Behavioural Ecology

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.6 • 9.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2014

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Behavioural Ecology, the scientific study of animal behaviour.

What factors influence where and what an animal chooses to eat? Why do some animals mate for life whilst others are promiscuous? Behavioural ecologists approach questions like these using Darwin's theory of natural selection, along with ideas drawn from game theory and the economics of consumer choice.

Scientists had always been interested in why animals behave as they do, but before behavioural ecology this area of zoology never got much beyond a collection of interesting anecdotes. Behavioural ecology gave researchers techniques for constructing rigorous mathematical models of how animals act under different circumstances, and for predicting how they will react if circumstances change. Behavioural ecology emerged as a branch of zoology in the second half of the 20th century and proponents say it revolutionized our understanding of animals in their environments.

GUESTS

Steve Jones, Emeritus Professor of Genetics at University College London

Rebecca Kilner, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Cambridge

John Krebs, Principal of Jesus College at the University of Oxford

Producer: Luke Mulhall.

Transcript

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0:45.9	the program. Hello what factors influence where and what an animal chooses to eat?
0:52.4	Why do some animals make for life while others are promiscuous?
0:55.7	Why do some species invest a lot of energy in producing a few offspring
0:59.6	while others produce young regularly throughout their lives.
1:02.8	These are the kinds of questions asked in behavioral ecology,
1:06.0	the part of zoology concerned with the study of animal behavior.
1:09.6	Behavioral ecology developed in the second half of the 20th century as a combination of Darwin's theory of
1:14.0	theory of natural selection, along with ideas
1:16.4	drawn from game theory and the economics of consumer choice.
1:20.3	Scientists had always been interested in why animals behave as they do, but before behavioral
1:25.0	ecology this area of science never got much beyond a collection of interesting anecdotes.
1:30.2	Behavioral ecology gave them techniques for constructing rigorous mathematical models of how animals act under different circumstances and predicting how they will react if circumstances change.
1:41.0	Proposants say it revolutionized our understanding of animals in their environments.
1:45.9	With me to discuss behavioral ecology are Steve Jones, emeritus professor of genetics at
	...

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