The hunger for sodium has been used as a model system in which to study how the brain produces motivated behaviour. In this account of the field Jay Schulkin draws together information across a range of disciplines and topics, ranging from the ecology of salt ingestion to the sodium molecule and the action of various hormones. The phenomenon of sodium hunger was discovered by Curt Richter, the great American psychobiologist, over 50 years ago. Its study has been of interest for some time: to naturalists, psychologists, endocrinologists, physiologists and neuroscientists. This book offers a systematic account of the behaviour of the sodium hungry animal, the endocrine and physiological mechanisms that act to maintain sodium balance and then act on the brain to promote the search for and the ingestion of salt. Finally, the book provides a description of a neural network that orchestrates the behaviour of salt seeking and salt ingestion. Graduate students and research workers in psychology, physiology and neuroscience will find valuable information in this review.

An increasing number of people accept competitiveness as a basis for living. However, while competitiveness may have its place, cooperation is more important in many contexts, and interpersonal relationships are the most important elements in our lives. This is true not only of individuals, but also of groups and nations. In this book, prominent authors have come together to consider the nature of cooperation and prosocial behaviour at levels of social complexity ranging from the individual to the international. Successive sections cover key topics such as the relations between cooperation in animals and humans; the development of prosocial propensities in humans; aspects of the situation and of personality that increase the probability that individuals will behave prosocially; the relationships between trust, cooperation and commitment; and cooperation between groups and nations. Case studies illustrating the important issue of international cooperation are also included. The chapters are integrated by a series of useful editorials which emphasise that a full understanding of cooperation and prosocial behaviour requires us to move between different levels of social complexity.

A large part of the effort of the food industry is spent in attempting to understand the limitations of the type of food that animals can eat. An understanding of the factors that influence feeding behavior can then be used to produce foodstuffs that are more attractive to the animals in question, whether they be humans, cattle, dogs, or cats. This book examines both the texture of food and the adaptations of various animals (including fish, mammals, primates, and humans) to the type of food they commonly eat. Zoologists, material scientists, and food scientists are assembled to present for the first time an integrated overview of feeding by vertebrates. The mechanical properties of various foods are considered in conjunction with the mechanics of eating them and more subjective behavioral parameters such as acceptability and palatability. The book consequently will be of interest to food scientists, zoologists, and animal behavioralists.

Kin recognition, the ability to identify and respond differentially to one's genetic relatives, is one of the fastest growing and most exciting areas of ethology. Dr Hepper has brought together leading researchers in the field to create a thought-provoking and critical analysis of our current knowledge of the phenomenon, with particular emphasis on the underlying processes involved, and their significance for the evolution of social behaviour. Students of animal behaviour and evolutionary biology will find this book an invaluable source of information and ideas.

What regularities lie behind the development and organization of behaviour in animals and humans? One theme emerging from this book is that ideas have to flow in both directions between the different levels of analysis - between the neural and behavioural levels and between the individual and the social group. Another theme is that it is not enough to identify the many factors operating in the development and integration of behaviour. The processes must also be studied directly. Bringing together work at different levels and studying behavioural dynamics require more knowledge and expertise than any one person can usually command. Links have to be made between different disciplines and specialists have to learn to work with others who speak with what at first seem to be mutually incomprehensible scientific languages. The book illustrates how this may be achieved. The themes of this book are strongly related to the approach of Robert Hinde, in whose honour the chapters were written.

This book, part of a series from The Open University in the United Kingdom, is about animal behaviour. The behaviour of animals, including humans, is very diverse and often very complex. Studying behaviour draws on the work of scientists from several disciplines, including ethologists, psychologists, physiologists and biochemists. The question that most of them are interested in answering is: why does an animal behave in the way it does? The possible answers - development, survival value, evolutionary history or cause-and-effect - are the themes that run through this introduction to behaviour and evolution.

Stacey and Koenig discuss the phenomenon of cooperative breeding among birds, an unusual kind of social behavior common to only a few hundred species worldwide, in which individuals other than the male-female pairs help to raise the young of a single nest or den. Because certain individuals aid in raising offspring which are not their own, cooperative breeding gives rise to some of the clearest examples of altruism among animals. This unique breeding behavior is of interest to evolutionary biologists and behavioral ecologists since such species exhibit some of the most unusual and bizarre social behavior observed anywhere in the animal kingdom. The studies are all long term and consequently the book summarizes some of the most extensive studies of the behavior of marked individuals ever undertaken. Graduate students and research workers in ornithology, sociobiology, behavioral ecology and evolutionary biology will find much of value in this book.

Stacey and Koenig discuss the phenomenon of cooperative breeding among birds, an unusual kind of social behavior common to only a few hundred species worldwide, in which individuals other than the male-female pairs help to raise the young of a single nest or den. Because certain individuals aid in raising offspring which are not their own, cooperative breeding gives rise to some of the clearest examples of altruism among animals. This unique breeding behavior is of interest to evolutionary biologists and behavioral ecologists since such species exhibit some of the most unusual and bizarre social behavior observed anywhere in the animal kingdom. The studies are all long term and consequently the book summarizes some of the most extensive studies of the behavior of marked individuals ever undertaken. Graduate students and research workers in ornithology, sociobiology, behavioral ecology and evolutionary biology will find much of value in this book.

We live in a world teeming with parasites. Many animal behaviors, including social interactions, mating displays, and decisions about where to move, nest, and forage are shaped by interactions with parasites. The same is true for humans, where our attraction to mates, hygienic behaviors, food choices, and decisions about when and where to gather in groups often depend on current and perceived infection risk. In turn, behaviors like social distancing and self-medication can alter the trajectories of parasite transmission and evolution, as vividly illustrated by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The myriad connections between animal behavior and parasitism have been the subject of growing research interest since the 1970s and 80s, when fundamental theories linking the two fields of study emerged. Since then, a combination of conceptual and technological advances, and increased integration of ideas across disciplines, have helped to uncover fascinating new connections between animal behavior and the ecology and evolution of infectious diseases. This accessible text surveys emerging research in this vibrant field. Chapters focus on fundamental topics at the interface of animal behavior and parasitism, and authors have been selected to provide a diverse and international perspective. Animal Behavior and Parasitism is an upper-level text suitable for senior undergraduate and graduate level students as well as professional researchers in animal behavior/behavioral ecology, disease ecology, parasitology, and evolutionary biology.

Behavior studies now span a variety of sub-disciplines, including behavioral ecology, neuroscience, cognitive psychology and evolutionary developmental biology. While the fields' rapid growth has led to startling new insights into animal behavior, it has brought increasingly fragmented approaches to the subject. Integrating ideas and findings from a range of disciplines, this book provides a common framework for understanding diverse issues in behavior studies. The framework is derived from classical ethology, incorporating concepts and data from research in experimental psychology, neurophysiology and evolutionary biology. Hogan outlines the origin and development of major ideas and issues in the field, drawing on examples throughout to highlight connections across sub-disciplines. Demonstrating how results in one area can directly inform work in others, the book ultimately proposes concepts to facilitate new discussions that will open the way for improved dialog between researchers across behavior studies.

A book blending evolution and trophic dynamics, taking into account recent advances in both behavioral and population ecology, is long overdue. A central objective of this book is to consider whether adaptive behavioral decisions on the individual organism level might tend to stabilize trophic interactions. A second major goal of the book is to explore the implications of presumably adaptive behaviors on trophic dynamics and the implications of trophic dynamics for the evolution of adaptive behaviors. All evolutionary biologists, ecologists, and behavioral ecologists should find this exciting volume essential reading.

There have been rapid and important advances in all behavioural sciences in recent years. These advances have in one sense been very diverse and specialised - sufficiently so for a scientist to quickly lose touch with the current concerns of even neighbouring researches: but in some cases the developments have seemed also to be fundamental and perhaps convergent, with implications across a range of disciplines. In either case there is a real, and increasing, need for scientists to communicate their discoveries and to a new generation of students in their own. Problems in the Behavioural Sciences is designed to meet this need. The books are by leading researchers, and deal with problems or topics that are attracting a special current interest. The central subject matter is psychology, but many of the issues will need to be pursued across existing (and fluid) boundaries between psychology and other behavioural sciences like physiology, pharmacology, sociology, ethology and linguistics. The central idea of this book is that biology, and particularly evolution, provides the best starting point for the study of emotion. In particular, it is argued that all the conventional properties of emotion such as expression, feeling, and motivation can be considered in a scientific manner, and useful conclusions drawn therefrom. The major part of the book involves the application of this central idea to a wide variety of the phenomena of emotion. The resultant review should be useful as an undergraduate text, and so explanations in the text are aimed at the non-specialist. At the same time, the specific conclusions drawn in the book should be of interest to all those who do research on emotion, and particularly those who need a solid framework on which to base interdisciplinary studies. Biology and Emotion differs from the majority of books in the field in that it does not present a specific theory of emotion. The material covered is therefore more general than is often the case, and has not been selected to support a particular point of view. It combines an organised, yet artheoretical, approach with coverage of both animal and human emotions.

Derived from a meeting of natural and social scientists, this interdisciplinary book aims to summarize the main issues regarding the problem of human aggression, as well as human beliefs about the subject. This study brings together internationally known authorities and presents their recent contributions which range in complexity from the physiological to individual aggression, group conflict, and international war. The study concludes with a multilevel approach to the problems of aggression and war. In nontechnical language suitable for general science readers, the book provides a valuable framework for the development of ideas and new attitudies in a field rife with misconceptions.

Conditioned taste aversion (CTA) is a robust defence device protecting animals against repeated consumption of toxic food. It is characterised by the ability of many animals to learn to avoid certain substances by their sight, smell, or taste after experiencing an unpleasant or harmful reaction to them. CTA is encountered at all levels of evolution, with similar forms of food aversion learning found in vertebrate and invertebrate species whose ancestral lines diverged more than 500 million years ago. CTA has a number of unusual properties contrasting sharply with the basic assumptions of traditional learning theories, which has brought it increasingly to the attention of neurobiologists interested in neural plasticity. In CTA, the usual time parameters between stimulus and aversion are relaxed considerably, frequently with delays of hours rather than seconds. Moreover, the critical stage of CTA acquisition may proceed under deep anaesthesia incompatible with other forms of learning. In the past decade several pivotal discoveries have considerably avanced our understanding of the neural processes underlying CTA, and opened new possibilities for their analysis at the molecular and cellular levels. This book, written by three of the world's leading researchers in the subject, comprehensively reviews the current state of research into conditioned taste aversion. The first book of its kind to provide an up-to-date summary of research into the neuroanatomy, pharmacology, electrophysiology, and functional morphology of CTA, it will be welcomed by all researchers and graduate students in the field.

In the century and a half since Charles Darwin first began formulating his theories on evolution much research has been conducted on primate cognition. In this book, Michael Tomasello and Josep Call set out to review all that is scientifically known about the cognitive skills of nonhuman primates and to assess the current state of our knowledge. The authors integrate empirical findings on the topic from the beginning of the century to the present, placing this work in theoretical perspective.

Why does nature love symmetry? In Asymmetry, Developmental Stability and Evolution, Møller and Swaddle analyse the evolutionary implications of symmetry. They advance and explain their theory that symmetry is related to genetic stability and fitness, and that symmetric individuals appear to have quantifiable and significant advantages over their asymmetric counterparts. When assessing potential mates or competitors, animals may be able to use symmetry as an honest indication of quality. This interdisciplinary book, with its associated Web-site, will be of interest to students and researchers in the fields of ecology, evolutionary biology, genetics, and animal behaviour.

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

Do Animals have ideas? Do they experience pain like humans? Do they think about objects that they cannot see? About situations that have occurred in the past? Do they consciously make plans for the future or do they simply react unthinkingly to objects as they appear and situations as they arise? All of these questions have bearing on whether or not animals have consciousness. The advent of computers that "think" has lead us to consider "intelligence" in a way we never thought possible a decade ago. But when and how does information processing in the brain become automatic?In "Minds of Their Own, " Lesley J. Rogers examines the issue of animal thought both sympathetically and critically by looking at the different behavior characteristics of a variety of animals, the evolution of the brain and when consciousness might have evolved. To most people, to be conscious means to be aware of oneself as well as to be aware of others. But does this hold true for animals? The answer may have implications which transcend mere scientific inquiry: if animals are cognizant creatures, what, if any, moral responsibility do humans have to assure their rights? This timely book examines this issue and others by emphasizing comparisons between humans and animals: how we evolved; how we remember; how we learn.

Unlike nearly all science books which tell of successful ventures and satisfactory conclusions, this book reveals the harsher but more common side of scientific research. Written by one of this century's most distinguished small mammal ecologists, it is both a personal history of and an apology for a life in science spent working on problems for which no final dramatic closure was reached. Included along the way are important anecdotes and history about Charles Elton and his pioneering work at the Bureau of Animal Population at Oxford University, from which much of modern population has grown, and insights on the philosophy and practice of science. This eye-opening account of a scientific career should be read by everyone in life sciences or the history and philosophy of science.

In the last ten years, the "comparative method" has been revolutionized by modern statistical ways of incorporating phylogenies into the design and analysis of comparative studies. The results of this revolution are particularly important in the study of animal behavior, which has relied on interspecific comparisons to infer universal trends and evolutionary patterns. The chapters of this edited volume consider the impact of modern phylogenetic comparative methods on the study of animal behavior and discuss the main issues that need to be considered in design and analysis of a comparative study, considers possible differences between the evolution of behavior and the evolution of morphology, and reviews how phylogenetic comparative studies have been used in certain areas of behavioral research.

Biologists since Darwin have been intrigued and confounded by the complex issues involved in the evolution and ecology of the social behavior of insects. The self-sacrifice of sterile workers in ant colonies has been particularly difficult for evolutionary biologists to explain. In this important new book, Andrew Bourke and Nigel Franks not only present a detailed overview of the current state of scientific knowledge about social evolution in ants, but also show how studies on ants have contributed to an understanding of many fundamental topics in behavioral ecology and evolutionary biology.

One of the substantial contributions of "Social Evolution in Ants" is its clear explanation of kin selection theory and sex ratio theory and their applications to social evolution in insects. Working to dispel lingering skepticism about the validity of kin selection and, more broadly, of "selfish gene" theory, Bourke and Franks show how these ideas underpin the evolution of both cooperation and conflict within ant societies. In addition, using simple algebra, they provide detailed explanations of key mathematical models. Finally, the authors discuss two relatively little-known topics in ant social biology: life history strategy and mating systems.

This comprehensive, up-to-date, and well-referenced work will appeal to all researchers in social insect biology and to scholars and students in the fields of entomology, behavioral ecology, and evolution.

Twenty-one specially-commissioned articles provide a clear picture of the current state of thinking about mate choice. Brings together modern thinking on the various functions of mate choice and its role in evolution.

This book arrays recent research on the neural and behavioral lateralization of the brain relying heavily on animal modes. The authors employ the comparative method to enhance our understanding of behavior, specifically through hand use and "handedness" by drawing comparisons with studies involving primates. Topics discussed include Patterns of Lateralized Behavior in Prosimians; Behavioral Lateralization in Language-Trained Chimpanzees; Patterns of Handedness: Comparative Study of Nursery School Children and Captive Gorillas; and Rotational Behavior in Children and Adults. It is the first book of its kind devoted entirely to the question of behavioral asymmetries in all primates and thus presents a milestone as it recognizes the accumulating evidence of asymmetry and lateralized behavior in the non-human nervous system.

How do bats catch insects in the dark? How do bees learn which flowers to visit? How do food-storing birds remember where their hoards are? Questions like these are addressed by neuroethology, the branch of behavioral neuroscience concerned with analyzing the neural bases of naturally occurring behaviors.This book brings together thirteen chapters presenting findings on perceptual and cognitive processes in some of the most active areas of neuroethological research, including auditory localization by bats and owls, song perception and learning in birds, pitch processing by frogs and toads, imprinting in birds, spatial memory in birds, learning in bees and in "Aplysia, " and electroreception in fish. A variety of approaches are represented, such as field studies, psychophysical tests, electrophysiological experiments, lesion studies, comparative neuroanatomy, and studies of development.Each chapter gives an up-to-date overview of a particular author's research and places it within the broader context of issues about animal perception and cognition. The book as a whole exemplifies how studying species and their particular specializations can inform general issues in psychology, ethology, and neuroscience.

First published in 1981, this book is an introduction to studies of the behaviour of a wide variety of animals including man, farm animals and pest species. The approach is ethological and much reference is made to detailed description of behaviour and to biological function, although there is extensive reference to physiology, brain mechanisms and relevant psychological research. Ideas from sociobiology, motivation and learning studies are emphasised. There is, therefore, very broad coverage of the role of behaviour in all aspects of life. Another novel feature is the extensive reference to applied aspects of behaviour, particularly its importance to the production of farm animals and the control of agricultural and medical pests. The book is intelligible to the educated layman but it deals with some complex ideas. It is an adequate text for all requirements in this area for most undergraduates.