On July 12, 1969, Ruth Davis, a young American volunteer at Dr. Jane Goodall's famous chimpanzee research camp in the Gombe Stream National Park of Tanzania, East Africa, walked out of camp to follow a chimpanzee into the forest. Six days later, her body was found floating in a pool at the base of a high waterfall. With careful detail, The Ghosts of Gombe reveals for the first time the full story of day-to-day life in Goodall's wilderness camp-the people and the animals, the stresses and excitements, the social conflicts and cultural alignments, and the astonishing friendships that developed between three of the researchers and some of the chimpanzees-during the months preceding that tragic event. Was Ruth's death an accident? Did she jump? Was she pushed? In an extended act of literary forensics, Goodall biographer Dale Peterson examines how Ruth's death might have happened and explores some of the painful sequelae that haunted two of the survivors for the rest of their lives.

The essential textbook on agent-based modeling-now fully updated and expanded Agent-Based and Individual-Based Modeling has become the standard textbook on the subject for classroom use and self-instruction. Drawing on the latest version of NetLogo and fully updated with new examples, exercises, and an enhanced text for easier comprehension, this is the essential resource for anyone seeking to understand how the dynamics of biological, social, and other complex systems arise from the characteristics of the agents that make up these systems. Steven Railsback and Volker Grimm lead students stepwise through the processes of designing, programming, documenting, and doing scientific research with agent-based models, focusing on the adaptive behaviors that make these models necessary. They cover the fundamentals of modeling and model analysis, introduce key modeling concepts, and demonstrate how to implement them using NetLogo. They also address pattern-oriented modeling, an invaluable strategy for modeling real-world problems and developing theory. This accessible and authoritative book focuses on modeling as a tool for understanding real complex systems. It explains how to pose a specific question, use observations from actual systems to design models, write and test software, and more. A hands-on introduction that guides students from conceptual design to computer implementation to analysis Filled with new examples and exercises and compatible with the latest version of NetLogo Ideal for students and researchers across the natural and social sciences Written by two leading practitioners Supported by extensive instructional materials at www.railsback-grimm-abm-book.com

How do ant colonies get anything done, when no one is in charge? An ant colony operates without a central control or hierarchy, and no ant directs another. Instead, ants decide what to do based on the rate, rhythm, and pattern of individual encounters and interactions--resulting in a dynamic network that coordinates the functions of the colony. "Ant Encounters" provides a revealing and accessible look into ant behavior from this complex systems perspective.

Focusing on the moment-to-moment behavior of ant colonies, Deborah Gordon investigates the role of interaction networks in regulating colony behavior and relations among ant colonies. She shows how ant behavior within and between colonies arises from local interactions of individuals, and how interaction networks develop as a colony grows older and larger. The more rapidly ants react to their encounters, the more sensitively the entire colony responds to changing conditions. Gordon explores whether such reactive networks help a colony to survive and reproduce, how natural selection shapes colony networks, and how these structures compare to other analogous complex systems.

"Ant Encounters" sheds light on the organizational behavior, ecology, and evolution of these diverse and ubiquitous social insects.

Nests, Eggs, and Incubation brings together a global team of leading authorities to provide a comprehensive overview of the fascinating and diverse field of avian reproduction. Starting with a new assessment of the evolution of avian reproductive biology in light of recent research, the book goes on to cover four broad areas: the nest, the egg, incubation, and the study of avian reproduction. New research on nest structures, egg traits, and life history is incorporated, whilst contemporary methodologies such as self-contained temperature probes and citizen science are also discussed. Applied chapters describe how biological knowledge can be applied to challenges such as urbanisation and climate change. The book concludes by suggesting priorities for future research. This book builds upon the foundations laid down by Charles Deeming's 2002 work Avian Incubation (available for readers of this book to access online for free), much of which remains relevant today. Read in conjunction with this previous volume, it provides an up-to-date and thorough review of egg biology, nest function, and incubation behaviour, which will be an essential resource for students of avian biology, as well as both professional and amateur ornithologists working in the field of avian reproduction.

The past, present and future of the world's most popular and beloved pet, from a leading evolutionary biologist and great cat lover. Jonathan B. Losos unravels the secrets of the cat using all the tools of modern technology, from GPS tracking (you’ll be amazed where they roam) and genomics (what is your so-called Siamese cat, really?) to forensic archaeology. He tells the story of the cat’s domestication (if you can call it that) and gives us a cat's-eye view of the world today. Along the way we also meet their wild cousins, whose behaviours are eerily similar to even the sweetest of house cats. Drawing on his own research and life in his multi-cat household, Losos deciphers complex science and history and explores how selection, both natural and artificial, over the millennia has shaped the contemporary cat. Yet the cat, ever a predator, still seems to have only one paw out of the wild, and readily reverts to its feral ways as it occupies new habitats around the world. Looking ahead, this charming and intelligent book suggests what the future may hold for the special bond between Felis catus and Homo sapiens.

Why are some species monogamous while others are polygamous? Why are males usually more ornamented than females? What makes one organism the hunter and another the hunted? Why do some creatures stick together in groups while others prefer to go it alone? Can we talk of animal culture? Behavioural Ecology provides a fascinating insight into the evolutionary and ecological processes that underpin animal behaviour. Opening with an overview of the evolutionary and methodological framework of behavioural ecology, the book goes on to explore behaviours in terms of the selective pressures involved in their design. It addresses natural selection, sexual selection, and gene selection, before closing with an investigation of the human impact on behavioural ecology. Featuring chapters written by university teachers, each with research expertise in their respective fields, Behavioural Ecology has been moulded by Danchin, Giraldeau, and Cezilly to give a uniform voice throughout: it is a text with all the qualities of a multi-author book, but without the potential drawbacks. Behavioural Ecology offers a fresh, contemporary account of a field re-invigorated by advances in the last decade, making it the ideal teaching and learning text. Online Resource Centre: For registered adopters of the book: -Figures from the book available to download, to facilitate lecture preparation For students: -Library of web links, giving ready access to additional resources

Urban Evolutionary Biology fills an important knowledge gap on wild organismal evolution in the urban environment, whilst offering a novel exploration of the fast-growing new field of evolutionary research. The growing rate of urbanization and the maturation of urban study systems worldwide means interest in the urban environment as an agent of evolutionary change is rapidly increasing. We are presently witnessing the emergence of a new field of research in evolutionary biology. Despite its rapid global expansion, the urban environment has until now been a largely neglected study site among evolutionary biologists. With its conspicuously altered ecological dynamics, it stands in stark contrast to the natural environments traditionally used as cornerstones for evolutionary ecology research. Urbanization can offer a great range of new opportunities to test for rapid evolutionary processes as a consequence of human activity, both because of replicate contexts for hypothesis testing, but also because cities are characterized by an array of easily quantifiable environmental axes of variation and thus testable agents of selection. Thanks to a wide possible breadth of inference (in terms of taxa) that may be studied, and a great variety of analytical methods, urban evolution has the potential to stand at a fascinating multi-disciplinary crossroad, enriching the field of evolutionary biology with emergent yet incredibly potent new research themes where the urban habitat is key. Urban Evolutionary Biology is an advanced textbook suitable for graduate level students as well as professional researchers studying the genetics, evolutionary biology, and ecology of urban environments. It is also highly relevant to urban ecologists and urban wildlife practitioners.

Nests, Eggs, and Incubation brings together a global team of leading authorities to provide a comprehensive overview of the fascinating and diverse field of avian reproduction. Starting with a new assessment of the evolution of avian reproductive biology in light of recent research, the book goes on to cover four broad areas: the nest, the egg, incubation, and the study of avian reproduction. New research on nest structures, egg traits, and life history is incorporated, whilst contemporary methodologies such as self-contained temperature probes and citizen science are also discussed. Applied chapters describe how biological knowledge can be applied to challenges such as urbanisation and climate change. The book concludes by suggesting priorities for future research. This book builds upon the foundations laid down by Charles Deeming's 2002 work Avian Incubation (available for readers of this book to access online for free), much of which remains relevant today. Read in conjunction with this previous volume, it provides an up-to-date and thorough review of egg biology, nest function, and incubation behaviour, which will be an essential resource for students of avian biology, as well as both professional and amateur ornithologists working in the field of avian reproduction.

Did you know that chickens have different alarm calls for different predators? This fascinating dictionary covers every aspect of animal behaviour and includes terms from the related fields of ecology, physiology and psychology. Clear, concise entries are backed up by specific examples where appropriate, covering all aspects of behaviour from aggression to courtship, and fully cross-referenced. The author, David McFarland, was formerly head of the Animal Behaviour Research Group at Oxford University, and the editor of the Oxford Companion to Animal Behaviour (1981). Jargon free and informative, this dictionary is an excellent source of reference for students of biology and psychology, and essential reading for naturalists, bird-watchers, and the general reader with an interest in animal behaviour.

The Crustacea is one of the dominant invertebrate groups, displaying staggering diversity in form and function, and spanning the full spectrum of Earth's environments. Crustaceans are increasingly used as model organisms in all fields of biology, as few other taxa exhibit such a variety of body shapes and adaptations to particular habitats and environmental conditions. Physiological Regulation is the fourth volume in The Natural History of the Crustacea series, and the first book in over twenty-five years to provide an overview of the comparative physiology of crustaceans. An understanding of physiology is crucial to a comprehension of the biology of this fascinating invertebrate group. Written by a group of internationally recognized experts studying a wide range of crustacean taxa and topics, this volume synthesizes current research in a format that is accessible to a wide scientific audience.

How intelligent are dolphins? Is their communication system really as complex as human language? And are they as friendly and peaceful as they are made out to be? The Western world has had an enduring love affair with dolphins since the early 1960s, with fanciful claims of their 'healing powers' and 'super intelligence'. Myths and pseudoscience abound on the subject. Justin Gregg weighs up the claims made about dolphin intelligence and separates scientific fact from fiction. He puts our knowledge about dolphin behaviour and intelligence into perspective, with comparisons to scientific studies of other animals, especially the crow family and great apes. He gives fascinating accounts of the challenges of testing what an animal with flippers and no facial expressions might be animal behaviour, Gregg challenges many of the widespread beliefs about dolphins, while also inspiring the reader with the remarkable abilities common to many of the less glamorized animals around us - such as chickens.

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.

Movement, dispersal, and migration on land, in the air, and in water, are pervading features of animal life. They are performed by a huge variety of organisms, from the smallest protozoans to the largest whales, and can extend over widely different distance scales, from the microscopic to global. Integrating the study of movement, dispersal, and migration is crucial for a detailed understanding of the spatial scale of adaptation, and for analysing the consequences of landscape and climate change as well as of invasive species. This novel book adopts a broad, cross-taxonomic approach to animal movement across both temporal and spatial scales, addressing how and why animals move, and in what ways they differ in their locomotion and navigation performance. Written by an integrated team of leading researchers, the book synthesizes our current knowledge of the genetics of movement, including gene flow and local adaptations, whilst providing a future perspective on how patterns of animal migration may change over time together with their potential evolutionary consequences. Novel technologies for tracking the movement of organisms across scales are also discussed, ranging from satellite devices for tracking global migrations to nanotechnology that can follow animals only a millimetre in size. Animal Movement Across Scales is particularly suitable for graduate level students taking courses in spatial animal ecology, animal migration, and 'movement ecology', as well as providing a source of fresh ideas and opinions for those already active within the field. It will also be of interest and use to a broader audience of professional biologists interested in animal movements and migrations.

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.

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.
Bridget Samuels opens the discussion by considering the general properties of the externalisation system in a theory-neutral manner, using animal cognition studies to identify which components of phonology may not be unique to humans and/or to language. She demonstrates, on the basis of behavioural and physiological studies on primates, songbirds, and a wide variety of other species, that the cognitive abilities underlying human phonological representations and operations are present in creatures other than Homo sapiens (even if not to the same degree) and in domains other than phonology or, indeed, language proper. The second, more linguistically technical half of the book explores what is necessarily unique about phonology. The author discusses the properties of the phonological module which are dictated by the interface requirements of the syntactic module of Universal Grammar as well as different components of the human sensory-motor system (ie audition, vision, and motor control). She proposes a repertoire of phonological representations and operations which are consistent with Universal Grammar and human cognitive evolution. She illustrates the application of these operations with analyses of representative phonological data such as vowel harmony, reduplication, and tone spreading patterns. Finally, the author addresses the issue of cross-linguistic and inter-speaker variation.

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.
Ant Ecology explores key ecological issues and new developments in myrmecology across a range of scales. The book begins with a global perspective on species diversity in time and space, and examines interactions at the community level before describing the population ecology of these social insects. The final section covers the recent ecological phenomenon of invasive ants: how they move across the globe, invade, affect ecosystems, and are managed by humans. Each chapter links ant ecology to broader ecological principles, provides a succinct summary, and discusses future research directions. Practical aspects of myrmecology, applications of ant ecology, debates, and novel discoveries are highlighted in text boxes throughout the volume. The book concludes with a synthesis of the current state of the field and a look at exciting future research directions. The extensive reference list and full glossary are invaluable for researchers, and those new to the field.

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.
Beginning with a complete account of all 36 felid species, there follow 8 comprehensive review chapters that span all the topics most relevant to felid conservation science, including evolution and systematics, felid form and function, genetic applications, behavioural ecology, management of species that come into conflict with people and control of international trade in felid species, conservation tools/techniques, ex situ management, and felid diseases. 19 detailed case studies then delve deeply into syntheses of the very best species investigations worldwide, written by all the leading figures in the field. These chapters portray the unique attributes of the wild felids, describe their fascinating (and conflicting) relationship with humans, and create an unparalleled platform for future research and conservation measures. A final chapter analyses the requirements of, and inter-disciplinary approaches to, practical conservation with cutting-edge examples of conservation science and action that go far beyond the cat family.