Animal Behaviour
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How animals behave is crucial to their survival and reproduction. The application of new molecular tools such as DNA fingerprinting and genomics is causing a revolution in the study of animal behaviour, while developments in computing and image analysis allow us to investigate behaviour in ways never previously possible. By combining these with the traditional methods of observation and experiments, we are now learning more about animal behaviour than ever before.
In this Very Short Introduction Tristram D. Wyatt discusses how animal behaviour has evolved, how behaviours develop in each individual (considering the interplay of genes, epigenetics, and experience), how we can understand animal societies, and how we can explain collective behaviour such as swirling flocks of starlings. Using lab and field studies from across the whole animal kingdom, he looks at mammals, butterflies, honeybees, fish, and birds, analysing what drives behaviour, and exploring instinct, learning, and culture. Looking more widely at behavioural ecology, he also considers some aspects of human behaviour.
ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Tristram D. Wyatt is a member of the Animal Behaviour Research Group of the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford and an emeritus fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford. He did his PhD in animal behaviour at the University of Cambridge. Before coming to Oxford's Department for Continuing Education as a lecturer (Associate Professor) in 1989, he was a lecturer at the University of Leeds and held research fellowships at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Wales, Cardiff. He is interested in how animals of all kinds use pheromones to communicate by smell. The second edition of his book Pheromones and Animal Behavior (CUP, 2014) won the Royal Society of Biology's prize for the Best Postgraduate Textbook in 2014. His TED talk on human pheromones has been viewed over a million times.