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Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Zoology & animal sciences > Animal behaviour
Migration, broadly defined as directional movement to take advantage of spatially distributed resources, is a dramatic behaviour and an important component of many life histories that can contribute to the fundamental structuring of ecosystems. In recent years, our understanding of migration has advanced radically with respect to both new data and conceptual understanding. It is now almost twenty years since publication of the first edition, and an authoritative and up-to-date sequel that provides a taxonomically comprehensive overview of the latest research is therefore timely. The emphasis throughout this advanced textbook is on the definition and description of migratory behaviour, its ecological outcomes for individuals, populations, and communities, and how these outcomes lead to natural selection acting on the behaviour to cause its evolution. It takes a truly integrative approach, showing how comparisons across a diversity of organisms and biological disciplines can illuminate migratory life cycles, their evolution, and the relation of migration to other movements. Migration: The Biology of Life on the Move focuses on migration as a behavioural phenomenon with important ecological consequences for organisms as diverse as aphids, butterflies, birds and whales. It is suitable for senior undergraduate and graduate level students taking courses in behaviour, spatial ecology, 'movement ecology', and conservation. It will also be of interest and use to a broader audience of professional ecologists and behaviourists seeking an authoritative overview of this rapidly expanding field.
Animals cannot use words to explain whether they feel emotions, and scientific opinion on the subject has been divided. Charles Darwin believed animals and humans share a common core of fear, anger, and affection. Today most researchers agree that animals experience comfort or pain. Around 1900 in the United States, however, where intelligence was the dominant interest in the lab and field, animal emotion began as an accidental question. Organisms ranging from insects to primates, already used to test learning, displayed appetites and aversions that pushed psychologists and biologists in new scientific directions. The Americans were committed empiricists, and the routine of devising experiments, observing, and reflecting permitted them to change their minds and encouraged them to do so. By 1980, the emotional behavior of predatory ants, fearful rats, curious raccoons, resourceful bats, and shy apes was part of American science. In this open-ended environment, the scientists' personal lives-their families, trips abroad, and public service-also affected their professional labor. The Americans kept up with the latest intellectual trends in genetics, evolution, and ethology, and they sometimes pioneered them. But there is a bottom-up story to be told about the scientific consequences of animals and humans brought together in the pursuit of knowledge. The history of the American science of animal emotions reveals the ability of animals to teach and scientists to learn.
A key way that behavioral ecologists develop general theories of animal behavior is by studying one species or a closely related group of species--''model systems''--over a long period. This book brings together some of the field's most respected researchers to describe why they chose their systems, how they integrate theoretical, conceptual, and empirical work, lessons for the practice of the discipline, and potential avenues of future research. Their model systems encompass a wide range of animals and behavioral issues, from dung flies to sticklebacks, dolphins to African wild dogs, from foraging to aggression, territoriality to reproductive suppression. "Model Systems in Behavioral Ecology" offers an unprecedented ''systems'' focus and revealing insights into the confluence of personal curiosity and scientific inquiry. It will be an invaluable text for behavioral ecology courses and a helpful overview--and a preview of coming developments--for advanced researchers. The twenty-five chapters are divided into four sections: insects and arachnids, amphibians and reptiles, birds, and mammals. In addition to the editor, the contributors include Geoff A. Parker, Thomas D. Seeley, Naomi Pierce, Kern Reeve, Gerald S. Wilkinson, Bert Holldobler and Flavio Roces, George W. Uetz, Michael J. Ryan and Gil Rosenthal, Judy Stamps, H. Carl Gerhardt, Barry Sinervo, Robert Warner, Manfred Milinski, David F. Westneat, Alan C. Kamil and Alan B. Bond, Paul Sherman, Jerram L. Brown, Anders Pape Moller, Marc Bekoff, Richard C. Connor, Joan B. Silk, Christopher Boesch, Scott Creel, A.H. Harcourt, and Tim Caro and M. J. Kelly."
Throughout their lives animals must complete many tasks, including finding food, avoiding predators, attracting mates, and navigating through a complex and dynamic environment. Consequently, they have evolved a staggering array of sensory organs that are fundamental to survival and reproduction and shape much of their evolution and behaviour. Sensory ecology deals with how animals acquire, process, and use information in their lives, and the sensory systems involved. It investigates the type of information that is gathered by animals, how it is used in a range of behaviours, and the evolution of such traits. It deals with both mechanistic questions (e.g. how sensory receptors capture information from the environment, and how the physical attributes of the environment affect information transmission) and functional questions (e.g. the adaptive significance of the information used by the animal to make a decision). Recent research has dealt more explicitly with how sensory systems are involved with and even drive evolutionary change, including the formation of new species. Sensory Ecology, Behaviour, and Evolution provides a broad introduction to sensory ecology across a wide range of taxonomic groups, covering all the various sensory modalities (e.g. sound, visual, chemical, magnetic, and electric) relating to diverse areas spanning anti-predator strategies, foraging, mate choice, navigation and more, with the aim being to illustrate key principles and differences. This accessible textbook is suitable for senior undergraduates, graduate students, and professional academics taking courses or conducting research in sensory ecology/biology, neuroethology, behavioural and evolutionary ecology, communication, and signalling. It will also be of relevance and use to psychologists interested in sensory information and behaviour.
Parental care includes a wide variety of traits that enhance offspring development and survival. It is taxonomically widespread and is central to the maintenance of biodiversity through its close association with other phenomena such as sexual selection, life-history evolution, sex allocation, sociality, cooperation and conflict, growth and development, genetic architecture, and phenotypic plasticity. This novel book provides a fresh perspective on the study of the evolution of parental care based on contributions from some of the top researchers in the field. It provides evidence that the dynamic nature of family interactions, and particularly the potential for co-evolution among family members, has contributed to the great diversity of forms of parental care and life-histories across as well as within taxa. The Evolution of Parental Care aims to stimulate students and researchers alike to pursue exciting new directions in this fascinating and important area of behavioural and evolutionary biology. It will be of relevance and use to those working in the fields of animal behaviour, ecology, evolution, and genetics, as well as related disciplines such as psychology and sociology.
Monkey see, monkey do may sound simple, but how an individual perceives and processes the behavior of another is one of the most complex and fascinating questions related to the social life of humans and other primates. In "The Primate Mind," experts from around the world take a bottom-up approach to primate social behavior by investigating how the primate mind connects with other minds and exploring the shared neurological basis for imitation, joint action, cooperative behavior, and empathy. In the past, there has been a tendency to ask all-or-nothing questions, such as whether primates possess a theory of mind, have self-awareness, or have culture. A bottom-up approach asks, rather, what are the underlying cognitive processes of such capacities, some of which may be rather basic and widespread. Prominent neuroscientists, psychologists, ethologists, and primatologists use methods ranging from developmental psychology to neurophysiology and neuroimaging to explore these evolutionary foundations. A good example is mirror neurons, first discovered in monkeys but also assumed to be present in humans, that enable a fusing between one s own motor system and the perceived actions of others. This allows individuals to read body language and respond to the emotions of others, interpret their actions and intentions, synchronize and coordinate activities, anticipate the behavior of others, and learn from them. The remarkable social sophistication of primates rests on these basic processes, which are extensively discussed in the pages of this volume.
In every domain of reasoning-from time and space, to mental states and physical illness-humans deploy an exceedingly diverse range of intuitive 'theories' about how the world works. Children from diverse cultures always seem to arrive at a few, common folk theories as they hone their developing brains against roughly similar interactions with people and objects. The result is an impressive panoply of folk notions that the human species uses to explain, predict, and just plain talk about everything from why the sky is blue, to why we catch a cold when we stand out in the rain. Unquestionably, all of this "higher-order" reasoning rests upon a diverse and complex tool-kit of "lower-order" neural and bodily mechanisms, much of which humans share in common with other species (and which, collectively, are quite clever in their right). But this book asks a different question: Are humans alone in trying to make sense of the world by postulating theoretical entities to explain how the world works? Povinelli and his colleagues approach this highly controversial territory by investigating the seemingly prosaic topic whether chimpanzees wield roughly the same commonsense ideas about weight that human do. When it comes to the physical world, they ask if chimpanzees reinterpret a broad range of primary experiences-lifting objects, seeing objects fall or collide, observing the differential effort others exert when they move objects-in terms of a common, causal mechanism which, in our everyday parlance, we refer to as 'weight.' The question is not whether chimpanzees have a theory about weight that's any better or worse than preschool children or Einstein or modern string theorists. The question is whether chimpanzees have any theories at all. And the answer comes in the form of over 30 never-before-published experiments from a decade-long research project involving seven adult chimpanzees and one hundred and twenty preschool children. Povinelli's work encourages us to stand back and adopt a different perspective on even our closest living relatives. Rather than seeing chimpanzees as watered-down versions of ourselves, this book challenges us to see our joint encounter for what it is: a meeting of alien minds.
Phonological Architecture bridges linguistic theory and the
biological sciences, presenting a comprehensive view of phonology
from a biological perspective. Its back-to-basics approach breaks
phonology into primitive operations and representations and
investigates their possible origins in cognitive abilities found
throughout the animal kingdom.
The keeping of zoo animals is a central tool in the conservation of some of the world's most fascinating, yet threatened, species. But how do zoos operate on a day-to-day basis? What are the key challenges they face in trying to feed, manage, and keep healthy the animals in their care? How can they play their part in conserving biodiversity? Zoo Animals: Behaviour, Management and Welfare addresses the key questions surrounding the keeping of exotic animals in captivity, and reveals how we can apply our ever-growing understanding of animal behaviour and use an evidence based approach to ensure zoo animals are managed as effectively as possible. Drawing on their extensive experience of zoo research, practice, and teaching, the authors blend together theory with a broad range of both mammalian and non-mammalian examples to give a highly-readable overview of this burgeoning field. Zoo Animals: Behaviour, Management, and Welfare is the ideal resource for anyone needing a thorough grounding in this subject, whether as a student or as a zoo professional. Online Resource Centre The Online Resource Centre to accompany Zoo Animals features: For all readers: * Updates - surveys of key developments in the field * Multiple choice questions with instant feedback, to aid self-assessment For registered adopters of the book: * Figures from the book in electronic format and full colour, available for download
What cognitive abilities underpin the use of tools, and how are tools and their properties represented or understood by tool-users? Does the study of tool use provide us with a unique or distinctive source of information about the causal cognition of tool-users? Tool use is a topic of major interest to all those interested in animal cognition, because it implies that the animal has knowledge of the relationship between objects and their effects. There are countless examples of animals developing tools to achieve some goal-chimps sharpening sticks to use as spears, bonobos using sticks to fish for termites, and New Caledonian crows developing complex tools to extracts insects from logs. Studies of tool use have been used to examine an exceptionally wide range of aspects of cognition, such as planning, problem-solving and insight, naive physics, social relationship between action and perception. A key debate in recent research on animal cognition concerns the level of cognitive sophistication that is implied by animal tool use, and developmental psychologists have been addressing related questions regarding the processes through which children acquire the ability to use tools. In neuropsychology, patterns of impairments in tool use due to brain damage, and studies of neural changes associated with tool use, have also led to debates about the different types of cognitive abilities that might underpin tool use, and about how tool use may change the way space or the body is represented. Tool Use and Causal Cognition provides a new interdisciplinary perspective on these issues with contributions from leading psychologists studying tool use and philosophers providing new analyses of the nature of causal understanding A ground-breaking volume which covers several disciplines, this volume will be of interest to psychologists, including animal researchers and developmental psychologists as well as philosophers, and neuroscientists.
The Flexible Phenotype attempts a true synthesis of physiology, behaviour, and ecology by developing an empirical argument that describes the intimate connections between phenotypes and their environments. It portrays an ecological angle to the rapidly growing extended synthesis in evolutionary biology that incorporates developmental processes, self-organization, and the multiple dimensions of inheritance. The book starts with a synthesis of the principles guiding current research in ecophysiology, functional morphology, and behavioural ecology. Each aspect is illustrated with the detailed results of empirical work on as wide a range of organisms as possible. The integrated story of the flexible phenotype is woven throughout the book on the basis of the authors' long-term research on migrant shorebirds and their invertebrate prey. These birds travel vast distances from one environment to another, and the changing nature of their bodies reflects the varied selection pressures experienced in the course of their globe-spanning migrations. In essence, the authors argue for the existence of direct, measurable, links between phenotype and ecology, mediated by developmental processes. Their book outlines a more encompassing approach to evolutionary ecology, based on first principles in physiology, behaviour, and ecology. It aspires to encourage a further integration of ecology and physiology, as well as fostering a collaborative research agenda between ecologists, physiologists, and developmental biologists.
Comprising a substantial part of living biomass on earth, ants are
integral to the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. More than
12,500 species have been described to date, and it is estimated
that perhaps as many still await classification.
This Primer nurtures the development of biologists interested in using animal behaviour concepts and tools to solve conservation and wildlife management problems. This is the first practical guide fostering integration and showing how to apply these methodologies to issues that would benefit from an animal behaviour perspective.
The editors utilize their 50 years of combined experience in
professional engagement with the behaviour and ecology of wild
felids to draw together a unique network of the world's most
respected and knowledgeable experts. For the first time, this
inter-disciplinary research programme is brought together within a
single volume.
The editors utilize their 50 years of combined experience in
professional engagement with the behaviour and ecology of wild
felids to draw together a unique network of the world's most
respected and knowledgeable experts. For the first time, this
inter-disciplinary research programme is brought together within a
single volume.
Comprising a substantial part of living biomass on earth, ants are
integral to the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. More than
12,500 species have been described to date, and it is estimated
that perhaps as many still await classification.
The two essays provide a critical examination of theory and research in the field of evolutionary psychology. The view advanced here is that philosophical materialism and minimalist assumptions about adaptation serve Darwinian psychology better than the more popular alternative view that relies on cognitive dualism and propositional-attitude psychology to formulate evolutionary psychology theory. A commitment to cognitive dualism is destined to undermine the physical basis of behavior upon which evolutionary theory depends. Many evolutionary psychologists do not see this but are seduced by the easy way in which hypotheses can be formulated using the 'propositional-attitude' model. The challenge is to develop a materialistic and mechanistic approach to understanding human cognition and behavior, including linguistic and social behavior.
'Predators are the best wildlife managers, ' writes George Schaller. They weed out the sick and old and keep herds healthy and alert. Yet the large predators of the world have been and are still being exterminated because they are thought to harm wildlife. Schaller's award-winning work, based on three years of study in the Serengeti National Park, describes the impact of the lion and other predators on the vast herds of wildebeest, zebra, and gazelle for which the area is famous.
Animals have evolved remarkable biomechanical and physiological systems that enable their rich repertoire of motion. Animal Locomotion offers a fundamental understanding of animal movement through a broad comparative and integrative approach, including basic mathematics and physics, examination of new and enduring literature, consideration of classic and cutting-edge methods, and a strong emphasis on the core concepts that consistently ground the dizzying array of animal movements. Across scales and environments, this book integrates the biomechanics of animal movement with the physiology of animal energetics and the neural control of locomotion. This second edition has been thoroughly revised, incorporating new content on non-vertebrate animal locomotor systems, studies of animal locomotion that have inspired robotic designs, and a new chapter on the use of evolutionary approaches to locomotor mechanisms and performance.
Why do males and females frequently differ so markedly in body size
and morphology?
What is animal welfare? Why has it proved so difficult to find a definition that everyone can agree on? This concise and accessible guide is for anyone who is interested in animals and who has wondered how we can assess their welfare scientifically. It defines animal welfare as 'health and animals having what they want', a definition that can be easily understood by scientists and non-scientists alike, expresses in simple words what underlies many existing definitions, and shows what evidence we need to collect to improve animal welfare in practice. Above all, it puts the animal's own point of view at the heart of an assessment of its welfare. But, can we really understand what animals want? A consistent theme running through the book is that not only is it possible to establish what animals want, but that this information is vital in helping us to make sense of the long and often confusing list of welfare measures that are now in use such as 'stress' and 'feel good hormones', expressive sounds and gestures, natural behaviour, cognitive bias, and stereotypies. Defining welfare as 'health and what animals want' allows us to distinguish between measures that are simply what an animal does when it is alert, aroused, or active and those measures that genuinely allow us to distinguish between situations the animals themselves see as positive or negative. Sentience (conscious feelings of pleasure, pain, and suffering) is for many people the essence of what is meant by welfare, but studying consciousness is notoriously difficult, particularly in non-human species. These difficulties are discussed in the context of our current - and as yet incomplete - knowledge of human and animal consciousness. Finally, the book highlights some key ideas in the relationship between animal welfare science and animal ethics and shows how closely the well-being of humans is linked to that of other animals. The Science of Animal Welfare is an ideal companion for undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in animal behaviour and welfare, as well as for professional researchers, practitioners and animal welfare consultants. At the same time, it is easily understandable to non-scientists and anyone without prior knowledge but with an interest in animals and the rapidly evolving science of animal welfare.
The cuckoos are the most variable birds in social behavior and
parental care: a few cuckoos are among the most social of all birds
and rear their young in a common nest; most cuckoos are caring
parents that rear their own young with some females laying a few
eggs in the nests of others; while many cuckoo species are brood
parasites who leave their eggs in the nests of other birds to rear,
with their young maturing to kill their foster nestmates. In The
Cuckoos, Robert B. Payne presents a new evolutionary history of the
family based on molecular genetics, and uses the family tree to
explore the origins and diversity of their behaviour. He traces
details of the cuckoos' biology to their original sources, includes
descriptions of previously unpublished field observations, and
reveals new comparisons of songs showing previously overlooked
cuckoo species. Lavishly illustrated with specially commissioned
color plates and numerous maps, halftones, and line drawings, The
Cuckoos provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date account of
this family yet available.
Why are animal signals reliable? This is the central problem for evolutionary biologists interested in signals. Of course, not all signals are reliable; but most are, otherwise receivers of signals would ignore them. A number of theoretical answers have been proposed and empirical studies made, but there still remains a considerable amount of confusion. The authors, one a theoretician the other a fieldworker, introduce a sense of order to this chaos. A significant cause of confusion has been the tendency for different researchers to use either the same term with different meanings, or different terms with the same meaning. The authors attempt to clarify these differences. A second cause of confusion has arisen because many biologists continue to assume that there is only one correct explanation for signal reliability. The authors argue that the reliability of signals is maintained in several ways, relevant in different circumstances, and that biologists must learn to distinguish between them. In this book they explain the different theories, give examples of signalling systems to which one or another theory applies, and point to the many areas where further work, both theoretical and empirical, is required.
The chimpanzee is one of our planet's best-loved and most instantly recognisable animals. Splitting from the human lineage between four and six million years ago, it is (along with its cousin, the bonobo) our closest living relative, sharing around 94% of our DNA. First encountered by Westerners in the seventeenth century, virtually nothing was known about chimpanzees in their natural environment until 1960, when Jane Goodall travelled to Gombe to live and work with them. Accessibly written, yet fully referenced and uncompromising in its accuracy and comprehensiveness, this book encapsulates everything we currently know about chimpanzees: from their discovery and why we study them, to their anatomy, physiology, genetics and culture. The text is beautifully illustrated and infused with examples and anecdotes drawn from the author's thirty years of primate observation, making this a perfect resource for students of biological anthropology and primatology as well as non-specialists interested in chimpanzees.
From foraging patterns in a single tree to social interactions across a home range, how primates use space is a key question in the field of primate behavioral ecology. Drawing on the latest advances in spatial analysis tools, this book offers practical guidance on applying geographic information systems (GIS) to central questions in primatology. An initial methodological section discusses niche modelling, home range analysis and agent-based modelling, with a focus on remote data collection. Research-based chapters demonstrate how ecologists apply this technology to a suite of topics including: calculating the intensity of use of both range and travel routes, assessing the impacts of logging, mining and hunting, and informing conservation strategies. |
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