A thorough and current introduction to evolutionary biology reinforced by tools that improve learning. Every chapter has been updated to provide a more focused, accessible introduction to core topics reflecting exciting new research, anthropogenic evolution examples, and increased emphasis on building data literacy. These emphases are reinforced by InQuizitive, which was revised and expanded to include more questions that involve interpreting evolutionary data and engaging with contemporary research.

From the shell wars of hermit crabs to little blue penguins spying on potential rivals, power struggles in the animal kingdom are as diverse as they are fascinating, and this book illuminates their surprising range and connections. The quest for power in animals is so much richer, so much more nuanced than who wins what knock-down, drag-out fight. Indeed, power struggles among animals often look more like an opera than a boxing match. Tracing the path to power for over thirty different species on six continents, writer and behavioral ecologist Lee Alan Dugatkin takes us on a journey around the globe, shepherded by leading researchers who have discovered that in everything from hyenas to dolphins, bonobos to field mice, cichlid fish to cuttlefish, copperhead snakes to ravens, and meerkats to mongooses, power revolves around spying, deception, manipulation, forming alliances, breaking up alliances, complex assessments of potential opponents, building social networks, and more. Power pervades every aspect of the social life of animals: what they eat, where they eat, where they live, who they mate with, how many offspring they produce, who they join forces with, and who they work to depose. In some species, power can even change an animal's sex. Nor are humans invulnerable to this magnificently intricate melodrama: Dugatkin's tales of the researchers studying power in animals are full of unexpected pitfalls, twists and turns, serendipity, and the pure joy of scientific discovery.

Tucked away in Siberia, there are furry, four-legged creatures with wagging tails and floppy ears that are as docile and friendly as any lapdog. But, despite appearances, these are not dogs—they are foxes. They are the result of the most astonishing experiment in breeding ever undertaken—imagine speeding up thousands of years of evolution into a few decades. In 1959, biologists Dmitri Belyaev and Lyudmila Trut set out to do just that, by starting with a few dozen silver foxes from fox farms in the USSR and attempting to recreate the evolution of wolves into dogs in real time in order to witness the process of domestication. This is the extraordinary, untold story of this remarkable undertaking. Most accounts of the natural evolution of wolves place it over a span of about 15,000 years, but within a decade, Belyaev and Trut’s fox breeding experiments had resulted in puppy-like foxes with floppy ears, piebald spots, and curly tails. Along with these physical changes came genetic and behavioral changes, as well. The foxes were bred using selection criteria for tameness, and with each generation, they became increasingly interested in human companionship. Trut has been there the whole time, and has been the lead scientist on this work since Belyaev’s death in 1985, and with Lee Dugatkin, biologist and science writer, she tells the story of the adventure, science, politics, and love behind it all. In How to Tame a Fox, Dugatkin and Trut take us inside this path-breaking experiment in the midst of the brutal winters of Siberia to reveal how scientific history is made and continues to be made today. To date, fifty-six generations of foxes have been domesticated, and we continue to learn significant lessons from them about the genetic and behavioral evolution of domesticated animals. How to Tame a Fox offers an incredible tale of scientists at work, while also celebrating the deep attachments that have brought humans and animals together throughout time.

Since the last edition of this definitive textbook was published in 2013, much has happened in the field of animal behavior. In this fourth edition, Lee Alan Dugatkin draws on cutting-edge, new work not only to update and expand on the studies presented, but also to reinforce the previous editions' focus on ultimate and proximate causation, as well as the book's unique emphasis on natural selection, learning, and cultural transmission. The result is a state-of-the art textbook on animal behavior that explains underlying concepts in a way that is both scientifically rigorous and accessible to students. Each chapter in the book provides a sound theoretical and conceptual basis upon which the empirical studies rest. A completely new feature in this edition are the Cognitive Connection boxes in Chapters 2-17, designed to dig deep into the importance of the cognitive underpinnings to many types of behaviors. Each box focuses on a specific issue related to cognition and the particular topic covered in that chapter. As Principles of Animal Behavior makes clear, the tapestry of animal behavior is created from weaving all of these components into a beautiful whole. With Dugatkin's exquisitely illustrated, comprehensive, and up-to-date fourth edition, we are able to admire that beauty anew.

In the years after the Revolutionary War, the fledgling republic of America was viewed by many Europeans as a degenerate backwater, populated by subspecies weak and feeble. Chief among these naysayers was the French Count and world-renowned naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, who wrote that the flora and fauna of America (humans included) were inferior to European specimens. Thomas Jefferson--author of the Declaration of Independence, U.S. president, and ardent naturalist--spent years countering the French conception of American degeneracy. His Notes on Virginia systematically and scientifically dismantled Buffon's case through a series of tables and equally compelling writing on the nature of his home state. But the book did little to counter the arrogance of the French and hardly satisfied Jefferson's quest to demonstrate that his young nation was every bit the equal of a well-established Europe. Enter the giant moose. The American moose, which Jefferson claimed was so enormous a European reindeer could walk under it, became the cornerstone of his defense. Convinced that the sight of such a magnificent beast would cause Buffon to revise his claims, Jefferson had the remains of a seven-foot ungulate shipped first class from New Hampshire to Paris. Unfortunately, Buffon died before he could make any revisions to his Histoire Naturelle, but the legend of the moose makes for a fascinating tale about Jefferson's passion to prove that American nature deserved prestige. In Mr. Jefferson and the Giant Moose, Lee Alan Dugatkin vividly recreates the origin and evolution of the debates about natural history in America and, in so doing, returns the prize moose to its rightful place in American history.

In a world supposedly governed by ruthless survival of the fittest, why do we see acts of goodness in both animals and humans? This problem plagued Charles Darwin in the 1850s as he developed his theory of evolution through natural selection. Indeed, Darwin worried that the goodness he observed in nature could be the Achilles heel of his theory. Ever since then, scientists and other thinkers have engaged in a fierce debate about the origins of goodness that has dragged politics, philosophy, and religion into what remains a major question for evolutionary biology. The Altruism Equation traces the history of this debate from Darwin to the present through an extraordinary cast of characters-from the Russian prince Petr Kropotkin, who wanted to base society on altruism, to the brilliant biologist George Price, who fell into poverty and succumbed to suicide as he obsessed over the problem. In a final surprising turn, William Hamilton, the scientist who came up with the equation that reduced altruism to the cold language of natural selection, desperately hoped that his theory did not apply to humans. Hamilton's Rule, which states that relatives are worth helping in direct proportion to their blood relatedness, is as fundamental to evolutionary biology as Newton's laws of motion are to physics. But even today, decades after its formulation, Hamilton's Rule is still hotly debated among those who cannot accept that goodness can be explained by a simple mathematical formula. For the first time, Lee Alan Dugatkin brings to life the people, the issues, and the passions that have surrounded the altruism debate. Readers will be swept along by this fast-paced tale of history, biography, and scientific discovery.

An einem Ort im abgelegenen Sibirien findet man vierbeinige Fellwesen, die mit dem Schwanz wedeln, Schlappohren haben und so gelehrig und freundlich sind wie Schosshunde. Doch es sind keine Hunde - es sind Fuchse. Sie sind das Ergebnis eines der erstaunlichsten Zuchtungsexperimente, die je unternommen wurden - stellen Sie sich einmal vor, die Evolution mehrerer Jahrtausende sei auf einen Zeitraum weniger Jahrzehnte beschleunigt. Im Jahre 1959 nahmen sich die Biologen Dmitri Beljajew und Ludmila Trut genau dies vor, indem sie mit ein paar Dutzend Silberfuchsen von Pelzfarmen in der damaligen UdSSR begannen und mit ihnen die Entwicklung vom Wolf zum Hund in Echtzeit nachzuvollziehen versuchten, um so den Prozess der Domestikation direkt zu beobachten. Das vorliegende Buch erzahlt die bisher weitgehend unbekannte Geschichte dieses bemerkenswerten Unterfangens. Die meisten Berichte uber die naturliche Evolution des Wolfes legen dem Domestikationsprozess eine Zeitspanne von 15.000 Jahren zugrunde, aber aus Beljajews und Truts Zuchtungsexperimenten gingen schon innerhalb eines Jahrzehnts welpenahnliche Fuchse mit Schlappohren, gesprenkelten Fellen und gebogenen Schwanze hervor. Begleitet wurden diese physischen Veranderungen von genetischen und Verhaltens-Modifikationen. Fur die Zuchtung der Fuchse war Zahmheit das entscheidende Selektionskriterium, und mit jeder Generation zeigten die Tiere ein zunehmend groesseres Interesse an der Gemeinschaft mit Menschen. Trut ist seit Anfang an bei diesen Experimenten dabei, und nach Beljajews Tod im Jahre 1985 ubernahm sie die Leitung. Zusammen mit dem Biologen und Wissenschaftsautor Lee Dugatkin erzahlt sie hier nun die Geschichte dieses Abenteuers und der Wissenschaft, Politik und Liebe dahinter. In Fuchse zahmen nehmen uns Dugatkin und Trut mit auf die Innenseite dieses bahnbrechenden Experiments inmitten der brutalen sibirischen Winter und legen offen, wie Wissenschaftsgeschichte gemacht wird - bis heute. Inzwischen sind 58 Generationen von Fuchsen domestiziert, und immer noch lernen wir von ihnen bedeutsame Dinge uber die genetische und verhaltensbiologische Evolution domestizierter Tiere. Fuchse zahmen bietet eine oft unglaubliche Geschichte von Wissenschaftlern bei der Arbeit und ist zugleich eine Hommage an die tiefen Bande, die Tiere und Menschen uber alle Zeiten hinweg entwickelt haben. Stimmen zur amerikanischen Originalausgabe Vor uber 60 Jahren entschlossen sich die russischen Forscher [Ludmila] Trut und Dmitri Beljajew, wilde Fuchse zu domestizieren, um im Detail herauszufinden, wie die Reise vom Wildtier zum Haustier ablauft. Sie setzten ihr Experiment in einer Pelzfarm in Sibirien auf und wahlten uber die folgenden Jahrzehnte stets die zahmsten Tiere jeder Generation fur die weitere Fortpflanzung aus. In diesem Buch zeichnen der Biologe und Wissenschaftsautor Dugatkin und Trut die Geschichte dieses grossartigen Experiments nach. Das Ergebnis sind eine Schar gelehriger Fuchse und die Entschlusselung der genetischen Grundlagen ihrer Domestikation. Scientific American Schillernd ... Eine Geschichte, die teils Wissenschaft, teils russisches Marchen, teils Spionagethriller ist ... Die Ergebnisse sind selbst unter Wissenschaftlern, geschweige denn in der OEffentlichkeit, viel weniger bekannt, als sie es verdient haben. New York Times Dugatkin ist ein sehr erfahrener Wissenschaftsautor mit der besonderen Gabe, vielfach verzweigte Themen in kompakte, unterhaltsame Geschichten zu verwandeln. Frau Trut, inzwischen in ihren Achtzigern, ist gleichermassen Coautorin und Gegenstand des Buches ... ihre intensive Mitwirkung verleiht diesem Wissenschaftsbericht eine seltene Form der Intimitat. Wall Street Journal Ein zauberhafter Bericht ... Nach etwa 20 Generationen wurden die gezahmten Fuchse immer mehr wie Hunde: loyal und unschlagbar niedlich. New Scientist Voller Zuneigung erzahlen uns Trut und Dugatkin von den Meilensteinen des Experiments, von dem ersten neugeborenen Fuchs, der mit dem Schwanz wedelte, und von dem ersten mit Schlappohren ... Bei jedem Schritt verweben die Autoren in geschickter Weise die Wissenschaft der Domestikation mit den Erzahlungen von den immer hundeahnlicher werdenden Fuchsen. Science News Im Lauf einiger Jahrzehnte haben russische Forscher wilde Fuchse in freundliche Haustiere verwandelt. Sie nutzten dafur nicht etwa modernste gentechnische Methoden. Sie steuerten einfach die Evolution. Dieses bahnbrechende Experiment lehrt uns einige fundamentale Dinge uber Domestikation, Verhalten und uns selbst. Jetzt hat endlich jemand den Bericht von diesem Experiment in ein Buch gepackt - und ein faszinierendes Buch zumal. Carl Zimmer, Autor von Woher kommen wir? Ein hervorragendes Buch. Es ist verstandlich geschrieben und ein faszinierendes Stuck Popularwissenschaft. Dieses Buch wird ein breites Publikum anziehen, und ich kenne kein anderes mit einer solch dramatischen Kombination von guter Wissenschaft und Gesellschaftsgeschichte. Aubrey Manning, Autor von An Introduction to Animal Behaviour Weitere Stimmen: The science is profound, but the authors write accessibly and engagingly-and their vulpine subjects are awfully cute, too. Of compelling interest to any animal lover and especially to devotees of canids of all kinds. Kirkus Reviews A cheerful, easy-to-read account that expounds upon the wonders of scientific achievement. . . . The authors weave other charming histories of other scientific studies and events throughout the book, including the discovery of hormones, pedigree analysis, animal communication, human evolution, and Belyaev's travels in international scientific circles. Writing a simple, straightforward narrative suitable for lay readers, Dugatkin and Trut spin complex genetic science into a fascinating story about adorable foxes. Publishers Weekly This intriguing, well-written account of an ongoing experiment in canid domestication should delight readers interested in the origins of the human-animal bond. Library Journal It's a story of science. . . .But it's also very much a human story. . . . It's a story of persistence against all odds. The Hoopoe, NHBS In the first book on the famous 'Siberian fox study,' this extraordinary chronicle recounts one of the world's most important animal studies. It has not only provided stunning insights into how domestication works and how fast it can happen. It also helps us understand the origins of our deepest non-human bonds-our friendships with our dogs-and where and how they came into being. Carl Safina, Autor von Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel Dugatkin and Trut have collaborated to produce a well-written and engaging account of one the most influential biological studies ever: the fox farm experiment. Over sixty years ago, a Russian geneticist dared to start an experiment to see if foxes could be domesticated and what variables contributed to the changes domestication brought. The courage involved in starting such an experiment in the USSR of the 1950s was remarkable; the dedication and curiosity that have kept it going ever since have led to stunning new insights on the mechanisms of domestication. Every biologist should read this book! Pat Shipman, Autor von The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction

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."

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 outlines four different categories of co-operation -- reciprocal altruism, kinship, group-selected co-operation, and by-product mutualism -- and ties them together in a single framework called the Co-operator's Dilemma. Hundreds of studies on cooperation in insects, fish, birds, and mammals are then reviewed, each example being tied back to the theoretical framework developed early on when the data allows. Future experiments designed to further elucidate a particular type of co-operation are provided throughout the book.