Animal Behavior uses Tinbergen’s four questions–causation, survival value, ontogeny and evolution–to formulate animal behavior and impart logic to the field of scientific inquiry.
Comprised of fifteen chapters, the book opens with a discussion of the physiological aspects of behavior and the intricacies of social behavior as they relate to individual animals’ behavior. After an introduction to evolution and animal behavior, the book discusses the physiological and genetic basis of behavior. It addresses behavioral homeostasis and different aspects of animal behavior, learning, and cognition. The book also connects animal behavior to neural processes, and it discusses the underlying mechanisms of communication. It also offers chapters about behavior ecology in relation to animal behavior, such as movement, foraging, self-defense, mating systems, nesting, parenting and territoriality, and social behavior. The book concludes with a chapter on conservation behavior.
In presenting these topics, the book offers an accessible means of studying animal behavior, major principles, mechanisms, and controversies.
