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This textbook helped to define the field of Behavioural Ecology. In this fourth edition the text has been completely revised, with new chapters and many new illustrations and full colour photographs. The theme, once again, is the influence of natural selection on behaviour - an animal's struggle to survive and reproduce by exploiting and competing for resources, avoiding predators, selecting mates and caring for offspring, - and how animal societies reflect both cooperation and conflict among individuals.
Stuart A. West has joined as a co-author bringing his own perspectives and work on microbial systems into the book.
Written in the same engaging and lucid style as the previous editions, the authors explain the latest theoretical ideas using examples from micro-organisms, invertebrates and vertebrates. There are boxed sections for some topics and marginal notes help guide the reader. The book is essential reading for students of behavioural ecology, animal behaviour and evolutionary biology.
Key Features:
Long-awaited new edition of a field-defining textbook
New chapters, illustrations and colour photographs
New co-author
Focuses on the influence of natural selection on behavior, and how animal societies reflect both cooperation and conflict among individuals
Visit www.wiley.com/go/davies/behaviouralecology to access the artwork from the book.
"The long-awaited update to a classic in this field is now here, presenting new direc tions in thinking and addressing burning questions. Richly informed by progress in many other disciplines, such as sensory physiology, genetics and evolutionary theory, it marks the emergence of behav ioural ecology as a fully fledged discipline..... This is a marvellous book, written in a lucid style. A must-read for those in the field, it is also a cornucopia of new thinking for anyone interested in evolution and behaviour."
Manfred Milinski, Nature, 2012
List of contents
Chapter 1. Natural Selection, Ecology and Behaviour.
Chapter 2. Testing Hypotheses in Behavioural Ecology.
Chapter 3. Economic Decisions and the Individual.
Chapter 4. Predators versus Prey:Evolutionary Arms Races.
Chapter 5. Competing for Resources.
Chapter 6. Living in Groups.
Chapter 7. Sexual Selection, Sperm Competition and Sexual Conflict.
Chapter 8. Parental Care and Family Conflicts.
Chapter 9. Mating Systems.
Chapter 10. Sex allocation.
Chapter 11. Social behaviours: altruism to spite.
Chapter 12. Cooperation.
Chapter 13. Altruism and Conflict in the Social Insects.
Chapter 14. Communication and Signals.
Chapter 15. Conclusion.
References.
Index.
