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Contents:
1 - Essential animal behaviour: an introduction; 2 - Controlling behaviour: the role of the nervous system; 3 - The motivation and organisation of behaviour; 4 - The development of behaviour; 5 - Communication; 6 - Foraging behaviour: finding, choosing and processing food; 7 - Avoiding predation: staying alive against the odds; 8 - Reproductive behaviour: passing on your genes.
Review:
Animal behaviour can be used in a range of disciplines. Although the most obvious are in conservation (think of animal behaviour in zoos) and in the complete description of populations (e.g. gorillas) it's now clear that the subject has spread far from this into areas such as evolution. The aim of this text is to provide an introduction to the key areas of this subject.
The opening chapter poses the question of what constitutes behaviour. The author then goes on to describe a range of activities asking which, if any, could be seen as behaviour. It soon becomes clear that this covers a multitude of responses to stimuli and therefore the study of behaviour spreads out to be important to a range of disciplines. The first stage is to consider the basis of behaviour. Chapter two outlines the working of the nervous system and how this links in with behavioural elements. Some behaviours are reflex actions but others are mediated through other actions. Chapter three explores one of these in terms of motivation and organisation. Further, behaviour is not just a question of action it can require training i.e. it develops through time - the subject of chapter four. Chapter five shows what happens when behaviour is shared - it needs communication: quite a controversial area because there is much we cannot test for certain. On more certain ground is the topic in chapter six which deals with obtaining food. Foraging behaviour is crucial for survival and its development, organisation and communication is complex. If finding food is one part of behaviour, avoiding becoming a meal is another. Chapter seven reviews the various behavioural strategies employed to reduce the likelihood. The final chapter looks at reproductive behaviour - the behaviour needed to pass genes on to the next generation.
There is much to like in this text. It is very well structured and clearly written. There are numerous colour images and other devises to brighten and separate the chapters. A range of boxes are used in each chapter to highlight key concepts, specific areas to focus upon, points and case studies. Each chapter starts with a box for contents (actually key words used in the text) and finishes with boxes for questions and summaries. References are spread throughout the text as needed making it easy to follow up on any point. Overall, this is an excellently produced text whose clarity and scope should make it required reading on introductory courses.