Animal Behavior Courses
Evolution and Behavior (3 credits)
Aggression, sleep, learning, communication, emotion, motivation and social behavior in human and other species; underlying mechanisms, development, evolutionary history.
Ethology: Animal Behavior (3 credits)
Adaptation, survival, reproduction and evolution of behavior, emphasizing development and species-comparison.
Neuronal Basis of Behavior (Neuroethology) (3 credits)
This course is designed primarily for upper level undergraduates who already have an introductory background in animal behavior, neurobiology and Psychology. The course will review the rapidly expanding field of neuroethology, providing a general introduction to the subject and some of its many model systems.
Animal Orientation (3 credits)
Finding mates, securing shelter and food, and returning to a familiar home are ubiquitous animal functions which often require complex navigational strategies. This course explores historical attempts to develop an understanding of the role and determinants of these strategies, reviews the complexity of orientation behavior across phyla mediated by simple taxes, landmark orientation, compass orientation, path integration and dead reckoning, and cognitive mapping, discusses sensory control of orientation behavior, including multisensory integration, and sensory modality transposition, reviews tools and models used by researchers of animal orientation, and addresses physiological and molecular bases of selected behaviors.
Laboratory exercises, field observations, visits to colleagues’ laboratories in the metropolitan area, and attending relevant seminars at other institutions (inside or outside CUNY) will complement class room lectures and discussions.
Learn More About This CourseCommunication Behavior (3 credits)
This course will examine behaviors that exchange information, the evolution of the signals that carry the message, and the senses that receive it. Both human nonverbal and animal communication systems will be analyzed. Students will conduct field and library research on specific communicative behaviors.
Current Topics in Animal Behavior (3 credits)
Finding mates, securing shelter and food, and returning to a familiar home are ubiquitous animal functions which often require complex navigational strategies. This course will provide an advanced undergraduate level survey of the history of the field of animal orientation, and expound on ontogeny, mechanisms, and function of orienting behaviors.
