Animal Observations Nick Irvine
Animal Observations
PSYC 2210 — Animal Behavior —Spring 2016
ANIMAL OBSERVATIONS
All science starts with observation, and observing animals going about their business can be highly rewarding. In this exercise, you will observe a non-pet animal or group of animals and take notes on what they are doing. You will use these observations to ask some questions that could lead to a more in-depth investigation of the behavior.
Preparation
You will need: (1) A method of taking notes. This can be a notebook, a clipboard, or a voice recorder. If you use a voice recorder, you will need to transcribe your notes later. (2) A method of tracking time with second precision — e.g., your smartphone or a stopwatch. (3) A place to observe animals. (4) Basic safety precautions. If you are observing outside, dress appropriately for the elements. Always avoid direct contact with wild living animals.
Part I: Data Collection
Observe your selected animal(s) for 45 minutes using ad libitum sampling. In ad lib sampling, the observer records informal statements about what the animal(s) are doing in a non-systematic way. Each event or interval is marked with the time it occurred and (if applicable) the duration. Some ad lib data from someone watching a group of monkeys might look like this:
- 10:30 Adult male grooms another adult male
- 11:14 monkey eats caterpillar
- 12:05 Juvenile scans sky for 30 seconds
If you prefer, you may decide to write observations at fixed intervals. Feel free to draw.
Your data should either be recorded on the data sheets provided or into a notebook. If you use a notebook, be sure to record all the information shown on the next pages. You may retype or scan your notes for submission.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Where are the animals? It may be winter, but most species of animals living in the wild are still actively gathering food and moving around. You can find animals on Grounds, in nearby parks (e.g. Ivy Creek Natural Area), on nearby farms, and at not-so-nearby zoos and parks (Metro Richmond Zoo, Virginia Zoo, Smithsonian National Zoo, Three Lakes Nature Center and Aquarium). Don’t forget about insects! The only restriction is that the animal cannot be a pet.
- May I work with someone else? You may work in groups, which can make finding animals and collecting data easier, under the following conditions: (1) each person must spend a full 45 minutes making his or her own observations and (2) each person must complete Part II independently.
- My animal keeps moving!!! You need to collect data for a total of 45 minutes, but observation does not need to be uninterrupted, and you may observe several different individuals (if you note this). If your animal is highly mobile, you may want to scout out a place and time where it stays put.
AD LIB OBSERVATION DATA SHEET —
Date:2/2/15Observer: Nick Irvine
Subject (give common and scientific name of species): Squirrel. Sciuridae
Location (name and subjective description): Ivy Creek Natural Area. This is a wooded trail area, not near houses or the road.
Enter observations below. Use additional copies of this sheet as needed.
Start TimeDescription
3:30 Spotted first Squirrel at Ivy Creek Natural Area. Squirrel is sitting still on tree branch.
3:32Squirrel notices my presence, turns around, and climbs higher in the tree out of sight.
3:40I spot a new squirrel further down the trail, it seems to be foraging for food or searching for something.
3:41I try to approach the squirrel, but it quickly climbs up a nearby tree in a spiral fashion. I attempt to keep track of where it is on the tree, but it climbed out of sight.
3:48I spot another new squirrel, this time I make sure to be more quiet when approaching it to avoid startling. It is standing upright on a tree stump. The squirrel seems to be keeping watch or waiting for something to happen. I believe it recognizes that I am watching it and it remains very still. I decide to test how close I can get to it before startling it. I make it to around 15 feet from it before it quickly turns and runs through the leaves and down the valley right behind the tree stump.
3:55 I spotted two squirrels in the distance chasing each other in a spiral motion up a tree. I couldn’t tell if the chasing seemed aggressive or playful. The squirrel that was being chased seemed to not be afraid but rather seemed to be used to the action of being chased around. They progressed rather slowly (vertically) up the tree but sprinted horizontally in a spiral motion around the tree, this made me think that the squirrel that was being chased wasn’t really trying to escape the other squirrel. Eventually they both reached the top of the tree and hopped from the branch of the tree to the branch of another tree, I tried to follow them but they eventually disappeared high up in the trees.
4:03I had a hard time finding more animals, I could hear birds chirping but could not catch sight of them. I wonder if it is becoming more difficult to find more squirrels because the ones that ran away alerted the others nearby? Eventually I came across a single squirrel, this time the squirrel I spotted was holding onto the side of a tree with its belly flush to the tree. Similar to the other squirrels, this one seemed to be keeping watch.
4:05This time I made sure not to startle the squirrel, I spent the next 5 minutes just watching the motionless squirrel.
4:10I began shifting my position around the tree to see if I could disappear from the squirrels sight. When I began to shimmy around, I could tell the squirrel was becoming more alert to my presence. The squirrels head was making slight twitches and rotating, I believe this was to keep my body within its line of sight.
4:12I’m currently doing a much better job at not startling this squirrel, I believe this may have to do with me keeping a further distance than the previous ones. I am beginning to think that squirrel judge danger by proximity and not necessarily just noise. I decide to test my hypothesis and make a loud cough to see if I can startle it. I can tell the squirrels body tensed up and seemed like it was about to run up the tree but it remained in its original position.
4:15 I give the squirrel some time to become comfortable with my presence before I test the second part of my hypothesis about its fear of predator proximity. When I felt that the squirrel was comfortable with my presence I began to slowly approach it, it seemed startled but never ran up the tree until I got within around 12-15 feet of it. When I got that close, it ended up running up the tree in a spiral motion until it disappeared out of my sight.
Part II: Reflection
Review your notes and respond to the following questions.
1. What did the animal(s) spend the most time doing?
The squirrels spent most of the time scurrying up trees.
2. What do you think the current function of that behavior is? That is, how does it help the animal(s) survive and/or reproduce?
Squirrels keep lookout so they can remain alert of nearby predators, when they hear a predator they scurry up a tree so they can evade being attacked.
3. What external events or objects in the environment did the animal(s) respond to? How did the animal(s) sense that the event happened or the object was present?
I researched squirrels predators and the most common predators are cats and foxes, the predators are not great at climbing trees so this is probably why squirrels tend to scurry up trees when they hear a predator nearby. Squirrels sense that a predator is near because they can hear the noise of a predator walking and they can also see a predator with its eyes.
4. How might this behavior have developed? What aspects do you think were learned?
I believe this ability to scurry up a tree was developed in order to survive. The aspects that I believe were learned are the ability to quickly climb up the tree. They probably had to learn to claw onto the tree so they can quickly evade a predator.
5. What events or environmental factors might have caused this behavior to evolve?
I believe the presence of predators caused this behavior to evolve, squirrels probably began this behavior by running from predators and eventually learned to climb trees to successfully escape a predator that is chasing them.
6. Come up with a question of your own about one of the behavior(s) you observed. Is this a question you could answer through further observation? If so, how would you change your observational strategy? If not, what information would you need?
Why do squirrels tend to climb in a spiral motion when the scurry up trees? I probably would not be able to answer this question without numerous observations of squirrels having to evade many types of predators. I believe I would have to observe the way that a predator tends to chase a squirrel in order to fully understand why squirrels tend to move in a spiral motion up trees.
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
Upload your field notes and reflection to NowComment as a Word file or a scanned PDF and post the document to your blog. This assignment is due Friday, February 5 at 5 pm. Because this assignment will be peer-evaluated, late work cannot be accepted.
RUBRIC
Your progress toward the following learning goals will be evaluated by the instructors and your classmates:
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Careful Record-Keeping
- 5= species and location are recorded correctly and in vivid detail. Observations are succinct, legible, objectively phrased, marked with times and durations, and demonstrate sustained attention to the subject(s).
- 4= as in 5, but some details are missing or not properly labeled
- 3= as in 4, but notes are marred by excessive speculation, difficult to reconstruct, or substantially lacking in detail
- 2= as in 3, but with significant errors in the record or demonstrated lack of attention to the subject(s)
- 1= required details on species, location, observer, or date are missing or incorrect. Observations are hasty, inattentive, undemarcated by time, illegible, or substantially incomplete.
- 0= failure to follow instructions or inappropriate choice of subject
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Causal Reasoning
- 5= explanations for behavior are logical, plausible, and clearly related to the kind of cause in the question. Student goes beyond obvious explanations to reason about possible alternatives
- 4= as in 5, but with less attention to alternative explanations
- 3= as in 4, but with some gaps in logic or some confusion between types of causal explanations
- 1= explanations are not related to the behavior or to the specific kind of cause being questioned
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Inquisitiveness
- 5= proposed question is clearly related to an observation about the animal(s) and is easily categorized in terms of one of the four causes discussed in earlier questions. Student demonstrates thorough understanding of the kinds of observations needed to answer the question or carefully argues why the question cannot be answered through observation.
- 4= as in 5, but with less complete consideration of methodology
- 3= proposed question is clearly related to an observation about the animal(s), but straddles the line between different kinds of causes.
- 2= as in 3, but the question is outside the realm of what can be addressed through observation or experiment, with no clear explanation of why
- 1= proposed question is unrelated to observations of animal(s) or is otherwise incoherent
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Clear Writing
- 5= Sentences are lucid, with no errors in grammar, punctuation, or spelling
- 3= Some typographic or grammatical errors, but the text remains understandable
- 1= Major deficiencies in communication
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1.) Structure description: “Squirrel is sitting still on tree branch.”
Consequence description: “Squirrel notices my presence, turns around, and climbs higher in the tree out of sight.”
Relational description: “They progressed rather slowly (vertically) up the tree but sprinted horizontally in a spiral motion around the tree, this made me think that the squirrel that was being chased wasn’t really trying to escape the other squirrel.”
Strengths: There were tremendous amounts of analysis and insight in your observations. I like this because you were trying to explain the squirrel’s behavior in terms of perhaps its reasoning and the knowledge it has.
Weaknesses: Some observations were too long or had too much analysis. I think that much of observation should be clear and concise, however, some of your observations ran a bit long and it painted a less clear picture for me as to what the squirrel was doing.
2.) It seems you picked a good location to watch these squirrels. Ivy Creek Natural Area has many trees and forests which is perfect for the squirrels. I wonder if the time you chose to observe them was perhaps a little late in the afternoon. Maybe it was difficult to spot the squirrels at one point because they were resting or doing another activity, but it seems like you made the best of your time there.
3.) Is it possible that the squirrels climbed up the tree and out of sight in order to mate?
Strengths: At 3:55, you provided valuable insight into the answer of this question. You couldn’t tell if the behavior was playful or aggressive. You then went onto say that it seemed as if the squirrel didn’t mind being chased. These are valuable clues into answering this question.
Weaknesses: You didn’t really give an opinion on why the squirrels were chasing each other. Although you explained the ritual in good detail, I think if you had provided an explanation of your own (dominance display, playful chasing, courtship purposes), then that could help answer the question.
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2) I believe that the use of time and location was beneficial when recording this species due to the fat that Squirrels usually exhibit a wide range of activities in a short period of time.
3) How does the seemingly playful nature of the squirrels as they chased each other around affect their ability to survive and thrive as a species.?
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