Scientific discoveries about the animal kingdom fuel ideological battles on many fronts, especially battles about sex and gender. We now know that male marmosets help take care of their offspring. Is this heartening news for today's stay-at-home dads? Recent studies show that many female birds once thought to be monogamous actually have chicks that are fathered outside the primary breeding pair. Does this information spell doom for traditional marriages? And bonobo apes take part in female-female sexual encounters. Does this mean that human homosexuality is natural? This highly provocative book clearly shows that these are the wrong kinds of questions to ask about animal behavior. Marlene Zuk, a respected biologist and a feminist, gives an eye-opening tour of some of the latest developments in our knowledge of animal sexuality and evolutionary biology. "Sexual Selections" exposes the anthropomorphism and gender politics that have colored our understanding of the natural world and shows how feminism can help move us away from our ideological biases. As she tells many amazing stories about animal behavior - whether of birds and apes or of rats and cockroaches - Zuk takes us to the places where our ideas about nature, gender, and culture collide. Writing in an engaging, conversational style, she discusses such politically charged topics as motherhood, the genetic basis for adultery, the female orgasm, menstruation, and homosexuality. She shows how feminism can give us the tools to examine sensitive issues such as these and to enhance our understanding of the natural world if we avoid using research to champion a feminist agenda and avoid using animals as ideological weapons. Zuk passionately asks us to learn to see the animal world on its own terms, with its splendid array of diversity and variation. This knowledge will give us a better understanding of animals and can ultimately change our assumptions about what is natural, normal, and even possible.

Despite originating more than two-and-a-half thousand years ago, Aesop’s Fables are still passed on from parent to child, and are embedded in our collective consciousness. The morals we have learned from these tales continue to inform our judgements, but have the stories also informed how we regard their animal protagonists? Are wolves deceptive villains? Are crows insightful geniuses? And could a tortoise really beat a hare in a race? What truths about the animal world lie behind these tales? In Aesop’s Animals, zoologist Jo Wimpenny turns a critical eye to the fables to examine the science behind Aesop’s portrayal of the animal kingdom. She brings the tales into the twenty-first century, introducing the latest findings from the world of behavioural ecology – the study of why animals do the things they do, in areas such as tool use, plans and projections, self-recognition, cooperation and deception. How close to verifiable scientific truths do these ancient tales lay? Sifting facts from fiction, Aesop’s Animals explores and challenges our notions about animals, the ways in which they behave, and the roles we both play in our shared world.

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.

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.

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.

Our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees, are familiar enough--bright and ornery and promiscuous. But they also kill and eat their kin, in this case the red colobus monkey, which may say something about primate--even hominid--evolution. This book, the first long-term field study of a predator-prey relationship involving two wild primates, documents a six-year investigation into how the risk of predation molds primate society. Taking us to Gombe National Park in Tanzania, a place made famous by Jane Goodall's studies, the book offers a close look at how predation by wild chimpanzees--observable in the park as nowhere else--has influenced the behavior, ecology, and demography of a population of red colobus monkeys.

As he explores the effects of chimpanzees' hunting, Craig Stanford also asks why these creatures prey on the red colobus. Because chimpanzees are often used as models of how early humans may have lived, Stanford's findings offer insight into the possible role of early hominids as predators, a little understood aspect of human evolution.

The first book-length study in a newly emerging genre of primate field study, "Chimpanzee and Red Colobus "expands our understanding of not just these two primate societies, but also the evolutionary ecology of predators and prey in general.

Integrating developments from psychology, ethology and neuroscience, this is an undergraduate introduction to cognitive processes across species. The authors merge classic studies and contemporary research to give students a full picture of the evolving field of comparative cognition. Engaging students in the discipline from its roots in animal learning and evolutionary biology through to current research, the chapters cover both controlled laboratory and comparative cross-species studies in the natural environment. This approach provides students with complementary ethological and neurobiological perspectives on cognition. Feature boxes encourage active and engaged learning, giving a deeper understanding of topics discussed in the main text. These are supported by end-of-chapter questions to check understanding and encourage wider thinking around topics. Online resources include solutions to questions in the book, advanced material, PowerPoint lecture slides and additional questions, all available at www.cambridge.org/cognition.

'This wise and beautiful book ... bears upon every page the imprint of a profound, humane and questing mind.' - Observer

'For great interest, amusement and relaxation - in short, for unalloyed pleasurel - let nothing stop you from getting hold of a copy.' - Liverpool Post

'It is one of the best and most penetrating non-technical books about animals and animal nature that has ever been written ... every sensitive reader will agree that the book is a work of humanity, wisdom and balance as well as of delightful humour.' - W H Thorpe

Essential Ornithology provides the reader with a concise but comprehensive introduction to the biology of birds, one of the most widely studied taxonomic groups. The book begins by considering the dinosaur origins of birds and their subsequent evolution. Development, anatomy, and physiology are then discussed followed by chapters devoted to avian reproduction, migration, ecology, and conservation. Sections dealing with aspects of bird/human relationships and bird conservation give the book an applied context. This new edition has been thoroughly updated, providing new information from rapidly-developing fields including the avian fossil record, urban and agricultural ecology, responses to climate change, invasive species biology, technologies to track movement, avian disease, and the role of citizen scientists. There is also a greater focus on North American ornithology. Drawing extensively upon the wider scientific literature, this engaging text places the results of classical studies of avian biology alongside the most recent scientific breakthroughs. Useful case studies are presented in a concise and engaging style with the student reader foremost in mind. Key points are highlighted and suggestions for guided reading and key references are included throughout. Essential Ornithology is a companion textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in avian science, as well as a useful reference for professional researchers and consultants. Amateur ornithologists will also find this book offers a scientifically rigorous and accessible overview for a more general readership.

The importance in social relationships of the exchange of information by non-verbal gestures and expressions, though long appreciated by artists and writers, has only recently become the subject of serious scientific study. The subject has been approached from different angles by psychologists studying the relevance of non-verbal communication to interpersonal relationships, by anthropologists interested in how these processes help to integrate societies, and by ethologists extrapolating the results of animal studies to human behaviour. The scope of the volume ranges from formal analysis of the communication process by an information theorist (Professor Mackay) and by a linguist (Professor Lyons), to accounts of the role of expression in the theatre (Dr Jonathan Miller) and in the visual arts (Professor Gombrich). There are contributions to the discussion written from the point of view of the zoologist, the ethologist, the psychologist and anthropologist.

It was 1978, and there had been no resident timber wolves in Wisconsin for twenty years. Still, packs were active in neighboring Minnesota, and there was the occasional rumor from Wisconsin's northwestern counties of wolf sign or sightings. Had wolves returned on their own to Wisconsin? Richard Thiel, then a college student with a passion for wolves, was determined to find out.
Thus begins "Keepers of the Wolves," Thiel's tale of his ten years at the center of efforts to track and protect the recovery of wolves in Northern Wisconsin. From his early efforts as a student enthusiast to his departure in 1989 from the post of wolf biologist for the Department of Natural Resources, Thiel conveys the wonder, frustrations, humor, and everyday hard work of field biologists, as well as the politics and public relations pitfalls that so often accompany their profession.
We share in the excitement as Thiel and his colleagues find wolf tracks in the snow, howl in the forest night and are answered back, learn to safely trap wolves to attach radio collars, and track the packs' ranges by air from a cramped Piper Cub. We follow the stories of individual wolves and their packs as pups are born and die, wolves are shot by accident and by intent, ravages of canine parvovirus and hard winters take their toll, and young adults move on to new ranges. Believing he had left his beloved wolves behind, Thiel takes a new job as an environmental educator in central Wisconsin, but soon wolves follow. By 1999, there were an estimated 200 timber wolves in 54 packs in Wisconsin.
This is a sequel to Dick Thiel's 1994 book, "The Timber Wolf in Wisconsin: The Death and Life of a Majestic Predator." That book traced the wolf's history in Wisconsin, its near extinction, and the initial efforts to reestablish it in our state. Thiel's new book looks at how successful that program has been.

Cats are fascinating creatures; they live so closely with us, but can be difficult to fathom. Yet they do give us clues as to how they are feeling and what they are thinking - it is up to us to decipher them. Who would have guessed that, just as we thought, our cats have their own personalities which need an individual approach because no two cats are the same. In Claire Bessant's new update of her original bestselling book, she explores new ideas and findings to help us to understand and appreciate our own individual cats, to figure out how they approach life and to help us to figure out how we can bond with them more closely. How to Talk to Your Cat will help all cat owners and lovers to appreciate the dynamic between our two very different species to learn how to understand our own cats. The key to success is, of course, to learn to think like a cat!

Applying new research to sex in the animal world, esteemed scientists David P. Barash and Judith Eve Lipton dispel the notion that monogamy comes naturally. In fact, as The Myth of Monogamy reveals, biologists have discovered that for nearly every species, cheating is the rule -- for both sexes.

Reviewing findings from the same DNA fingerprinting science employed in the courtroom, Barash and Lipton take readers from chickadee nests to chimpanzee packs to explain why animals cheat. (Some prostitute themselves for food or protection, while others strive to couple with genetically superior or multiple mates.) The Myth of Monogamy then illuminates the implications of these dramatic new findings for humans, in our relationships, as parents, and more.

The Myth of Monogamy at last brings scientific insight into this emotionally charged aspect of the ultimate dating and marriage quandary.

The more we learn about bees, the more extraordinary they seem. They have five eyes and beat their wings at almost 200 cycles per second. And to communicate with each other bees do make sounds but also dance. This book, packed with over 30 figures, gives a fascinating insight into the extraordinary complex and highly organised world of bees. The author, K. Weiss, explains the critical role that bees and bee-keeping play for human society, and offers advice for those interested in raising bees.

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.

This volume had it's inception in a series of eight lectures delivered at Columbia University during the spring of 1905, and represents, in a much condensed form, the results of a decade of uninterrupted study of the Formicidae, and of the works that have been written on these insects.

This handbook lays out the science behind how animals think, remember, create, calculate, and remember. It provides concise overviews on major areas of study such as animal communication and language, memory and recall, social cognition, social learning and teaching, numerical and quantitative abilities, as well as innovation and problem solving. The chapters also explore more nuanced topics in greater detail, showing how the research was conducted and how it can be used for further study. The authors range from academics working in renowned university departments to those from research institutions and practitioners in zoos. The volume encompasses a wide variety of species, ensuring the breadth of the field is explored.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER I wanted to know what they were experiencing, and why to us they feel so compelling, and so close. This time I allowed myself to ask them the question that for a scientist was forbidden fruit: Who are you? Weaving decades of field observations with exciting new discoveries about the brain, Carl Safina's landmark book offers an intimate view of animal behavior to challenge the fixed boundary between humans and animals. Travelling to the threatened landscape of Kenya to witness struggling elephant families work out how to survive poaching and drought, then on to Yellowstone National Park to observe wolves sort out the aftermath of one pack's personal tragedy, the book finally plunges into the astonishingly peaceful society of killer whales living in the crystalline waters of the Pacific Northwest. Beyond Words brings forth powerful and illuminating insight into the unique personalities of animals through extraordinary stories of animal joy, grief, jealousy, anger, and love. The similarity between human and nonhuman consciousness, self-awareness and empathy calls us to re-evaluate how we interact with animals. Wise, passionate, and eye-opening at every turn, Beyond Words is ultimately a graceful examination of humanity's place in the world.

When Charles Darwin first proposed Sexual Selection Theory, he suggested two mechanisms: competition among males and choice by females. Although their importance is long established and extremely well understood, their mirror images have remained largely underappreciated; males also choose, and females also compete. The combination of male mate choice (MMC) and female competition (FC) may be one of the most overlooked yet important and intriguing phenomena in modern sexual selection theory. This novel text reviews our current understanding of MMC and FC, highlighting the important connections between them. It places both concepts in the context of related fields such as female choice, mating systems, and sexual selection theory more broadly. A truly holistic approach is provided which takes all the relevant elements into consideration, especially the relative roles of MMC and FC, female ornamentation, their evolutionary consequences, and their genetic basis. Considering male mate choice and female competition in this way as effectively two sides of the same coin creates a powerful paradigm for a more complete understanding of sexual selection. Male Choice, Female Competition, and Female Ornaments in Sexual Selection will be suitable for both graduate students and researchers interested in sexual selection from an evolutionary, psychological, and anthropological perspective. It will also appeal to a broader audience of behavioural ecologists and evolutionary psychologists.

Does your dog know when you've had a bad day? Can your cat tell that the coffee pot you left on might start a fire? Could a chimpanzee be trained to program your computer? In this provocative book, noted animal expert Clive Wynne debunks some commonly held notions about our furry friends. It may be romantic to ascribe human qualities to critters, he argues, but it's not very realistic. While animals are by no means dumb, they don't think the same way we do. Contrary to what many popular television shows would have us believe, animals have neither the "theory-of-mind" capabilities that humans have (that is, they are not conscious of what others are thinking) nor the capacity for higher-level reasoning. So, in Wynne's view, when Fido greets your arrival by nudging your leg, he's more apt to be asking for dinner than commiserating with your job stress.

That's not to say that animals don't possess remarkable abilities--and "Do Animals Think?" explores countless examples: there's the honeybee, which not only remembers where it found food but communicates this information to its hivemates through an elaborate dance. And how about the sonar-guided bat, which locates flying insects in the dark of night and devours lunch on the wing?

Engagingly written, "Do Animals Think?" takes aim at the work of such renowned animal rights advocates as Peter Singer and Jane Goodall for falsely humanizing animals. Far from impoverishing our view of the animal kingdom, however, it underscores how the world is richer for having such a diversity of minds--be they of the animal or human variety.

Today's therapy dog handlers recognize the need to be teammates with their dogs, not just supervisors. Teaming with one's dog involves unobtrusively providing physical and emotional support as well as respectful guidance in what to do. Being a teammate requires attention to the handler's behavior, not just the dog's. This book reminds all handlers that being conscious of what they do with their dogs increases the effectiveness of therapy visits as well as providing a more rewarding experience for all involved.Written by a nationally famous practitioner with decades of real-world experience, the book introduces the "STEPs of Teamwork" and how those STEPs fit with a Therapy Dog's Bill of Rights. These general principles free handlers to apply them in their own way to their therapy dog's individual personality and work. As the author writes, "The book explores a way of being conscious of what you do with and to your therapy dog to support him in his work. It describes functional principles of behavior you can learn and use immediately, either together as a package or independently." Using an exciting new methodology, the author guides readers to deepen their relationship with their dogs by acting consciously and respectfully.

Why do baby sharks, hyenas, and pelicans kill their siblings? Why do beetles and mice commit infanticide? Why are twins and birth defects more common in older human mothers? "A Natural History of Families" concisely examines what behavioral ecologists have discovered about family dynamics and what these insights might tell us about human biology and behavior. Scott Forbes's engaging account describes an uneasy union among family members in which rivalry for resources often has dramatic and even fatal consequences.

In nature, parents invest resources and control the allocation of resources among their offspring to perpetuate their genetic lineage. Those families sometimes function as cooperative units, the nepotistic and loving havens we choose to identify with. In the natural world, however, dysfunctional familial behavior is disarmingly commonplace.

While explaining why infanticide, fratricide, and other seemingly antisocial behaviors are necessary, Forbes also uncovers several surprising applications to humans. Here the conflict begins in the moments following conception as embryos struggle to wrest control of pregnancy from the mother, and to wring more nourishment from her than she can spare, thus triggering morning sickness, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Mothers, in return, often spontaneously abort embryos with severe genetic defects, allowing for prenatal quality control of offspring.

Using a broad sweep of entertaining examples culled from the world of animals and humans, "A Natural History of Families" is a lively introduction to the behavioral ecology of the family.

A short introduction to animal behaviour, investigating a whole host of species from around the globe. Drawing together evolutionary theory, ecology, population biology, genetics, and physiology and anatomy, it explains the mechanisms and motivations behind a range of animal movements.

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.