Being an animal behavior student, of course this has been one of my favorite courses at UNE so far. It is also one of the classes I have learned the most in and produced work I am proud of. This seminar style course was my first jump into the field of Animal behavior and the class started off by each of us creating an ethogram for a species of our choosing. We also had to work on a project throughout the semester where we chose a species that exhibits a strong example of a specific category of cognition. Throughout the semester, we wrote project proposals that culminated with a final project where we designed an experiment to examine our species example of cognition.

Course description from UNE course catalogue

“A major focus of this course will be on cognitive evolution in a variety of species, with specific attention to cognitive development in dolphins, whales, monkeys, apes, and humans. How do animals think without language as we know it? The fundamental principles and theories of learning and information processing in animals will be explored. The history, nature, and philosophical implications of cognitive science also will be explored, including attention to artificial intelligence.”

Below is the link to my Eastern coyote Ethogram I completed during my first semester at UNE as an animal behavior major. Since it was my first real assignment related to Animal Behavior, it is special to me and I am happy with the end product.

Below is the link to a youtube video of my final project for the course! It was originally supposed to be presented live in class, but due to the snow day, we had to record the presentation to share with the class virtually.