MIT OpenCourseWare

Browse materialsMIT 9.201 · Spring 2000

Advanced Animal Behavior

Subjects: Psychology · Science

Art: Santiago Ramón y Cajal, Cajal - a purkinje neuron from the human cerebellum, circa 1900 · Public domain

Instructor: Prof. Gerald E. Schneider
Term: Spring 2000
Level: Graduate
What's inside: 1 reading · 4 web pages
Materials open: MIT OCW

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About this course

Source: MIT OpenCourseWare 9.201 Advanced Animal Behavior, Spring 2000, Prof. Gerald E. Schneider — original course page on ocw.mit.edu ↗. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Study order: MIT's own listing order, section by section. Taken from MIT's published course files, downloaded from ocw.mit.edu on September 23, 2026. How RedLectern is built.

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Prerequisites are not listed here. Check MIT's own syllabus for this course.

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A lecture sequence of 21 items is confirmed. No assignments or exams were found for this course, so it stays as organized materials rather than a full course order.

MIT OpenCourseWare, Prof. Gerald E. Schneider, 9.201 Advanced Animal Behavior, Spring 2000.

License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Edition: Spring 2000 · Open the original course on OCW ↗

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Advanced Animal Behavior

Before you start

What's here, and what isn't

Lecture 1: Introduction. Organization, Readings, Projects. Approaches to the Study of Animals and Their Behavior.

Lecture 2: Classics; Key Concepts in Ethology.

Lecture 3: Key Concepts in Sociobiology.

Lecture 4: Key Concepts in Learning.

Lecture 5: Habitat Selection. Nest Site Selection; Territoriality; Dispersal; Migration.

Lecture 6: Feeding. Foraging or Stalking; Prey Capture; Storage/Hoarding; Consummation. Tool Use. Cooperation among Conspecifics.

Lecture 7: Antipredator Behavior. Detection; Tricking the Predator; Defenses – Individual, Social; Other Adaptations.

Lecture 8: Sexuality. Dimorphisms in Body and Behavior; Social Organization, Dominance Structures; Evolution of Sexual Signals, Emancipation from Original Uses.

Lecture 9: Mating and Reproduction. Pair Bonding Varieties and Advantages; Brood Tending and Its Evolution; Similarities of Emancipated Actions Across Widely Different Species.

Lecture 11: Flies and Other Insects.

Lecture 12: Rodents and Lagomorphs. Social vs. Solitary; Specialized vs. Generalized/Non-specialized.

Lecture 13: Cats and Other Large Predators; Ferrets.

Lecture 14: Vegetarian Foragers: Ungulates; Most Cetaceans.

Lecture 15: Primates: Monkeys.

Lecture 16: Primates: Apes.

Lecture 17: Human Ethology.

Lecture 18: Cognitive Ethology/Comparative Cognition.

Lecture 19: Wild Animals in Captivity. Animals in Cages re Natural Adaptations, cf. Humans in Crowded Conditions. Animal Rights. Religious Views of Animals. Conservation Efforts that Succeed or Go Awry.

Lecture 20: Behavioral Pharmacology and Toxicology. Behavioral Pathologies in Laboratory and in the Wild.

Lecture 21: Project Reports.