Certificate in Higher Education in Animal Science

Programme Description

Students will develop knowledge of the key concepts of the responses made by animals to their environment and be able to discuss the causes & development of the major patterns of behaviour and explain animal behaviour in relation to survival, fitness value, and to health and welfare.

Programme Features

Ten separate sessions of study, each session incorporating developmental structured activities to aid the distance learner in developing the underpinning knowledge and skills required to complete the assessments.

Access to high level on-line facilities at both Coleg Sir Gar and UWTSD for learning and research materials. Students will have allocated tutor support and one to one set tutorials to aid students before they submit work digitally on-line.

Programme Content

• Reasons to study behaviour; history of the study of behaviour; ethics and the study of behaviour.
• Behaviour and natural selection; evolution and adaptation; genetics & heritability.
• Behaviour in social groups: costs; benefits; communal (altruistic) behaviours.
• Feeding & breeding behaviours; courtship, parental care and kin recognition.
• Territorial behaviours; conflict resolution communication; signals; sensory anatomy.
• Spatial aspects of behaviour: habitat selection; migration; dispersal; coordination; navigation.
• Physiology and behaviour: rhythms; hibernation; aestivation; diapause; torpor; biological clocks; hormonal influences; thermoregulation; stress.
• Behaviour in captive environments: abnormal behaviours; stereotypes; environmental enrichment; welfare implications.
• Ethogram design and practical application.
• Interpretation of primary behaviour observation data, production and comparison of time budget graphs.