- BIOL 3404, INTRODUCTION TO ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY
A comparative systems level approach to the physiology of animals, emphasizing vertebrates: metabolic, temperature, osmotic, and ionic regulation; function of respiratory, circulatory, digestive, muscle, nervous, and locomotory systems; endocrine regulation and biological rhythms. Must have prerequisites or instructor's permission. Pre: (1005, 1006) or (1105, 1106). (3H,3C) II. Generally taught spring semester.
- BIOL 5984, BEHAVIORAL ENDOCRINOLOGY
Hormones and behavior of vertebrates. Topics will include: reproduction in males and females, parental behavior, aggressive behavior, biological rhythms, mood, and stress. Must be a graduate student or instructor's permission. Generally taught spring semester of alternate years.
- BIOL 4984: ECOLOGY, CULTURE AND HISTORY OF ECUADOR AND THE GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS
This is a 6 credit sequence that begins with a 2 credit class during the spring semester to introduce students to the topics of the study abroad course. The summer course will take approximately four weeks and will provide students with experiences to document what they learned during the spring term. We will spend the first two days in and around Quito getting accustomed to the high elevation (9700 feet) before we study at higher elevations. While there we will visit a natural history museum, an art museum that emphasizes South American artists, and visit a very large open-air market. We will spend two days at Termas de Papallacta where we will conduct field studies in the Páramo, a high-altitude environment with grasslands and shrublands where Andean condors soar. This environment is over 11,000 feet in elevation and somewhat akin to Arctic tundra. From Papallacta we will travel to the Yanayacu biological station to study and conduct research in the montane cloud forest on the eastern side of the Andes, the most biodiverse environment on earth. These cloud forests are rich with small-leafed canopy trees, mosses, orchids, ferns and bromeliads along with associated fauna. From Yanayacu we will be transported by bus to Yasuni, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in the lowlands of the Amazon Basin. There we will conduct research in the Amazonian plains and observe animal life from a canoe on the Rio Napo. This is also the region where the Waorani tribe lives. From there we will return to Quito and fly to the Galápagos Islands. For the first three nights we will stay on Isla San Cristóbal. Students will receive lectures from faculty at The Galápagos Academic Institute for the Arts and Sciences and learn how ecotourism has impacted the flora and fauna of the Galápagos. Students will take several day hikes on nearby islands. Then they will board a boat for three days traveling to distant islands in the Galápagos and hiking to observe the blue-footed, red-footed and masked boobys, frigate birds, giant tortoises, marine and land iguanas, seals, sea lions, penguins, etc.