Animal Behaviour: Evolution and Mechanisms

✍ Scribed by H. Martin Schaefer (auth.), Peter Kappeler (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 712
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The study of animal behaviour is one of the fastest growing sub-disciplines in biology. The resulting diversity of conceptual approaches and methodological innovations makes it increasingly difficult for professionals and students to keep abreast of important new developments. This edited volume provides up-to-date reviews that facilitate orientation in key areas of animal behaviour, including communication, cognition, conflict, cooperation, sexual selection and behavioural variation. The contributions address evolutionary and proximate aspects of behaviour and also cover both invertebrates and vertebrates. Important concepts are dealt with in separate glossaries and key examples highlighted in separate text boxes. Richly illustrated with colour figures, this volume offers a well structured overview of all the main developments in current animal behaviour research. It is ideal for teaching upper-level courses, where it will be essential reading for advanced students familiar with basic concepts and ideas.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages I-XXI
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Visual communication: evolution, ecology, and functional mechanisms....Pages 3-28
Vocal communication in social groups....Pages 29-54
Kin recognition: an overview of conceptual issues, mechanisms and evolutionary theory....Pages 55-85
Honeybee cognition....Pages 87-120
Individual performance in complex social systems: the greylag goose example....Pages 121-148
Front Matter....Pages 149-149
Conflict and conflict resolution in social insects....Pages 151-178
Social insects, major evolutionary transitions and multilevel selection....Pages 179-211
Cooperation between unrelated individuals – a game theoretic approach....Pages 213-240
Group decision-making in animal societies....Pages 241-265
Parental care: adjustments to conflict and cooperation....Pages 267-298
Front Matter....Pages 299-299
The quantitative study of sexual and natural selection in the wild and in the laboratory....Pages 301-327
Mate choice and reproductive conflict in simultaneous hermaphrodites....Pages 329-357
Extra-pair behaviour....Pages 359-411
Extreme polyandry in social Hymenoptera: evolutionary causes and consequences for colony organisation....Pages 413-439
Monogynous mating strategies in spiders....Pages 441-464
Mating systems, social behaviour and hormones....Pages 465-501
Front Matter....Pages 503-503
The social modulation of behavioural development....Pages 505-536
Alternative reproductive tactics and life history phenotypes....Pages 537-586
Animal personality and behavioural syndromes....Pages 587-621
Social learning and culture in animals....Pages 623-653
Front Matter....Pages 503-503
Levels and mechanisms of behavioural variability....Pages 655-684
Back Matter....Pages 685-707

✦ Subjects

Behavioural Sciences; Evolutionary Biology; Animal Ecology; Neurobiology