Another college related question.

Its to help with my last assignment for Animal Behaviour. I havent started it yet, but dont want to post too close to the deadline or ill panic if replies are slow

I have to:
investigate the link between environment and behaviour - What is morphological adaptation? I have to cover it, but im not sure what it is, our tutor has had a lot of time off last month!
Investigate the heredity of behaviour - This is how genes effect behaviour, right?
Investigate the internal and external factors influencing behaviour - Internal being things like pain, fear, stress, hormones and External being other animals, daylight, humans, seasons etc...

I like to hear your thoughts, it helps me think about things i wouldnt normally have considered. I imagine some things will have to be in relation to wildies, and others will relate to our pet buns.

Perfect timing to come back

Sounds really interesting, I'll put up some thoughts when I've had a think about it.

Morphological adaptation is part of survival in evolution, when a species changes or adapts some aspect of itself to enable it to live in a particular environment where it wouldn't normally survive.

There's been a really good exampple of that this week, with these sharks Clicky

Jay wrote:Perfect timing to come back

Sounds really interesting, I'll put up some thoughts when I've had a think about it.

Morphological adaptation is part of survival in evolution, when a species changes or adapts some aspect of itself to enable it to live in a particular environment where it wouldn't normally survive.

There's been a really good exampple of that this week, with these sharks [b]Clicky[/b]

Like natural selection? That makes sense, so i could discuss their eye sight and large hind limbs and their big ears. Anne has a video on your youtube channel that might help me with this. I think its called "What is a rabbit".

ETA: This is interesting. I did a presentation on evolution in October, this would have been useful. I used the example of the Deer Mice in Nebraska. I can see this is going to be another interesting one, god knows how im going to get everything under 1500 words!!

Actually, the shark's weren't the best example, as they've created a new species, rather than adapted thmselves, but the response is because of environmental changes, so it covers both Morph adaptation and natural selection, sort of...

Evolution theory is hugely complex, but from how I understand it, natural selection is more the survival of individulas within a species, based on it's strength and survival abilities - the weaker, ill rabbit becomes a meal, the strong healthy rabbit is able to run off.

Morph adaptation (as I understand it) is when an animal changes something structural about itself to survive, and the change is either localised (we're a good example of that - we have different coloured skin, depending on where in the world we live) or affects the whole species - Whales are probably the best example of it - when they left the sea, the developed hind legs to walk on land, then they wen back into the sea and their fins developed to enable them to swim. All whales still have the remenets of hind legs tucked into their bodies, in the same way that we have the remenants of an appendix that we no longer need or use.

And yes, Anne's video on 'what is a rabbit' explains why they have the fearures they do, and how they help the rabbit to survive and procreate - their primary function.
What you'd maybe need to do is find the ancestor of the rabbit, and then look at the changes that have occurred since. Bear in mind that the rabbit originates from the Iberian peninsular, so that environment is what dictated the changes to make the ancestor become the rabbit...Hope that helps clarify

I am also thinking that if you look at wildies and the difference in conformation between them and domestic animals who have a complete different set of life skills.

Also what about the difference between rabbits and hares? Bearing in mind on is burrow living and one lives more in hedgerows and out in the open there must be differences in conformation. However I am thinking that historically they must have a common ancestor. Apart from those enormous ears the thing big difference that strikes me about hare is their big high set eyes. I can only assume that these must be because they still need to be able to see what is happening when they are dipped down in those shallow dips they create in fields?

Thanks guys. Just bumping this up to see if anyone else has something to add or suggest. I have been reading your responses, but im just finishing another assessment. I will be starting this one on Monday as it has to be handed in on Friday.

Investigate the internal and external factors influencing behaviour - Internal being things like pain, fear, stress, hormones and External being other animals, daylight, humans, seasons etc...

It's quite difficult this assignment!

Internal: all the things you say. For pet buns, you could also add genetic health issues. Feel free to use anything that helps with that from our article http://www.hoppingmad.org/E3/congenitaldiseases.htm

For pet buns, this is the primary internal difference that affects them - how we've made them look, and why their behaviour is different because of it.

External: again, domestication and production of fancy breeds - angora's that can die of impaction of not groomed every day...Lops being placid, possibly due to them not being aboe to hear properly, and actually being fearful, not calm...
Also, house buns that are kept awake beyond the time they normally would because of artificial lighting in the home..

Hope that helps, good luck

Oh, I just remembered, Anne told me something about wildies the other day that I didn't know - the type of soil the burrow into can determine the amount of rabbits in a colony. If the soil is chalky and easy to dig a burrow into, then there may be less rabbits - sometimes only one pair. If the ground is really hard and needs a team of buns to build the burrow, then they have larger colonies.

Other colony number factors include how many rabbits there are in the area.

Jay wrote:Oh, I just remembered, Anne told me something about wildies the other day that I didn't know - the type of soil the burrow into can determine the amount of rabbits in a colony. If the soil is chalky and easy to dig a burrow into, then there may be less rabbits - sometimes only one pair. If the ground is really hard and needs a team of buns to build the burrow, then they have larger colonies.

Other colony number factors include how many rabbits there are in the area.

Thats interesting, but makes sense.
Im just getting started now. Ive set it all out, just need to add the information. Must say, ive left this one a bit late.