An Introduction to Animal Behaviour

Aubrey Manning, Marian Stamp Dawkins

Cambridge University Press, May 15, 1998 - Psychology - 450 pages

Using its powerful beak, a lorikeet gently preens its mate's feathers; young cheetahs rest together in the shade; fireflies semaphore to each other across a darkened landscape and a mongoose deftly bites its prey to death. The study of animal behavior is about all these things and more. It involves absolute stillness and violent activity, all the noises and smells and changes of color and shape that characterize animal life. Taking the organization of behavior within the individual animal as its core, this clear, concise and readable foray into the fascinating world of animal behavior investigates Tinbergen's questions of causation, evolution, development and function. It provides lucid accounts of all levels of behavior from the nerve cell to that of the population. The broad biological approach of this new, rewritten edition makes it an excellent choice for all students of animal behavior and psychology and their teachers.

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• Questions about animal behaviour: 5
• The escaping cockroach: 7
• The courtship of the sage grouse: 12
• Units of the nervous system: 19
• Reflexes and more complex behaviour: 23
• Diversity and unity in the study of behaviour: 33
• The development of behaviour: 35
• Instinct: 41
• Genetics and behaviour: 52
• Development and changes to the nervous system: 62
• Hormones and early development: 68
• Early experience and the diversity of parental behaviour: 75
• Play: 84
• Imprinting: 88
• Bird song development: 103
• Cultural transmission as a form of behavioural development: 113
• Stimuli and communication: 120
• What stimuli are and how they act: 122
• Diverse sensory capacities: 129
• The problem of pattern recognition: 135
• Communication: 154
• The evolution of animal signals: 160
• Mimicry deception and honesty: 176
• The honeybee dance: 179
• The calls of vervet monkeys: 188
• Motivation and decisionmaking: 193
• Decisionmaking on different time scales: 196
• Mechanisms of decisionmaking: 205
• Behavioural analysis of sequences: 209
• Physiological explanations of sequences: 224
• Measuring motivation: 235
• Prolonged conflict and stress: 239
• Stress and animal welfare: 246
• Conclusions: 254
• Learning and memory: 256
• Sensitization and habituation: 258
• Associative learning: 262
• Specialized types of learning ability: 274
• What do animals actually learn?: 279
• Are there higher forms of learning in animals?: 281
• The comparative study of learning: 286
• Can animals think and reflect on their actions?: 293
• The nature of memory: 302
• Evolution: 318
• Genes and behavioural evolution: 325
• Optimality and behaviour: 332
• Evolutionarily stable strategies: 335
• Kin selection and inclusive fitness: 338
• Conflict and infanticide: 348
• Cooperation between nonrelatives: 352
• Sex and sexual selection: 355
• The phylogeny of behaviour: 366
• Social organization: 371
• Advantages of grouping: 372
• Social organization: 380
• Social dominance: 395
• Primate social organization: 401
• References: 419
• Index: 439

Bibliographic information

• Title: An Introduction to Animal Behaviour
• Authors: Aubrey Manning, Marian Stamp Dawkins
• Edition: illustrated, revised
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1998
• ISBN: 0521578914, 9780521578912
• Length: 450 pages
• Subjects: Psychology / Cognitive Psychology & Cognition; Psychology / Reference; Science / Life Sciences / Zoology / Ethology (Animal Behavior); Science / Life Sciences / Zoology / General