Greg Detre
Thursday, 14 June, 2001
Prof. Marian Dawkins
Animal behaviour VII
what use have models been in understanding OFT???
usually the experimenters make the animal very hungry, with no mates or predators around to distract it from foraging
high priority feeding � selection pressure
optimal foraging � short-term
can only look at selection pressures in natural environment
otherwise, we probably learn more about short-term optimal foraging � tells us more about rules of thumb
when you do get short-term optimality, that is quite good evidence for selection process (�design features�)
do you get lazy animals???
lions, jackdaws playing, sometimes select for not eating, e.g. chickens become anorexic when laying eggs, lose 20% of their body weight
difficult to show advantages of playing
� motor control???
establishing reputation
langauge adds reputation to social interaction
meercat sentries while feeding � actually only do that when they�re already fully fed, as well as it being the safest position
how surprised were Panbanisha�s keepers at her report of the fight that morning???
how unu is the keyboard-pressing???
how and what has she learned �mad� to mean??? is she attributing her own emotions to the other chimps, or does �mad� simply signal �fight�???
might it be possible to set up a false belief test for Kanzi???