2012 COURSE DATES: AUGUST 4 – 17, 2012 - Sirenian International

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general public. Folk psychology perspectives are intuitive in nature, usually based on personal experiences and observations. They are considered anthropomorphic because they describe and explain behavior in human terms – which are often the only terms we have to start with! These perspectives are appropriate and very useful when communicating with non-scientists, such as audiences in zoos, oceanaria, and wildlife parks. An interpreter will often use folk psychology to describe and explain animal behaviors based on the “model” that animals have desires, beliefs, and emotions like humans. Scientists also use these perspectives in developing hypotheses about specific behaviors. For example, I was using folk psychology when I assumed that the manatees in the anecdote above were a mother-calf pair. My intuition was based on the size differential and behavioral patterns typical of mother-calf pairs. Ethology encourages us to develop additional Scientific Perspectives in understanding, explaining, and/or describing animal behavior; the classical ethological perspectives include cause, development, evolution, and function (Martin & Bateson 1993, Lehner 1996). Modern ethologists agree that the behavior of an animal is the result of complex interactions between the genetic makeup of an individual and environmental factors that act upon the individual (Alcock 1998). However, many aspects of an animal's behavior can be explained from two very different perspectives: proximate and ultimate (Martin and Bateson 1993, Lehner 1996). This often results in miscommunication among observers who are looking at behavior from different perspectives. Proximate and ultimate comparisons are equivalent to apple and orange comparisons – i.e. they are both valid fruits, but they are different things. "How" questions are usually asked from a proximate perspective; how questions seek explanations about the physical and chemical mechanisms that trigger an individual animal's behavior at any given point in time. "Why" questions, on the other hand, are usually based on ultimate perspectives; answers to these questions attempt to explain why certain behaviors exist within a population (or species) of animals. In other words, what pressures of natural selection led to the existence of a particular behavior within a population or species. Ethologists further divide proximate and ultimate into the subcategories of cause, development, evolution, and function based on the work of Niko Tinbergen (Martin and Bateson 1993, Lehner 1996). Proximate: Cause and Development are proximate perspectives, which look at the behavior of an individual animal. Proximate Cause perspectives include looking at both internal mechanisms (hormones, neurotransmitters) and external stimuli (pheromones, photoperiod, temperature) that interact to trigger specific behaviors in a mature animal. Dr. Jane M. Packard explains it using the analogy of a camera, “Think of Proximate Cause as a snapshot in time that shows what is causing the behavior at that particular moment.” For 2 example, in our observation above, what “caused” the manatees to kiss? Was the female was giving off some signal (vocal, chemical, or behavioral) that attracted the male? Did the tactile stimulation by the male cause hormone production in the female, which triggered the “kiss”? Most likely, it was is a complex interaction between both the internal state of each animal and the resulting external behavioral stimuli. Proximate Development perspectives look at behavioral changes that occur as an individual animal matures. Think of Proximate Development as a "video" that shows how a behavior develops and changes over time as an individual animal matures. How might the behavior of manatees at different ages compare to the interactions we observed? Ultimate: Evolution and Function are ultimate perspectives, which look at specific behaviors present in a population of animals. These behaviors are thought to have evolved over time through the process called Natural selection. For Natural selection to act on a behavioral characteristic, the behavior must meet certain criteria – the same criteria necessary for natural selection to act on a physical trait such as coloration: (1) the trait must vary among individuals within a population; (2) the variation must be heritable; (3) if the heritable variation results in differential fitness (i.e. variations in the trait result in some individuals reproducing more successfully than others); then (4) we would expect the behavior to become genetically fixed in the population as the proportion of individuals displaying the trait increased (i.e. changes in the proportion of genotype and resulting phenotype). Ultimate Evolution perspectives include the comparison of behaviors among different, closely related species. This is our “video” perspective. From an Ultimate Evolution perspective, we hypothesize about how a behavior has changed (or remained the same) at the population and/or the species level over many generations. In my study of Antillean manatees, I will be comparing behavior to previous observations of behavior in Florida manatees. Although these sub-species are very closely related, they share different habitats. The Florida manatee inhabits a temporal/sub-tropic region where its behaviors are shaped by dramatic changes in water temperature during the year. On the other hand, the Antillean manatee inhabits a tropical region where the water temperature is relatively constant year round. We expect some behaviors to differ between the two sub-species as they evolved in different habitats. If behaviors, which we think are driven by water temperature today, exist in both sub-species, then perhaps they had some other function in the past. Ultimate Function perspectives attempt to explain what the function of a specific behavior is within a population, (i.e. why animals that display this behavioral trait are more reproductively successful than individuals who do not). This is our “snapshot” perspective. If variation exists within the behavior, Ultimate Function is the perspective used to explain why. Some Florida manatees travel long distances into more temperate regions
during the summer months while others stay in the same area year round – but we are not sure why the traveling behavior exists. The traveling animal must use more energy than the year round resident. Perhaps male animals that travel are exposed to more potential mates – thereby increasing their reproductive success. Chessie, a famous male manatee first sighted in the Chesapeake Bay in 1994, is known to have traveled between Florida in the winter and Rhode Island in the summer of 1995! Sweet Pea, a female rescued near Houston, Texas, later traveled along both coasts of Florida. Gina, a female manatee first sighted in Tampa Bay on the west coast of Florida is currently hanging out in the Bahamas! One of my questions is: Do Antillean manatees exhibit similar long distance traveling behaviors? Hypotheses about “why” these behaviors exist in manatees are different from hypotheses about “how” these behaviors are executed. The “why” questions are from ultimate perspectives of evolution and function, the “how” questions are from proximate perspectives of cause and development. These four basic concepts of ethology can be arranged in a 2 x 2 table comparing TIME FRAME and ANALYSIS PERSPECTIVES: TIME/ ANALYSIS Proximate Perspective Individual Animals “How Questions” Ultimate Perspective Populations/Species “Why Questions” Pattern-Static “Snapshot” CAUSE (control) behavioral triggers: internal state/ external stimuli FUNCTION adaptive significance: effect on reproductive fitness Process-Dynamic “Video” DEVELOPMENT (ontogeny) changes in behavior as an animal ages: maturation and/or learning EVOLUTION (phylogeny) changes in behavior (genotype) as populations/ species diverge We can remember the concepts of ethology with the acronym AB=CDEF (Animal Behavior = Cause, Development, Evolution, Function). On the TIME axis, Cause and Function are “snapshot” perspectives that look at internal state and external stimuli in an individual animal or at reproductive success in a population of animals. Development and Evolution are “video” perspectives that look at changes in behaviors over time, either as the individual animal matures or as the population evolves. On the ANALYSIS axis, Cause and Development are proximate perspectives that attempt to answer "how" questions at the level of individual animals. Evolution and Function are ultimate perspectives that attempt to answer "why" questions at the level of populations and/or species. 3 For more information on Ethology, I encourage you to visit Dr. Packard’s website at canis.tamu.edu/wfscCourses/. Sirenians So what are manatees anyway, and why should we study their behavior? Manatees belong to the order Sirenia of which there are only 4 extant species in 2 families, Trichechidae and Dugongidae. Although scientists often lump sirenians together with the order Cetacea (whales and dolphins) as totally aquatic marine mammals, manatees and the dugong are actually more closely related to elephants, hyraxes, and aardvarks than to any other marine mammal (Fischer 1990, Maluf 1995, Springer et al. 1997, Gaeth et al. 1999). Until a few years ago, very few people had ever heard of manatees, dugongs, or sea cows. But, as we learn more about these elusive and highly specialized creatures that share our coastal habitats, they are becoming more and more popular among both scientists and conservationists. The West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus), the West African manatee (Trichechus senegalensis), and the Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis) are members of the family Trichechidae. The dugong (Dugong dugon) is the only surviving member of the family Dugongidae (Reynolds and Odell 1991). Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) is usually included when we talk about modern sirenians; it was in the family Dugongidae (Reynolds and Odell 1991), but the species was extirpated by humans in 1768, just 27 years after it was discovered by Russian explorers in 1741 (Stejneger 1887). Today, local and international laws protect all four living species, but they are also either threatened or endangered by humans wherever they exist. Florida Manatees: There is little evidence that Florida manatees were ever harvested commercially. But subsistence use, habitat destruction, and competition for space with recreational boaters have taken their toll on both prehistoric and modern populations. The USGS Sirenia Project, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (formerly the Florida Department of Environmental Protection) have funded much of the manatee research in the United States. Over the past three decades, conservation efforts in Florida resulted in significant scientific research on the distribution, population biology, and behavior of the Florida manatee subspecies, T. m. latirostris (see O'Shea et al. 1995). Ecological and behavioral studies on localized populations such as those in Crystal and Homosassa Rivers (Hartman 1979), St. John's River (Bengtson 1981), and Sarasota Bay (Koelsch 1997) have added to our understanding of Florida manatee behavior. However, relatively little research has been conducted outside of Florida. Therefore, most of the referenced information contained herein refers to the Florida subspecies. Antillean Manatees: Even before Russian sailors were exploiting Steller’s sea cow meat in the North Pacific, European explorers were provisioning their ships with Antillean manatee meat from the Caribbean area. Besides harvesting manatees for subsistence, some Native
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ECOLOGY, BEHAVIOR & CONSERVATION OF
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discomfort without proper protectio
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ABOUT BELIZE Research Site: The pro
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FIELD TRAINING AND ASSIGNMENTS Duri
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ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS SBCRC is s
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HEALTH INFORMATION Routine Immuniza
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• Consult the CDC for immunizatio
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Oil or oil-based repellant (e.g. ol
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Ecology, Behavior, and Conservation
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MINIMUM / MAXIMUM CLASS SIZE: 6-24
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COURSE FEE & ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
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Ecology, Behavior & Conservation of
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2012 Field Course Policy & Liabilit
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2012 Field Course Policy & Liabilit
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FIELD JOURNALS You are required to
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OUR INVESTIGATION Figure 2. G. crut
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OUR INVESTIGATION Introduction The
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OUR INVESTIGATION Introduction On a
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Method We selected a patch reef loc
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OUR INVESTIGATION Introduction We f
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OUR RESEARCH FINDINGS Introduction
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area on the north part of the islan
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Introduction Our Investigation Befo
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648 MARINE MAMMAL SCIENCE, VOL. 23,
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36 LaCommare et al. to the Drowned
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38 LaCommare et al. Figure 2. Map o
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40 LaCommare et al. points was 0.31
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42 LaCommare et al. may even provid
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172 NOTES Caribbean Journal of Scie
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174 FIG. 1. Drowned Cayes study are
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176 severe event occurred in 1998 (
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Coral Reefs (1997) 16, Suppl.: S23
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Table 1. Caribbean Diadema lore Sou
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Table 2. Historical accounts of the
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Table 3. Excerpts from Ernest F. Th
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Bradbury RH, Seymour RM, Antonelli
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Social Interactions in Captive Fema
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Captive Female Manatee Social Behav
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ut not random. Behaviors were not o
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Community Structure, Population Con
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422 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST the pla
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424 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST sarily
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Environmental Conservation 29 (2):
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194 C.M. Duarte well as more recent
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196 C.M. Duarte atmospheric inputs
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198 C.M. Duarte development (Short
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200 C.M. Duarte POTENTIAL STATUS IN
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202 C.M. Duarte detecting losses of
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204 C.M. Duarte Coles, R. & Fortes,
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206 C.M. Duarte Ramos-Esplá, A., M
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$1.2 million (Moore et al. 2009a).
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and positively related to knowledge
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student’s ability to learn facts
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Conservation and Behaviour Richard
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animals may adopt microhabitat choi
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and minimize traffic-induced wildli
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decision rules they use in response
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Gagnon JW, Theimer TC, Dodd NL, Boe
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402 Opinion TRENDS in Ecology and E
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Anim Cogn (2009) 12:43-53 DOI 10.10
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Anim Cogn (2009) 12:43-53 45 Fig. 1
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Anim Cogn (2009) 12:43-53 47 Table
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Anim Cogn (2009) 12:43-53 53 L, Rei
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(Halodule wrightii and Syringodium
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Diurnal and Nocturnal Scans Four of
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Figure 3. The number of scans (whit
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in 2006. Although this difference i
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manatus in Costa Rica. Biological C
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574 D. J. Semeyn et al. and natural
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576 D. J. Semeyn et al. Fig. 1 Refe
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578 D. J. Semeyn et al. Fig. 3 Refe
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580 D. J. Semeyn et al. Fig. 4 Kern
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582 D. J. Semeyn et al. biologists
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Intraspecific and geographic variat
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III. RESULTS Manatees in Florida an
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Genetica (2011) 139:833-842 DOI 10.
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Genetica (2011) 139:833-842 835 dur
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Genetica (2011) 139:833-842 837 Tab
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Genetica (2011) 139:833-842 839 Man
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Genetica (2011) 139:833-842 841 edu
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Fish Sci (2011) 77:795-798 DOI 10.1
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Fish Sci (2011) 77:795-798 797 was
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Low genetic variation and evidence
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Reduced Belize manatee dispersal an
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and respond to human encounters by
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tourist vessels are present, and th
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that approach behaviour may be habi
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to structure almost completely the
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MARINE MAMMAL SCIENCE, 27(3): 606-6
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Journal of Zoology The lesser of tw
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E. M. Arraut et al. & Sparks, 1989)
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E. M. Arraut et al. (Link, 1795) an
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The Journal of Experimental Biology
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Fig. 1. Rescue locations of manatee
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The present study is the first to c
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Bearhop, S., Waldron, S., Votier, S
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Figure 1. Map of the Drowned Cayes
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a. b. c. Power Power Power 100 80 6
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2012 COURSE DATES: AUGUST 4 – 17, 2012 - Sirenian International

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