Behavioral ecology
The behavioral ecology can be considered within biology as the youngest branch of evolutionary research, she studied in the broadest sense, the interaction of behavioral and environmental factors. Core of all behavioral ecological research approaches is the certainty that environmental factors become mandatory in the behavior of animals put down ( and consequently in their heredity ), as only then the survival of individuals and their reproductive success is explainable.
Issues
Behavioral ecologists thus dealing inter alia with the clarification of the question: What is a day observed behavior as a result of evolution - natural selection - come about? In addition, they examine the role a particular behavior in a particular environment for the survival of individuals and their proliferation or for the propagation of their species. Emphasized in this context that this kind of question does not primarily aimed inner mechanisms ( " instincts "; cf. instinct theory ) to analyze nor to describe the significance of the behavior of genes (see Genetics ); behavioral ecology examines rather the evolution of behavior in ecological context and - more generally formulated - the adaptation of organisms to their environment.
As an "adjusted" doing a genetically determined trait is called, which allows the wearer of this property a relatively high biological fitness ( reproduction and survival ). To understand this, the genetic and physiological bases of a feature and its influence must be analyzed by environmental factors. Behavioral Ecology is thus an interdisciplinary research area at the interface of behavioral biology, ecology, evolutionary biology, genetics, physiology and population biology. She has very successfully helped in this function to allow a comprehensive understanding of the evolutionary roots of the diversity of organisms on our planet. In the primate research stems from her a questioning after the group structures social ecology.
Conduct ecological research results but also for applied fields such as conservation or biological pest control and also for medicine of increasing importance. Among the diverse methods used to find behavioral observations in the field and in the laboratory, experiments, mathematical models, immunological methods and paternity determinations by " DNA fingerprinting ".
Typical questions of behavioral ecologists are for example: How to find animals their food, and how much effort is worthwhile in search of food? According to what criteria they choose their mates? Go monogamous birds alien? Why do some animals live in groups and other solitaire? What is the area size influences?