Methods in Animal Behaviour

Are you interested in animals and do you want to scientifically study their behaviour through observations or experiments? With this book, you will gain the necessary knowledge to conduct scientific research objectively, design experiments rigorously, and start analysing behavioural data effectively. Most importantly, you will learn to measure animal behaviour using different sampling techniques. In addition, you will read about the most used and latest technical devices that are advancing the study of animal behaviour. Thus, read this book if you want to learn how to design, conduct, analyse and write up your animal behaviour research or if you wish to refresh your knowledge and look up specific behavioural methods. Foreword 5 Contents 6 1 Introduction 8 1.1 What Animal Behaviour is and Why it is Important 9 1.2 Levels of Behavioural Analysis 11 1.3 Anthropomorphism 14 References 14 2 General Principles 16 2.1 Preliminary Considerations, Scientific Methodology, and Transparency 17 2.2 Research Questions, Hypotheses and Predictions 19 2.3 Selection of the Study Species 21 2.3.1 Domesticated Animals 22 2.4 Laboratory Tests and Field Work 24 2.5 Scheduling a Research Project 26 2.6 Marking of Animals for Individual Identification 27 2.6.1 Marking Methods 27 2.6.2 Naming of Animals 32 2.7 Animal Husbandry 32 2.8 Ethical Aspects of Working with Animals 33 2.8.1 Animal Welfare 34 References 35 3 Experimental Planning and Experimental Design 38 3.1 Descriptive and Experimental Research 39 3.1.1 Preliminary Observations and Pilot Studies 39 3.1.2 Descriptive Data Recording 41 3.2 Planning of Experiments: Experimental Groups and Data Structure 42 3.2.1 Controls 43 3.2.2 Data Recording Structure 44 3.2.3 Order Effects 48 3.3 Sampling 51 3.4 Individual Differences 52 3.5 Replication and Pseudoreplication 54 3.5.1 Replication 54 3.5.2 Pseudoreplication 55 3.6 Internal and External Validity 56 3.6.1 Precision and Reliability 57 References 58 4 Quantification of Behavioural Processes 60 4.1 Selection and Definition of Behaviour 61 4.2 Categorizations of Behaviour 62 4.3 Defining Behavioural Bouts 63 4.4 Time Parameters of Behaviour 63 4.4.1 Latencies 64 4.4.2 Durations 65 4.4.3 Frequencies and Rates 66 4.5 Recording Rules 67 4.5.1 Continuous Data Recording 67 4.5.2 Interval Structured Recording (Time Sampling) 67 4.6 Sampling Rules 70 4.6.1 Ad Libitum Registration 71 4.6.2 Scan Sampling and Behaviour Sampling 71 4.6.3 Focal Animal Sampling 71 References 72 5 Research Biases 73 5.1 Sampling Biases 74 5.2 Observer Biases 77 5.2.1 Experimenter Bias 77 5.2.2 Expectation Bias 78 5.2.3 Clever Hans Effect 79 References 81 6 Tools for Measuring Behaviour 83 6.1 Video Recording, Video Playback and Photos 86 6.2 Recording, Analysis and Playback of Acoustic Data (Bioacoustics) 87 6.3 Animal Movement Tracking 90 Box 6.1: Automated and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Based Methods to Register Animal Behaviour 92 References 93 7 Data Analysis and Presentation 96 7.1 Statistical Data Analysis 97 7.1.1 Descriptive Statistics 97 7.1.2 Inferential Statistics 100 7.2 Presentation of Scientific Results 104 7.2.1 Oral presentations 104 7.2.2 Making Scientific Posters 106 7.2.3 Writing Scientific Texts 107 7.3 Literature Search 109 References 110 Index 112 Marc Naguib erklärt die grundlegenden Methoden der qualitativen und quantitativen Erfassung von Verhalten. Dabei werden deskriptive und experimentelle Ansätze von Versuchsplänen berücksichtigt. Anhand von Beispielen aus der aktuellen Forschung wird die Breite der modernen verhaltensbiologischen Forschung anschaulich dargestellt.