48. Behavior as an Adaptive Trait

This lecture begins by examining the adaptive significance of the ways in which organisms respond to stimuli. Animals are most interesting in this respect because of their ability to move. Simple animals generally have simple responses to external stimuli, but even very complex organisms, such as birds, often respond in surprisingly simple ways to equally simple cues. Of course, animals can and do respond in complex ways to complex stimuli. The lecture concludes by examining why some behaviors are inflexible and others are not, and discusses the evolutionary factors that might help predict the level of flexibility an animal exhibits for a particular action.