Animal Behaviour
| Course Code | BAG203 |
|---|
| Fee Code | S3 |
|---|
| Number of Assignments | 8 |
|---|
| Duration (approx) | 100 hours |
|---|
An understanding of animal behaviour is important in any situation where a person works with animals, from farmers to animal keepers at zoos, and from horse trainers to kennel owners. This is an excellent foundation course, and relevant to working with animals in any situation.
Duration: 100 Hours
COURSE STRUCTURE
There are eight lessons in this course:
- Introduction: Influences and motivation.
- What is behaviour
- Causes of behaviour (eg. genetics, learning, external and internal influences)
- Reactive, active and cognitive behaviour
- Conditioning
- Genetics and Behaviour.
- Understanding biology
- Natural selection
- Genetic variation
- Development of behaviour
- Behavioural genetics
- Animal Perception and Behaviour.
- How animals perceive things
- What stimulates them and how do those stimuli function
- Instinct
- Neural control
- Sensory processes, sight, sound, hearing etc.
- Behaviour and the Environment.
- Coordination
- Orientation
- Homeostasis
- Acclimatisation
- Circadian rhythms
- Biological clocks
- Reproductive cycles etc.
- Social Behaviour.
- Animal Societies
- Aggression
- Social constraints
- Social order
- Play
- Biological clocks
- Communication
- Instinct and Learning.
- Conditioning and learning
- Extinction and habituation
- Instrumental learning
- Reinforcement
- Operant behaviour
- Biological and cognitive aspects of learning
- Handling Animals.
- Psychological affects of different handling techniques
- Training animals (horses, cats, dogs, etc).
- The student has a choice of which types of animals to focus on, though a variety will still be covered.
- Behavioural Problems.
- Abnormal behaviour (eg. Psychotic, neurotic);
- Domestication of animals
- Reducing human contact
- Reducing human dependence
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to SCILI, marked by SCILI tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims
- Identify factors affecting animal behaviour.
- Describe the influence of genes on animal behaviour.
- Explain how animals perceive and how they respond to various stimuli.
- Explain the influence of environment factors, such as circadian rhythms, on biological clocks, reproductive cycles, orientation and other animal behaviours.
- Explain the social influences on animal aggression, play, sexual behaviour, communication and other behaviours.
- Describe different ways that animals learn (such as conditioning and habituation) and some effects of learning on behaviour.
- Discuss psychological implications of different handling techniques.
- Identify abnormal animal behaviour (eg. psychotic, neurotic behaviour) and ways to reduce dependence on humans.
Learn the psychology behind animal behaviour. This provides an excellent foundation for working with
animals in any situation: farms, zoos, veterinary practices, pet shops or even in the wild.
This is a course developed and tutored by academics and practitioners from a background in agriculture, veterinary science and wildlife management.