Create an ethogram and excel chart
Create an ethogram and excel chart
Ethogram Template
Research your chosen species and fill out the headings in the form below.
Use a stopwatch and tick the behaviours observed at 30s intervals.
Time
(mins)
Behaviours
(Fill in the headings below with appropriate behaviours for your focal species e.g. sleep, eat, play, groom) Notes
(Record anything affecting behaviour) Other (describe)
0:30
1:00
1:30
2:00
2:30
3:00
3:30
4:00
4:30
5:00
5:30
6:00
6:30
7:00
7:30
8:00
8:30
9:00
9:30
10:00
Totals
Name(s) of observers Date Study Species
Weather Time Study Animal (identifying features)
Other relevant information (e.g. no. of visitors, feeding time, keeper presence)
Discussion Points:
What were the most frequent behaviours you observed for this animal?
Why you think the animal behaved in this way? Was there an obvious stimulus for any of the behaviours observed? Was there a change in behaviour
over time?
Do you think the behaviours observed were instinctive or learned? Is there any evidence for the mechanism(s) by which these animals learn new
behaviours e.g. social learning, conditioning?
How do you think this behaviour would help the animal to survive in the wild?
How does this behaviour compare to other individuals in the group? Why?
How does this behaviour compare to other species you or your classmates observed during the Zoo visit? Why?
How reliable do you think your results are? Was the method used appropriate for this study?
If you could repeat the observation again, how would you do it differently?
If you wanted to extend the study to find out more about the behaviour of this animal, how could you do this? How could this help with the care of
animals in Zoos or their conservation in the wild?
Back at school: Use your results to create a time budget pie chart for the individual animal you observed and compare this to different individuals of the
same species. Can you also collate all the class data for this particular species and compare it to the class data for a different animal?
Part 1. Build an ethogram from meerkat observations
Your first task will be to watch this short video: https://vimeo.com/80600819. While you watch the video, document all of the different behaviors that you observe. After you watch the video, develop an ethogram with your partner including: a) behavioral categories and b) definitions for each category.
Question 1a. Were the behaviors that you and your partner listed different? Question 1b. Please enter your ethogram (behavioral categories and definitions) here. Make sure to include ‘other’ and ‘out of view’ as two of your categories.
Part 2. Focal versus scan sampling
Watch this video for an introduction to focal versus scan sampling (link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc0ehu7jvaA&t=210s).https://www.youtube.com/embed/lc0ehu7jvaA
Part 3. Focal sampling and inter-observer reliability
Now, both you and your partner will watch this 10-minute focal video of one meerkat (Bumble) https://vimeo.com/80602697. You will want to develop a short code that you can use for each behavior category (e.g. drinking could be denoted with a ‘D’). You will want to note the start time of each behavior and the behavior code. You can take the initial data using any format you choose (e.g. I used a pen and paper) and you can subsequently enter your data into the spreadsheet.
Question 2. How similar or different were your observations to your partners?
Part 4. Calculating activity budgets using focal data
Activity budgets are used to provide information about how animals spend their time. They are generally presented as the proportion or percent time that an animal spends in a particular activity. They are important for providing baseline data on animal behavior, and can be used for testing hypotheses related to different experimental treatments. To calculate meerkat activity budgets use the following steps:
Calculate the number of seconds engaged in each entry on data sheet.
Sum up total number of seconds for each behavior
Divide the total number of seconds engaged in behavior by the total number of seconds of observation (in this case 600).
Then multiply each value by 100 to report your activity budget in percent
Question 3. Enter the results of your activity budget calculations here.
Part 5. Scan sampling and inter-observer reliability
Part 5a. First, watch this clip of meerkats engaging in sentry and vigilance behaviors (refer to the introduction for definitions of these behaviors).
https://vimeo.com/80600820
Part 5b. Now you and your partner will watch three videos of meerkats under different experimental treatments.
The treatments will be: in the presence of no predator, in the presence of a terrestrial predator and in the presence of an aerial predator. Set a timer to go off every 10 seconds, and at each interval record the number of meerkats performing each behavior. We will use a modified ethogram that includes only three categories: vigilant, not vigilant or out of site.
Vigilant: Head raised at or above horizontal plain and eyes open (to include scanning /guarding / raised guarding). Not Vigilant: Eyes closed or head lower than horizontal plane (to include foraging, moving, sleeping, resting). Out of sight: Not visible by the researcher
Question 4. Do you think meerkats will be more or less vigilant in the presence of predators? Will their behavior vary depending on the type of predator?
NOTE: Do not communicate with your partner while watching the videos!
No predator: https://vimeo.com/80600822
Terrestrial predator: https://vimeo.com/71877438
Aerial predator: https://vimeo.com/80600821
Question 5. Were there any differences between you and your partner?
Material for this lab was adapted from: Hammond 2019, Vigilance behaviour in meerkats, ASAB Education. Please cite this source in any labs based on this material.
