Quantifying Behavior the JWatcher Way provides detailed instructions for the freely distributed computer program JWatcher. This Macintosh/Windows application can be used to address any theoretical problem that requires a complex sequence of actions to be scored by a human observer. More than simply a computer manual, this text provides laboratory exercises and strategic advice to help both students and professionals learn how to quantify and analyse behaviour.

This Primer nurtures the development of biologists interested in using animal behaviour concepts and tools to solve conservation and wildlife management problems. This is the first practical guide fostering integration and showing how to apply these methodologies to issues that would benefit from an animal behaviour perspective.

Animals lead rich social lives. They care for one another, compete for resources, and mate. Within a society, social relationships may be simple or complex and usually vary considerably, both between different groups of individuals and over time. These social systems are fundamental to biological organization, and animal societies are central to studies of behavioral and evolutionary biology. But how do we study animal societies? How do we take observations of animals fighting, grooming, or forming groups and produce a realistic description or model of their societies? Analyzing AnimalSocieties presents a conceptual framework for analyzing social behavior and demonstrates how to put this framework into practice by collecting suitable data on the interactions and associations of individuals so that relationships can be described, and, from these, models can be derived. In addition to presenting the tools, Hal Whitehead illustrates their applicability using a wide range of real data on a variety of animal species—from bats and chimps to dolphins and birds. The techniques that Whitehead describes will be profitably adopted by scientists working with primates, cetaceans, birds, and ungulates, but the tools can be used to study societies of invertebrates, amphibians, and even humans. Analyzing AnimalSocieties will become a standard reference for those studying vertebrate social behavior and will give to these studies the kind of quality standard already in use in other areas of the life sciences.

When a predator attacks, prey are faced with a series of 'if', 'when' and 'how' escape decisions – these critical questions are the foci of this book. Cooper and Blumstein bring together a balance of theory and empirical research to summarise over fifty years of scattered research and benchmark current thinking in the rapidly expanding literature on the behavioural ecology of escaping. The book consolidates current and new behaviour models with taxonomically divided empirical chapters that demonstrate the application of escape theory to different groups. The chapters integrate behaviour with physiology, genetics and evolution to lead the reader through the complex decisions faced by prey during a predator attack, examining how these decisions interact with life history and individual variation. The chapter on best practice field methodology and the ideas for future research presented throughout, ensure this volume is practical as well as informative.

The Dusky Dolphin: Master Acrobat Off Different Shores covers various topics about the dusky dolphin, including its taxonomy, history and demography, ecology, and behavior. After introducing the dusky dolphin as a member of the genus Lagenorhynchus under the family Delphinidae, the book continues by describing its life history, its demographic patterns, and its role in the food web considering predation, parasitism, and competition. The book also includes chapters that discuss the interaction of the dusky dolphin with its habitats, such as the dusky dolphin's sound production, its foraging at night and in daylight, its survival strategies in response to predator threats, the mating habits of New Zealand duskies, calf rearing, sexual segregation, and genetic relationships. Other chapters address the interaction of dusky dolphins with humans. This book offers information about dusky dolphins off Southern Africa and discussions about the patterns of sympatry in Lagenorhynchus and Cephalorhynchus. Finally, comparisons between dusky dolphins and great apes as large-brained mammals are also reviewed in this book. - Only book fully devoted to the southern hemisphere "dusky" dolphin - Heavily illustrated with charts, figures, tables, and all color photos - Written by a cadre of experts intimately familiar with dolphin field work - Written in an accurate yet accessible style for the scientist and natural historian alike

This book offers representative examples from fly and mouse models to illustrate the ongoing success of the synergistic, state-of-the-art strategy, focusing on the ways it enhances our understanding of sensory processing. The authors focus on sensory systems (vision, olfaction), which are particularly powerful models for probing the development, connectivity, and function of neural circuits, to answer this question: How do individual nerve cells functionally cooperate to guide behavioral responses? Two genetically tractable species, mice and flies, together significantly further our understanding of these processes. Current efforts focus on integrating knowledge gained from three interrelated fields of research: (1) understanding how the fates of different cell types are specified during development, (2) revealing the synaptic connections between identified cell types (“connectomics”) using high-resolution three-dimensional circuit anatomy, and (3) causal testing of how iden tified circuit elements contribute to visual perception and behavior.

This eBook is a collection of articles from a Frontiers Research Topic. Frontiers Research Topics are very popular trademarks of the Frontiers Journals Series: they are collections of at least ten articles, all centered on a particular subject. With their unique mix of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Frontiers Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author by contacting the Frontiers Editorial Office: frontiersin.org/about/contact.

There has been a dramatic increase in theoretical and practical studies on insect natural enemies over the last decades. The appeal of insect predators and, in particular, parasitoids, as research animals derives from the relative ease with which many species may be cultured and experimented on in the laboratory, the simple life-cycles of most parasitoid species, and the increasing demand for biological pest control as a key component of the integrated pest management approach. There is now a very substantial literature on insect natural enemies and thus a great need for a general text that enquiring students or research workers can use in deciding on approaches and techniques that are appropriate to the study and evaluation of such insects. This book fulfils that demand. It is a considerably updated and expanded version of a previous best-seller and provides an account of major aspects of the biology of predators and parasitoids, punctuated with information and advice on which experiments or observations to conduct and, importantly, how to carry them out. Guidance is provided, where necessary, on the most recent further literature that may need to be consulted on given topics. While researchers can now refer to several books on parasitoids and predators, Jervis’s Insects as Natural Enemies is unique in emphasising practicalities. It is aimed at students and professionals working in universities and both government and commercial institutes in the fields of integrated pest management, agriculture, horticulture and forestry, as well as those interested in fundamentals of behavioural, population, community and evolutionary ecology.

This book provides updated information on this intriguing and exciting group of insects: Neotropical Social Wasps. These insects have a particular biology and their colonies are formed by a few cooperative females living in either small or massive, structured nests where stinging individuals organize their activities and defend their offspring. Topics include evolutionary aspects, biogeography, post-embryonic development, community behavior and ecology, economic importance, and research methods.