Introduction to Animal Behaviour
Biology · 3 hrs Lecture
Offered: Fall and Winter Both, Every Year
BIOL-2451 prerequisites
3 courses appear in this chain, up to 1 level deep. 1 is needed whichever route you take: BIOL-1115
Part of this course's requisite text couldn't be parsed into structure, so the chain below may be incomplete. The full wording is under “Requisite courses”.
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Where BIOL-2451 counts
Counts toward 5 more as one option among several, not as a course you must take:
Read from the departments' own calendar pages, where 71 of 141 programs are only partly machine-readable, so treat these as a minimum rather than the full list. Confirm with an academic advisor.
Description
This course provides an introduction to the evolutionary basis of animal behaviour, covering such topics as the relationship between genes and behaviour, communication, foraging, locomotion, mating behaviour, and the social interactions that contribute to the biological success of animals. Each of the major topics is outlined with respect to cost and benefits of different behaviours within particular ecological contexts and explicit examples are drawn from different animal taxa to illustrate the concepts. The course is expected to provide a foundation and context for other related disciplines in biology, especially physiology and ecology, and to illustrate how behaviours function to solve problems for animals.
Requisite courses
From the 2026-27 undergraduate calendar. Always verify details on WebAdvisor or with an academic advisor before registering.