Animal Behaviour: A Very Short Introduction

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 behavior, while developments in computing and image analysis allow us to investigate behavior in ways never previously possible. By combining these with the traditional methods of observation and experiments, we are now learning more about animal behavior than ever before.

In this Very Short Introduction Tristram D. Wyatt discusses how animal behavior has evolved, how behaviors develop in each individual (considering the interplay of genes, epigenetics, and experience), how we can understand animal societies, and how we can explain collective behavior such as swirling flocks of starlings. Using lab and field studies from across the animal kingdom, he analyzes what drives behavior, and explores instinct, learning, and culture. Looking more widely at behavioral ecology, he also considers some aspects of human behavior.

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Tristram D. Wyatt, Senior Research Associate, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford

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.

1. How animals behave (and why)
2. Sensing and responding
3. How behaviour develops
4. Learning and animal culture
5. Signals for survival
6. Winning strategies
7. The wisdom of crowds
8. Applying behaviour
References
Further Reading
Index