

Project Goals:

• To observe, learn about, and analyze animal behavior using different parts of your brain and skill set.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” – Albert Einstein

• To practice and hone your skills in effectively communicating concepts of animal behavior and their importance to the scientific community and general public.

Importance of Practicing Effective Science Communication:

• The public needs to understand certain basics of science to make informed decisions (e.g. concerning health, environment, teaching curricula, scientific policy, etc.)

• Examples of when poor science communication has led to mistrust and misunderstanding by certain groups:

o Climate change (it doesn’t exist…)

o Vaccinations (will give you autism…)

o Evolution (never happened…)

o The use of animal models in research (scientists are evil bunny killers…)

o For more information concerning this logic, see:

▪ Brownell et al. 2013. Science communication to the general public: why we need to teach undergraduate and graduate students this skill as part of their formal scientific training.

12(1):E6-E10.

Is This a Group Project?

• Nope.

Video Project Assignment: Due May 13th by 11:59pm.

You are to create and narrate a 1½ to 2 minute video in which you film and describe a behavior(s) of interest of a local, wild animal/group of animals. Various birds, insects, reptiles, amphibians, squirrels - these are all easy to find locally. For a list of animals that live in Davis, go to Davis wiki (https://localwiki.org/davis/Town_Fauna). You can also check out the arboretum’s website (https://arboretum.ucdavis.edu/wildlife). Local wildlife hotspots in Davis include the arboretum, Northstar Park and surrounding greenbelt.

Though not required, you are welcome to supplement your own footage with other media sources, as long as the rights for downloading and using them fall under the creative commons license and/or are permissible for use in a school project. No matter what source you use, you MUST GIVE FULL CREDIT TO ITS CREATOR AND SOURCE OF DISTRIBUTION and any other information that accompanies it. To not do so is considered plagiarism, which will result in a zero grade (no exceptions).

Once you have filmed your animal, you will narrate the video demonstrating animal behavior concepts from the quarter. Thus, your video will take the form of a mini animal documentary (think Planet Earth, David Attenborough, BBC, etc.). You will also turn in an ethogram that represents your video. A full rubric for the evaluation of the project is included below.

Full project details:

1.   Observe and video record a behavior(s) of a local, wild animal

o The animal of your choosing must be observed out in the wild in Davis, areas surrounding Davis, or any other place you visit between now and when your project is due.

Note: you cannot use people, a domesticated animal (pet, livestock), or a zoo/captive animal.

You don’t need to use a mammal or bird – insects, reptiles, amphibians, etc are all welcomed!

o Your final video must be between 1½ and 2 minutes in length, including the title and credit slides.

2.   Develop an ethogram for the behavior(s) of interest you observe

o An ethogram is an inventory list and detailed description of behaviors.

The descriptions should not contain any information beyond how to identify the behavior. Do not use the name of the behavior itself in its definition.

•    For example, for feeding, the description should not say “feeding/eating”. Instead, what is the animal doing that allowed you to identify it as feeding behavior?

•    The example ethogram below is a BAD example for this; do NOT follow their lead.

o Constrain your ethogram to only the behavior(s) witnessed for the 2 minutes of your video presentation.

o How to develop an ethogram:

Early in the quarter, we will talk/talked about the importance of developing ethograms to describe, measure, and analyze behavior

•    See pages 5-6 of your Nordell and Valone Animal Behavior text for an example.

•    Use Table 1.1 on page 6 (also pictured below) as a recommended format for how to format your ethogram. The more details you give, the better!

•    No need to differentiate between high and low frequency behaviors, but feel free to organize the ethogram as you see fit (for example, you might want to keep all the social behaviors one after another)

•    Do NOT assume that a behavior you observe in the wild in a non-elephant is the same as the elephant’s behavior. For example, head bobbing in many species is not a stereotypic behavior, but instead part of communication, antipredator behavior, or something else.