Recent progress in the field of wildlife disease ecology demonstrates that infectious disease plays a crucial role in the lives of wild animals. Parasites and pathogens should be especially important for social animals in which high contact among individuals increases the potential for disease spread. As one of the best studied mammalian groups, primates offer a unique opportunity to examine how complex behaviours (including social organization) influence the risk of acquiring infectious diseases, and the defences used by animals to avoid infection. This book explores the correlates of disease risk in primates, including not only social and mating behaviour but also diet, habitat use, life history, geography and phylogeny. The authors examine how a core set of host and parasite traits influence patterns of parasitism at three levels of biological organization: among individuals, among populations, and across species. A major goal is to synthesize, for the first time, four disparate areas of research: primate behavioural ecology, parasite biology, wildlife epidemiology, and the behavioural and immune defences employed by animals to counter infectious disease. Throughout, the authors provide an overview of the remarkable diversity of infectious agents found in wild primate populations. Additional chapters consider how knowledge of infectious diseases in wild primates can inform efforts focused on primate conservation and human health. More generally, this book identifies infectious disease as an important frontier in our understanding of primate behaviour and ecology. It highlights future challenges for testing the links between host and parasite traits, including hypotheses for the effects of disease on primate social and mating systems.

The purpose of migration, regardless of the distance involved, is to exploit two or more environments suitable for survival or reproduction over time, usually on a seasonal basis. Yet individual organisms can practice the phenomenon differently, and birds deploy unique patterns of movement over particular segments of time. Incorporating the latest research on bird migration, this concise, critical assessment offers contemporary readers a firm grasp of what defines an avian migrant, how the organism came to be, what is known about its behavior, and how we can resolve its enduring mysteries. John H. Rappole's sophisticated survey of field data clarifies key ecological, biological, physiological, navigational, and evolutionary concerns. He begins with the very first migrants, who traded a home environment of greater stability for one of greater seasonality, and uses the structure of the annual cycle to examine the difference between migratory birds and their resident counterparts. He ultimately connects these differences to evolutionary milestones that have shaped a migrant lifestyle through natural selection. Rather than catalogue and describe various aspects of bird migration, Rappole considers how the avian migrant fits within a larger ecological frame, enabling a richer understanding of the phenomenon and its critical role in sustaining a hospitable and productive environment. Rappole concludes with a focus on population biology and conservation across time periods, considering the link between bird migration and the spread of disease among birds and humans, and the effects of global warming on migrant breeding ranges, reaction norms, and macroecology.

A charismatic naturalist, bird-watcher, teacher, artist, photographer, film-maker, and winner of the Nobel Prize, Niko Tinbergen was a prominent and influential scientist. Jointly with Konrad Lorenz, he laid the foundation for a new science, the biological study of animal behaviour. 'Ethology', and his talent for devising behaviour-testing experiments, provided an outlet for Niko's enthusiasm for gulls and sticklebacks, snow-buntings and foxes, wasps and falcons, and even children. This first full-length biography of Niko Tinbergen, lavishly illustrated with many of Niko's own drawings, describes his background in Holland, a naturalists' paradise, and the beginnings of his investigations into the behaviour of birds, fish, and insects. Hans Kruuk also explores is Niko's relationship with his colleague and co-Nobelist Konrad Lorenz. These were two men full of contrasts: Niko a charming, self-effacing field man and experimenter; Konrad a flamboyant and egocentric German, always full of new ideas. Niko's Nature goes on to follow Niko's progress in Oxford after the Second World War, where he became the world authority on the behaviour of animals in the wild: his inspiring book The Study of Instinct remains an all-time classic. As a scientist Niko will always be known for the four fundamentally different ways in which he asked the question 'why does an animal do this?' These questions, about physiology, development, evolution, and function, became known as 'Tinbergen's four whys'. But Niko's successes came at a price - severe and devastating depressions that were to plague him throughout his career. In this fascinating and engaging story, Niko's long-time friend and student Hans Kruuk argues that his impact as a scientist and naturalist was in large part due to his skills as a communicator, photographer, and film-maker. Niko's Nature is an intimate and insightful portrait of an extraordinary figure.

This new edition of the bestselling Clinical Signs in Small Animal Medicine presents 800 all new color photographs of the highest quality, with detailed captions that focus on key pointers to diagnosis and treatment. The book is organised into chapters by body system, each beginning with a list of 'Clinical Pearls'. These amusing and accurate key points will be invaluable when considering conditions or highlighting common concerns. Within each chapter, the superb photographs of real cases are annotated with brief, key information that provides a succinct and useful reminder of lessons learned.

Minding Animals is concerned not only with the study of animal behaviour, but also with the innumerable ways in which humans interact with and intrude into the lives of our animal kin. The phrase "minding animals" is used in two ways. First, "minding animals" refers to caring for other animal beings, respecting them for who they are, appreciating their own world views, and wondering what and how they are feeling and why. The second meaning refers to the fact that many animals have very active and thoughtful minds. Throughout, the animals' point of view is stressed, based on the author's more than three decades of experience with a variety of animals. Minding Animals is a broad comparative, evolutionary, and ecological work that does not centre on nonhuman primates of one specific group of animals. It should be a very popular, even defining statement on animal rights, animal consciousness, and our sense of community with the rest of the species on our planet.

This volume presents ecological consequences and evolutionary mechanisms that may be associated with behavioral alterations in parasitized hosts. Alterations may result from natural selection favoring the host or parasite, or there may be side effects of physiological changes associated with symbiosis. This book summarizes the literature in this area, showing that reports of alteration may frequently be consistent with more than one evolutionary explanation and that rigorous tests are needed before the phenomenon can be understood and placed in a predictive framework. Such understanding is important, because these behavioral alterations have been shown to have the potential to affect the distribution of animals in nature and their interactions with predators and competitors, and the alterations may have implications for vector biology.

The second volume of the collected papers of W D Hamilton, each one introduced by an autobiographical essay. Hamilton is the most important theoretical biologist of the 20^th century and his papers, not especially numerous, have had, and continue to exert, an enormous influence. Many were originally published in obscure and inaccessible places. Volume 1 (OUP, still in print) was devoted mainly to selection for social behaviour, the first half of Hamilton's life's work; Volume 2 is on the other half, on sex and sexual selection, and it includes the 18 papers published between 1980 and 1991. Each paper is accompanied by a specially written introduction describing why the work was done, how the paper came to be written, and its eventual fate. The introductions, written in an accessible, non-technical style, include history, opinion, and excerpts from Hamilton's life.

This text unifies conceptual and empirical advances in evolutionary ecology and provides a volume that can be used as a primary textbook or supplementary reading in an advanced undergraduate or graduate course. The focus is on current concepts in evolutionary ecology and the empirical study of these concepts. Chapters are written by prominent biologists who have made significant contributions to this field and both synthesize the current state of knowledge and identify areas for future investigation. It is divided into five major sections: an overview of the major topics in evolutionary biology for ecologists, and sections on life histories, behaviour, co-evolution, and adaptation to athropogenic change.

Die vorliegende Studie wurde im Juli 2000 von den Philosophischen Fakultaten I und II und von der Erziehungswissenschaftlichen Fakultat der Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg als Habilitationsschrift angenommen. Mein Dank gilt all jenen, die mich wahrend der Entstehung der Arbeit auf ganz unter- schiedliche Weise unterstutzt haben. Dies gilt zuallererst den Gutachtern der Arbeit, Herrn Prof. Dr. Roland Sturm, Herrn Prof. Dr. Jurgen Gebhardt und Herrn Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Rudzio. Daneben danke ich meinen Interviewpartnern, die sich trotz ihres knappen Zeitbudgets oft stundenlang meinen Fragen stellten, ebenso den Mitarbeitern in den Landtagsverwaltungen und Staatskanzleien, die mir den Zugang zu unverzichtbaren Materialien ermoeglichten. Ohne die Bereitschaft der Koalitionsakteure und der Vertreter der Oppositionsfraktionen in den untersuchten Landtagen, mir Einblicke in die informel- len Ablaufe des Koalitionsmanagements zu gewahren, waren die Fallstudien -und damit die Studie insgesamt -nicht durchfuhrbar gewesen. Halle, im Dezember 2000 Sabine Kropp Teill Zur Konzeptionalisierung des Regierungshandelns von Koalitionen 1. Gegenstand und Aufbau der Studie Koalitionen werden gern als Ehen auf Zeit, als Zweckehen, als Zwangsehen gar tituliert. Im besten Fall, dies deuten solche Umschreibungen an, gehen die Partner in solchen Gemeinschaften rucksichtsvoll miteinander um. Eine Liebesheirat jedoch sagt man Parteien nur in den seltensten Fallen nach; auch Scheidungen werden zuweilen in Kauf genommen. Den Vorteilen des gemeinsamen Zusammenlebens zuliebe, ordnen die Partner ihre Bedurfnisse und individuellen Interessen zwar bis zu einem gewissen Grad der politischen Lebensgemeinschaft unter. Lieber aber wurden sie alleine leben und Alltagsentscheidungen ohne Mitsprache ihres Partners treffen.

The ability of species to migrate has interested ecologists for many years. Now that so many species and ecosystems face major environmental change, the ability of species to adapt to these changes by dispersing, migrating, or moving between different patches of habitat can be crucial to ensuring their survival. This book provides a timely and wide-ranging overview of the study of dispersal and incorporates much of the latest research. The causes, mechanisms, and consequences of dispersal at the individual, population, species and community levels are considered. The potential of new techniques and models for studying dispersal, drawn from molecular biology and demography, is also explored. Perspectives and insights are offered from the fields of evolution, conservation biology and genetics. Throughout the book, theoretical approaches are combined with empirical data, and care has been taken to include examples from as wide a range of species as possible.

Harriers are a world-wide group of birds of prey whose mating systems, population dynamics, and evolution are well-studied. This is the first book to synthesise and analyse the masses of data on the behavioural ecology of harriers. It offers an intriguing comparison of breeding systems among harriers in the northern and southern hemispheres, and includes a new phylogeny of the harriers, based on the most recent DNA findings. It is illustrated throughout with original line drawings of these impressive birds.

Primatology draws on theory and methods from diverse fields, including anatomy, anthropology, biology, ecology, medicine, psychology, veterinary sciences and zoology. The more than 500 species of primate range from tiny mouse lemurs to huge gorillas, and primatologists collect data in a variety of environments including in the field, research facilities, museums, sanctuaries, zoos, and from the literature. The variability in research interests, study animals and research sites means that there are no standard protocols for how to study primates. Nevertheless, asking good questions and designing appropriate studies to answer them are vital to produce high quality science. This accessible guide for graduate students and post-doctoral researchers explains how to develop a research question, formulate testable hypotheses and predictions, design and conduct a project and report the results. The focus is on research integrity and ethics throughout, and the book provides practical advice on overcoming common difficulties researchers face.

How can the stunning diversity of social systems and behaviours seen in nature be explained? Drawing on social evolution theory, experimental evidence and studies conducted in the field, this book outlines the fundamental principles of social evolution underlying this phenomenal richness.To succeed in the competition for resources, organisms may either 'race' to be quicker than others, 'fight' for privileged access, or 'share' their efforts and gains. The authors show how the ecology and intrinsic attributes of organisms select for each of these strategies, and how a handful of straightforward concepts explain the evolution of successful decision rules in behavioural interactions, whether among members of the same or different species. With a broad focus ranging from microorganisms to humans, this is the first book to provide students and researchers with a comprehensive account of the evolution of sociality by natural selection.

Featuring animal research, from pigeons to primates, this book explains how comparative psychology can enrich our insights into human psychological processes. Each chapter covers a different clinical disorder or problem commonly encountered by clinical psychologists and therapists, including depression, autism and social communication disorders, substance abuse and obesity, and reviews related research into animal behaviors. Revealing how animal models can grant psychologists a better understanding of the motivations and causes for behaviors that are impossible or challenging to study in humans, the authors suggest interventions, drawn from research findings in comparative psychology, that can effectively address psychological disorders in humans.

Game theory has revolutionized the study of animal behavior. The fundamental principle of evolutionary game theory--that the strategy adopted by one individual depends on the strategies exhibited by others--has proven a powerful tool in uncovering the forces shaping otherwise mysterious behaviors. In this volume, the first since 1982 devoted to evolutionary game theory, leading researchers describe applications of the theory to diverse types of behavior, providing an overview of recent discoveries and a synthesis of current research. The volume begins with a clear introduction to game theory and its explanatory scope. This is followed by a series of chapters on the use of game theory to understand a range of behaviors: social foraging, cooperation, animal contests, communication, reproductive skew and nepotism within groups, sibling rivalry, alternative life-histories, habitat selection, trophic-level interactions, learning, and human social behavior. In addition, the volume includes a discussion of the relations among game theory, optimality, and quantitative genetics, and an assessment of the overall utility of game theory to the study of social behavior. Presented in a manner accessible to anyone interested in animal behavior but not necessarily trained in the mathematics of game theory, the book is intended for a wide audience of undergraduates, graduate students, and professional biologists pursuing the evolutionary analysis of animal behavior.

This book aims to reconcile theoretical models of population dynamics with what is currently known about the population dynamics of large mammalian herbivores. It arose from a working group established at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to address the need for models that better accommodate environmental variability, especially for herbivores dependent on changing vegetation resources. The initial chapter reviews findings from definitive long-term studies of certain other ungulate populations, many based on individually identifiable animals. Other chapters cover climatic influences, emphasising temperate versus tropical contrasts, and demographic processes underlying population dynamics, more generally. There are new assessments of irruptive population dynamics, and of the consequences of landscape heterogeneity for herbivore populations. An initial review of candidate population models is followed up by a final chapter outlining how these models might be modified to better accommodate environmental variability. The contents provide a foundation for resolving problems of diminishing large mammal populations in Africa, over-abundant ungulate populations elsewhere, and general consequences of global change for biodiversity conservation. This book will serve as a definitive outline of what is currently known about the population dynamics of large herbivores.

In The Handicap Principle, Amotz and Avishag Zahavi offer a unifying theory that brilliantly explains many previously baffling aspects of animal signalling and holds up a mirror in which ordinary human behaviours take on surprising new significance.

Our understanding of the way in which animals know how, when, and where to orient and navigate around their environment has grown considerably over the last decade. Movement can vary from displacement in the immediate environment to the long-distance migration of salmon or swallows. How animals find their way around is both immensely variable and controversial - what cues they use and how their senses are involved, how much they remember, to what extent they rely on instinctive information or learning. Behaviour, ecology, and neurophysiology are all implicated and have been investigated in a wide range of organisms by researchers all over the world. Individual authors, all eminent specialists within their fields, have been asked to present reviews of the material in which they are most familiar and to speculate about future directions in the field.

Obligatory brood parasites are birds that reproduce by laying their eggs in the nests of other species. This book discusses the ecological and evolutionary aspects of this remarkable behavioural adaptation.

This book reviews what is known about the behaviour and population ecology of a popular shorebird, from a scientific conservation perspective. The plight of this bird highlights the many conflicts of interest in coastal zones, between human activities such as shellfishing, land reclamation, barrage construction, and industrial pollution, and the needs of wildlife for food and suitable habitats. As well as detailing Oystercatcher natural history - including the well-known specialization in feeding technique shown by individuals - the authors use their field studies of individual variations in behaviour to produce population models. This novel approach provides tools for predicting how populations will respond to the many environmental changes to which the coastal zone is subject. It thus can play a role in coastal management schemes that seek to balance the needs of people and wildlife, and suggests that the same methods can be applied in other situtations. The volume contains fifteen well-integrated chapters by an international team of contributors, and is fully referenced.

This book is a personal history and apology, written by one of this century's most distinguished small mammal ecologists, for a life in science spent working on problems for which no final dramatic conclusion was reached. Included along the way are some important anedcotes and history about Charles Elton and the pioneering work at the Bureau of Animal Population at Oxford University, from which much of modern population ecology has grown, and insights on the philosophy and practice of science.