Table Of ContentPERSPECTIVES
IN ETHOLOGY
Volume 4
Advantages of Diversity
CONTRIBUTORS
Peter G. Caryl J. E. R. Staddon
Department of Psychology Departments of Psychology and Zoology
University of Edinburgh Duke University
Edinburgh. Scotland. U.K. Durham. North Carolina 27706
Hugh Drummond Nicholas S. Thompson
Department of Psychology Department of Psychology
University of Tennessee Clark University
Knoxville. Tennessee 37916 Worcester. Massachusetts 01610
Steven Vogel
Dennis Robert Rasmussen Department of Zoology
Sub-Department of Animal Behavior Duke University
University of Cambridge Durham. North Carolina 27706
Madingley. Cambridge CB3 BAA. U.K.
R. Haven Wiley
Steven P. R. Rose Department of Zoology
Brain Research Group University of North Carolina
Department of Biology Chapel Hill. North Carolina 27514
The Open University
Milton Keynes MK7 6AA. U.K.
Wolfgang M. Schleidt Kenneth R. Wing
Department of Zoology School of Public Health
University of Maryland School of Law
College Park. Maryland 20742 University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill. North Carolina 27514
P. J. B. Slater
Ethology and Neurophysiology Group
School of Biology
University of Sussex
Brighton BNI 9QG. U.K.
PERSPECTIVES
IN ETHOLOGY
Volume 4
Advantages of Diversity
Edited by
P. P. G. Bateson
Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour
University of Cambridge
Cambridge, England
and
Peter H. Klopfer
Department of Zoology
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina
PLENUM PRESS • NEW YORK AND LONDON
Library of CongreS'l Cataloging in Publication Data
Bateson, Paul Patrick Gordon, 1938-
Pel'Spectiv~ in ethology_
Vol. 3 has special subtitle: Social behavior; v. 4 has special subtitle: Advantages of
diversity.
Includes bibliographies.
1. Animals, Habits and behavior of. I. Klopfer, Peter H., joint author. II. Title.
QL751.B188 591.5 73-79427
ISBN 978-1-4615-7577-1 ISBN 978-1-4615-7575-7 (cBook)
DOl 10.1007/978-1-4615-7575-7
Cl 1981 Plenum Press, New York
Softcover reprint of the hardcoveT 1st edition 1981
A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation
233 Spring StIcet, New York, N.Y. 10013
AU righu reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any meanl, oIectronic, mechanical, photocopyin&, microfilming,
recording, or otherwiJe, without written permission from tho Publisher
PREFACE
One of the attractive features of the great classical ethologists was their
readiness to ask different kinds of questions about behavior - and to do so
without muddling the answers. Niko Tinbergen, for instance, was interested
in the evolution of behavior. But he also had interests in the present-day sur
vival value of a behavior pattern and in the mechanisms that control it from
moment to moment. Broad as his interests were, he clearly separated out the
problems and recognized that questions about the history, function, control,
and development of behavior require distinct approaches - even though
the answers to one type of question may aid in finding answers to another.
The open-minded (and clear-headed) style of ethologists like Tinbergen
was based on a recognition that there are diverse ways of usefully con
ducting research on behavior. This consciousness has been partially sub
merged in recent years by new waves of narrowly focused enthusiasm. For
instance, the study of the behavior of whole animals without recourse to
lower levels of analysis, and the treatment of sociobiological theories as ex
planation for how individuals develop, has meant that the relatively fragile
plants of neuroethology and behavioral ontogeny have almost disappeared
under the flood.
When the floodwater starts to recede, it will doubtless leave behind it
pieces of inappropriate theory stuck in the branches of the surviving dis
ciplines. What, though, is appropriate theory? How can productive links be
fostered between different subjects or between different analytical levels of a
single subject? These are not easy questions to answer - particularly in the
abstract. Nevertheless, we felt that the time had come to combat actively the
chauvinism which can so easily become associated with a particular ap
proach to a problem. We asked the contributors to this volume to do their
bit toward breaking down the barriers that exist among the various ways in
which behavior is studied. In addition, some of the contributors who were
not ethologists were asked to discuss ways in which the study of behavior
relates to their own disciplines.
v
vi Preface
This book starts with a contribution from Drummond on the problem
of measurement. He goes a considerable distance toward resolving the ten
sion that exists between those who believe in absolute units of behavior and
those who treat their measures as merely reflecting the problem in which
they are interested. Slater's plea for tolerance is addressed primarily to those
who insist on always dealing with data from large samples. He argues for the
benefits that come from studying individuals.
The next five contributions by Thompson, Rasmussen, Wiley, Staddon,
and Schleidt relate to the enormous impact which evolutionary theory has
made on ethology - particularly in the last ten years. Thompson points out
that propositions about evolution - particularly in their grandest dress -
are frequently circular and vacuous. Just as understanding of learning has
benefitted from a focus on specific instances and from studies of the condi
tions that are necessary for change, so studies of survival value can move
forward constructively in similar fashion. Rasmussen touches on a related
issue when he wrestles with the meaning of fitness. He also emphasizes the
useful points of contact between evolutionary ideas and studies of develop
ment with particular reference to work on primates. Linking approaches is
also a feature of Wiley's chapter, and his concept of ontogenetic trajectories
has implications for both sociobiological and developmental theory. Stad
don's speculations on why humans should be so intelligent raises the impor
tant point that an understanding of how the existing machinery works may
provide a useful starting point for an historical explanation. Finally,
Schleidt's contribution emphasizes that if we are to understand process we
must be prepared to shift our mode of thought and move back and forth
from one analytical level to another. This is a point that recurs in the next
group of chapters.
The articles by Rose, Vogel, and Caryl relate to three very different
points of contact between ethology and other disciplines. Rose is a
biochemist who has had a long-standing interest in understanding behavior
in neural terms. He knows as well as anybody the problems of logic,
language, and research style which can arise in moving from one level to
another. Nevertheless, his perspective provides a challenge to those
ethologists who wish to insulate themselves from any knowledge of
neurobiology. Vogel offers a quite different challenge to ethologists who
know nothing of scaling effects or of physics. He argues that such ignorance
is likely to prove costly and provides some illustrations of how rewarding it
can be to relate the characteristics of an animal to those of its physical en
vironment. Caryl writes about a quite different interface - the application
of mathematical game theory to the study of conflict. His concern is to show
how the theory does point to analyses which would not otherwise have been
done, but also how the results of such work do have implications for theory.
Preface vii
Once again, the importance of dialogue (in this case between the theorist
and the data collector) is emphasized.
The final chapter concerns a totally different dialogue from the others,
namely that between science and the law of the land. It is an issue which
ethologists would do well to think about - particularly when legislation on,
for instance, animal welfare is liable to impinge on their work. Wing, who is
himself a lawyer, argues that laws are neither totally arbitrary nor the reflec
tions of some highly rational process that scientists sometimes believe they
are engaged in. Laws are expressions of a public consensus about the world.
Ethologists have something to contribute to this set of shared beliefs, but to
influence the development of the laws regulating human conduct they must
understand how legal systems derive their present character.
Patrick Bateson
Peter H. Klopfer
CONTENTS
Chapter 1
THE NATURE AND DESCRIPTION OF BEHAVIOR PATTERNS
Hugh Drummond
I. Abstract .............................. , ............. , . .. .. . . .. . 1
II. Introduction................................................... 2
III. Describing Behavior: Two Methods or One? ................. 2
IV. The Domains of Regularity ................................... 5
A. Location in Space . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
B. Orientation to the Environment ........................... 7
C. Topography of the Animal ................................ 9
D. Intrinsic Properties of the Animal ......................... 10
E. Changes Effected in the Physical Environment . . . . . . . . . . . 10
F. A Note on Context ........................................ 11
V. Natural Units of Behavior .................................. , 12
A. The Existence of Natural Units .......................... 12
B. The Role of the Describer ................................ 16
C. The Level and Scope of the Unit ........................ 18
VI. The Description of Behavior Patterns ....................... 21
A. The Selection of Domains ................................ 21
B. The Selection of Regularities and Specific Features ...... 23
C. The Objectivity of Pure Description ...................... 24
VII. Conclusions .................................................. 27
VIII. Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
IX. Acknowledgments ... , .............. '" ...... , ....... " . ... . . . 29
X. References.................................................... 30
ix
x Contents
Chapter 2
INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN ANIMAL BEHAVIOR
P. J. B. Slater
I. Abstract. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
II. Introduction ........ '" ........ '" ............ " .... . .. . ... .. . 35
III. Differences in Feeding Behavior ............................. 37
IV. Strategies of Behavior........................................ 39
V. Communication of Identity .................................. 41
VI. Model Action Patterns ....................................... 43
VII. Adaptiveness or Noise? ....................................... 44
VI II. Conclusion ................................................... 46
IX. Acknowledgments ............. '" .................... '" . .. . . 47
X. References ...................... " .......... , ............ " . .. 47
Chapter 3
TOWARD A FALSIFIABLE THEORY OF EVOLUTION
Nicholas S. Thompson
I. Abstract...................................................... 51
II. Introduction.................................................. 52
III. The Tautology of Evolutionary Biology ..................... 52
IV. The Tautology in Behaviorism............................... 56
V. A Resolution of the Tautology .............................. 59
VI. Some Concluding Remarks .................................. 69
VII. Acknowledgments............................................ 71
VIII. References.................................................... 72
Chapter 4
EVOLUTIONARY, PROXIMATE, AND FUNCTIONAL PRIMATE
SOCIAL ECOLOGY
Dennis Robert Rasmussen
I. Abstract .......................................... , .......... . 75
II. Introduction ................................................. . 76
III. Evolutionary Social Ecology ................................ . 76
IV. Proximate Social Ecology ................................... . 82
V. Functional Social Ecology .................................. . 86
VI. Interdigitation of Evolutionary, Proximate,
and Functional Social Ecology ............................. . 93
VII. Acknowledgments ........................................... . 97
VIII. References ................................................... . 97
