ETOLOGIA

The educational goal of this course is to provide students with tools to understand:

- the role of behaviour in the characterization of animal species

- the processes governing the success of behavioural patterns of animals in the environment, and their evolution over time

- the behaviour of non-human animals is well comparable to that of the human species

- the image of man is not impaired by the fact that he is an animal species.

The course provides students with the foundations of the study of animal behaviour, from the ideas of the early ethologists to the most modern developments, to reach the present knowledge. In particular, after a presentation of ethological classical themes, such as instinct and learning, genetics and evolution of behaviour, the most relevant patterns in different areas of behaviour, from the self-protection strategies to the food procurement, from the reproductive to the social one will be treated.

It is then carried out an in-depth analysis of orientation in space and the mechanisms of biological rhythms, and then concluded with a few aspects of the human behaviour.

The teacher here encloses the program:

1. Origins, development and importance of studies on animal behaviour. Modification of the man-animal relationship over time. The role of Lamarck and Darwin. The behaviourism. The objectivistic ethology.

2. Purposes, methods and areas of ethological studies. Descriptive ethology according to Lorenz. Role and Lorenz techniques for behaviour observing and describing. The ethogram: importance and possible errors. Experimental ethology according to Tinbergen. The "decoys" of Tinbergen. Tools, equipment and experimental devices.

3. Instinctive behaviour. Reflex arc; unconditioned reflexes. Integrative action of the central nervous system. Definition and meaning of instinct. Instinctive features (species specificity and stereotypy). “Hereditary coordination” and “taxis” as basic components of instinct according to Lorenz and Tinbergen. Case study of the recovery of the wild duck egg. Key experiments for the analysis of instinct. Deprivation experience experiments. Case studies on tadpoles and chicks. Appetitive behaviour based on psychological setting of Craig. The motivation of instinctive behaviour. The psycho-hydraulic model of Lorenz: description, meaning and criticism. The motivational model of Tinbergen. Case study of stickleback: reproductive behaviour and neuronal hierarchy. Mechanism triggering innate stimuli-signals: analysis of Lorenz. Activity displacement, “vacuum activity”: analysis of Tinbergen and Lorenz. The “drive”.

4. Meaning, origin and spread of learning in the animal kingdom. Mechanisms of learning: from elementary forms to cognitive process. The associative learning: habituation; classical and instrumental conditioning. Experiments of Pavlov and Skinner. The role of Thorndike: experiments with mazes. Learning by trial and error. Latent learning. Imprinting: particularity and double functionality. Case studies of Anatidae birds and Rodents. Experiments by Lorenz and Mainardi. Cognitive learning. Insight, complex problem solving and use of tools by animals. Case studies in nonhuman primates. The physiological substrate of learning.

5. Memory and oblivion. Sperling’s “store” and iconic memory. Short-term and long-term memory. Engram mechanisms: theory of the active track, theory of consolidation. The role of oblivion.

6. Curiosity, exploration and play. Exploratory behaviour. Imitative behaviour. Role of imitation in young animals. Social role of imitation. The double function of play: fun and learning.

7. Genetics of behavioural patterns. Interspecific hybridization: intermediate inheritance or conflictual presence of opposite tendencies. Intraspecific hybridization: the case of bees hygienists. Studies in humans: identical and fraternal twins; mutant and pathological syndromes (Turner, Klinefelter, Down, extra-Y). Evolution of behavioural patterns. Phylogenetic homology; functional analogy. Case study of Empidae insects. Behavioural rudiments. The comparative method in the analysis of behaviour phylogeny. Effects of domestication.

8. The feeding behaviour. Trophic levels in the ecosystem; chains and food webs. Diets and their adaptations. Genesis of the alimentary stimulus. The foraging timing. Hoarding behaviour. Food ingestion and utilization. Predatory and anti-predatory techniques.

9. Reproductive behaviour. Centrality of reproductive ethology. Dimorphism and sexual dualism. Emergence and evolution of biparental reproduction. Sexual and asexual reproduction. Hermaphroditism and gonochorism. Synchronization of sexual behaviour. Partners approaching. Pheromones and partner attraction. The courtship: different role of males and females. The meeting of the gametes: insemination, mating, fertilization. Reproductive isolation and sexual selection. Parental care: oviparous and viviparous animals. Monogamy, polygamy.

10. Social behaviour. Intraspecific groupings (not social groups and social).
Advantages and disadvantages of living in a group. Territorial behaviour. Social hierarchies. Role of leader. The meaning of intraspecific aggression. The “culture” in ethology. Cultural transmission. Social learning: imitation, social facilitation, local enhancement. Emergence and social transmission of traditions. Use of tools. Biological evolution versus cultural evolution. Animal communication: mechanisms, channels, signal emission and reception. Nonverbal communication. Expressive movements. Ritualized signals. Animal language.

11. The orientation in space. Background. Tropisms, taxes and kineses. Primary and secondary (immediate and mediated) orientation. Allothetic and idiothetic orientation. Piloting. Stratal and zonal orientation. Astronomical orientation, compensation for apparent solar motion and chronometric change of orientation angle: the studies of von Frisch and the case of bees. Homing and animal navigation. Case studies: desert ants, Fuegian geotrupid beetles. Animal migration: classifications and descriptions. Case studies: migratory locust, salmon, “monarch” butterfly. Biological rhythms. Circannual rhythms. Tidal and lunar rhythms. Infradian and circadian rhythms. Biological clocks.

12. The study of human behaviour: problems and discoveries. Notes on hominization and on behavioural changes in hominids. Searching for instinctive patterns in the human infant. The “grasping”. The intercultural analysis: the studies of Eibl-Eibesfeldt. Phylogenetic analysis of the complex smile-laughter. Verbal and non-verbal language. Gestual behaviour. Technical and cultural evolution in human phylogeny.

The teacher does not propose text books, because the arguments included in the program are treated only partially and in different ways in different books available today. And for an optional course it does not appear reasonable that the student purchases four or five books. Instead, the teacher suggests a number of books for possible readings and insights, below listed

ALCOCK, J. – 2007 - Etologia. Un approccio evolutivo – Zanichelli

BECK , B. B. – 1986- L’abilità tecnica degli animali. Uso e costruzione di arnesi – Bollati Boringhieri

CAMPAN, R. & SCAPINI, F. - 2005 – Etologia – Zanichelli

CLOUDSLEY-THOMPSON, J. L. – 1982 -. La zanna e l’artiglio – Bollati Boringhieri

EIBL-EIBESFELDT, I. – 1999 -. Etologia della guerra - Bollati Boringhieri

EIBL-EIBESFELDT, I. – 2001 - Etologia umana. Le basi biologiche e culturali del comportamento.- Bollati Boringhieri

EIBL-EIBESFELDT, I. – 1996 -. I fondamenti dell’etologia. Il comportamento degli animali e dell’uomo - Adelphi ed.

FRISCH, K., von – 2012 -. Il linguaggio delle api.- Bollati Boringhieri

GRIFFIN, D. R. – 1979 -. L’animale consapevole. Bollati Boringhieri

HINDE, R. A. – 1979 -. Le basi biologiche del comportamento sociale umano. Studiare gli animali per comprendere l’uomo. - Zanichelli

IMMELMANN, K. – 1988 -. Introduzione all’etologia – Bollati Boringhieri

LORENZ, K. – 2015 -. L’aggressività. Il cosiddetto male – Il Saggiatore

LORENZ, K. – 1989 - L’anello di Re Salomone – Adelphi ed.

LORENZ, K. – 1990 -. Natura e destino – CDE-Mondadori

MAINARDI, D. (a cura di) – 1997 -. Dizionario di Etologia – Einaudi

MAINARDI, D. – 2008 -. La bella Zoologia – Cairo editore

MAINARDI, D. – 2002 -. L’animale irrazionale. L’uomo, la natura e i limiti della ragione. - Mondadori

MANNING, A. & DAWKINS, M. S.– 2015 -. Il comportamento animale – Boringhieri

TINBERGEN, N. – 1994 -. Lo studio dell’istinto. - Adelphi ed.