Principles Of Animal Behavior

Since the last edition of this definitive textbook was published in 2013, much has happened in the field of animal behavior. In this fourth edition, Lee Alan Dugatkin draws on cutting-edge new work not only to update and expand on the studies presented, but also to reinforce the previous editions’ focus on ultimate and proximate causation, as well as the book’s unique emphasis on natural selection, learning, and cultural transmission. The result is a state-of-the-art textbook on animal behavior that explains underlying concepts in a way that is both scientifically rigorous and accessible to students. Each chapter in the book provides a sound theoretical and conceptual basis upon which the empirical studies rest. A completely new feature in this edition are the Cognitive Connection boxes in Chapters 2–17, designed to dig deep into the importance of the cognitive underpinnings to many types of behaviors. Each box focuses on a specific issue related to cognition and the particular topic covered in that chapter. As Principles of Animal Behavior makes clear, the tapestry of animal behavior is created from weaving all of these components into a beautiful whole. With Dugatkin’s exquisitely illustrated, comprehensive, and up-to-date fourth edition, we are able to admire that beauty anew.

Current, balanced, and comprehensive. Principles of Animal Behavior has long been considered the most current and engaging introduction to animal behavior. The Third Edition is now also the most comprehensive and balanced in its approach to the theoretical framework behind how biologists study behavior.

In order to understand and manage animals in their natural or captive environments we must first understand why animals do what they do and recognize limitations in their ability to adapt to different environments. Drawing on the author's considerable experience in both teaching and research, this introductory-level textbook describes the basic principles underlying animal behavior and how those concepts can be used in managing the care of domestic and captive wild animals, covering four key themes: development of behavior, biological rhythms, social behavior and behavioral aspects of animal management. Extensively illustrated with many practical examples and over 150 photos and figures, the book will be essential reading for animal science and veterinary students.

Current, balanced, and comprehensive. Principles of Animal Behavior has long been considered the most current and engaging introduction to animal behavior. The Third Edition is now also the most comprehensive and balanced in its approach to the theoretical framework behind how biologists study behavior.

​This textbook presents all basic principles of animal behaviour in a clear and concise manner and illustrates them with up-to-date examples. Emphasis is placed on behavioural biology as an integrative discipline of organismic biology, focusing on the adaptive value of behaviours that facilitate resource access, predator avoidance and reproductive success and underlie parental care, all within a comprehensive presentation of social complexity. This new textbook provides a rich resource for students (and teachers) from a wide range of life science disciplines.

How and why animals produce group behaviors Fish travel in schools, birds migrate in flocks, honeybees swarm, and ants build trails. How and why do these collective behaviors occur? Exploring how coordinated group patterns emerge from individual interactions, Collective Animal Behavior reveals why animals produce group behaviors and examines their evolution across a range of species. Providing a synthesis of mathematical modeling, theoretical biology, and experimental work, David Sumpter investigates how animals move and arrive together, how they transfer information, how they make decisions and synchronize their activities, and how they build collective structures. Sumpter constructs a unified appreciation of how different group-living species coordinate their behaviors and why natural selection has produced these groups. For the first time, the book combines traditional approaches to behavioral ecology with ideas about self-organization and complex systems from physics and mathematics. Sumpter offers a guide for working with key models in this area along with case studies of their application, and he shows how ideas about animal behavior can be applied to understanding human social behavior. Containing a wealth of accessible examples as well as qualitative and quantitative features, Collective Animal Behavior will interest behavioral ecologists and all scientists studying complex systems.

Essentials of Animal Behaviour is an introduction to the study of animal behaviour and is primarily intended for first or second year undergraduates attending short courses in the subject. The book concentrates on putting across the basic principles as briefly and lucidly as possible with the aid of carefully selected examples from both the recent and classic literature, together with numerous illustrations. It will enthuse readers with this active and exciting area of research, and will lay a solid foundation on which further study may be based. Its simple and readable style, helped by an extensive glossary, will also make it useful to senior level school students, their teachers and those with a general interest in the subject. It will be particularly rewarding for all those needing the basics in animal behaviour, behavioural ecology and comparative psychology.

This textbook aims to present a systematic, up-to-date review of current research in the area of animal psychology.