Behavioral ecology

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The behavioral ecology can within the biology as the youngest branch of the evolutionary research are considered, she studied in the broadest sense, the interactions of behavior and environmental factors. The core of all behavioral research approaches is the certainty that ecological factors are necessarily reflected in the behavior of the animals (and subsequently in their genetic makeup ), as this is the only way to explain the survival of individuals and their reproductive success.

Questions

Behavioral ecologists are thus concerned with a. with the clarification of the question: How did a behavior that can be observed today as a result of evolution - through natural selection - come about? Furthermore, they investigate the role that a certain behavior in a certain environment plays for the survival of individuals and for their reproduction or for the spread of their species. It should be emphasized in this context that this type of question is neither primarily aimed at analyzing internal mechanisms (“instincts”; see instinct theory ) nor at describing the genes that are important for behavior (see genetics ); Rather, behavioral ecology examines the evolution of behavior in an ecological context and - in very general terms - the adaptation of living beings to their environment.

A genetically determined trait is referred to as "adapted", which enables the wearer of this trait to have a comparatively high level of biological fitness (chance of reproduction and survival). In order to understand this, the genetic and physiological basis of a trait and how it is influenced by environmental factors must be analyzed. Behavioral ecology is thus an interdisciplinary research area at the interface of behavioral biology , ecology, evolutionary biology, genetics, physiology and population biology . In this function, she has contributed extremely successfully to enabling a comprehensive understanding of the evolutionary roots of the diversity of organisms on our planet. In primate research, it results in a social ecology that inquires into group structures .

Research results in behavioral ecology are also of increasing importance for applied areas such as nature conservation or biological pest control and also for medicine. The various methods used include behavioral observations in the field and in the laboratory, experiments, mathematical models, immunological methods and also paternity determinations using " DNA fingerprinting ".

Typical questions posed by behavioral ecologists are, for example: How do animals find their food and how much effort is worth looking for food? What criteria do you use to choose your mate? Do monogamous birds cheat? Why do some animals live in groups and others solitary? How is the size of the area influenced?

literature

  • Krebs, JR and NB Davies: Introduction to Behavioral Ecology . Blackwell Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin / Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-826-33046-3
  • Lamprecht, Jürg, Langlet, Jürgen u. Eckhart Schröder: behavioral biology in the classroom: behavioral ecology . Aulis Verlag Deubner, 2002, ISBN 3-761-42452-3