In revising this book I have tried to bring the theory of environment up to date in the light of certain important criticisms that have appeared since 1961, especially in papers by T. O. Browning and D. A. Maelzer, and in the light of experience gained while using the book as a text for an undergraduate course in population ecology in the University of Adelaide. As a consequence the order in which the argument is pre sented has been altered. Some new material has been introduced to expand the discussion of certain topics, especially resources, pathogens, aggressors and territorial behaviour. But the general approach to the subject and the general theory remains very much the same as in the first edition. I am grateful to Professor F. Fenner and Dr F. N. Ratcliffe and to Cambridge University Press for permission to reproduce Fig. 5.04; to Professor D. O. Chitty and the Ecological Society of Australia for permission to reproduce Fig. 5.05 (with minor modifications); Fig. 3.03 has been modified from a figure in a paper by H. G. Andrewartha and T. O. Browning first published in the Journal of Experimental Biology. Adelaide, 1970 H. G. A. xi Preface to the First Edition My interest in animal ecology was first aroused by reading Elton's Animal Ecology. His definition of the scope of ecology which I quote in section 1.0 is still the best that I have met.

Population ecology has matured to a sophisticated science with astonishing potential for contributing solutions to wildlife conservation and management challenges. And yet, much of the applied power of wildlife population ecology remains untapped because its broad sweep across disparate subfields has been isolated in specialized texts. In this book, L. Scott Mills covers the full spectrum of applied wildlife population ecology, including genomic tools for non-invasive genetic sampling, predation, population projections, climate change and invasive species, harvest modeling, viability analysis, focal species concepts, and analyses of connectivity in fragmented landscapes. With a readable style, analytical rigor, and hundreds of examples drawn from around the world, Conservation of Wildlife Populations (2nd ed) provides the conceptual basis for applying population ecology to wildlife conservation decision-making. Although targeting primarily undergraduates and beginning graduate students with some basic training in basic ecology and statistics (in majors that could include wildlife biology, conservation biology, ecology, environmental studies, and biology), the book will also be useful for practitioners in the field who want to find - in one place and with plenty of applied examples - the latest advances in the genetic and demographic aspects of population ecology. Additional resources for this book can be found at: www.wiley.com/go/mills/wildlifepopulations.

The scientific study of networks - computer, social, and biological - has received an enormous amount of interest in recent years. However, the network approach has been applied to the field of animal behaviour relatively late compared to many other biological disciplines. Understanding social network structure is of great importance for biologists since the structural characteristics of any network will affect its constituent members and influence a range of diverse behaviours. These include finding and choosing a sexual partner, developing and maintaining cooperative relationships, and engaging in foraging and anti-predator behavior. This novel text provides an overview of the insights that network analysis has provided into major biological processes, and how it has enhanced our understanding of the social organisation of several important taxonomic groups. It brings together researchers from a wide range of disciplines with the aim of providing both an overview of the power of the network approach for understanding patterns and process in animal populations, as well as outlining how current methodological constraints and challenges can be overcome. Animal Social Networks is principally aimed at graduate level students and researchers in the fields of ecology, zoology, animal behaviour, and evolutionary biology but will also be of interest to social scientists.

Introduction to Population Ecology, 2nd Edition is a comprehensive textbook covering all aspects of population ecology. It uses a wide variety of field and laboratory examples, botanical to zoological, from the tropics to the tundra, to illustrate the fundamental laws of population ecology. Controversies in population ecology are brought fully up to date in this edition, with many brand new and revised examples and data. Each chapter provides an overview of how population theory has developed, followed by descriptions of laboratory and field studies that have been inspired by the theory. Topics explored include single-species population growth and self-limitation, life histories, metapopulations and a wide range of interspecific interactions including competition, mutualism, parasite-host, predator-prey and plant-herbivore. An additional final chapter, new for the second edition, considers multi-trophic and other complex interactions among species. Throughout the book, the mathematics involved is explained with a step-by-step approach, and graphs and other visual aids are used to present a clear illustration of how the models work. Such features make this an accessible introduction to population ecology; essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in population ecology, applied ecology, conservation ecology, and conservation biology, including those with little mathematical experience.

We have written this book as a guide to the design and analysis of field studies of resource selection, concentrating primarily on statistical aspects of the comparison of the use and availability of resources of different types. Our intended audience is field ecologists in general and, in particular, wildlife and fisheries biologists who are attempting to measure the extent to which real animal populations are selective in their choice of food and habitat. As such, we have made no attempt to address those aspects of theoretical ecology that are concerned with how animals might choose their resources if they acted in an optimal manner. The book is based on the concept of a resource selection function (RSF), where this is a function of characteristics measured on resourceunits such that its value for a unit is proportional to the probability of that unit being used. We argue that this concept leads to a unified theory for the analysis and interpretation of data on resource selection and can replace many ad hoc statistical methods that have been used in the past.

The virtual impossibility of extracting the many different species from a habitat with equal efficiency by a single method (e.g. Nef, 1960). 1.1 Population estimates Population estimates can be classified into a number of different types; the most convenient classification is that adopted by Morris (1955), although he used the terms somewhat differently in a later paper (1960). 1.1.1 Absolute and related estimates The animal numbers may be expressed as a density per unit area of the ground of the habitat. Such estimates are given by nearest neighbour and related techniques (Chapter 2), marking and recapture (Chapter 3), by sampling a known fraction of the habitat (Chapter 4-6) and by removal sampling and random walk techniques (Chapter 7). Absolute population The number of animals per unit area (e.g. hectare, acre). It is almost impossible to construct a budget or to study mortality factors without the conversion of population estimates to absolute figures, for not only do insects often move from the plant to the soil at different developmental stages, but the amount of plant material is itself always changing. The importance of obtaining absolute estimates cannot be overemphasized.

Wildlife Demography compiles the multitude of available estimation techniques based on sex and age data, and presents these varying techniques in one organized, unified volume. Designed to guide researchers to the most appropriate estimator based upon their particular data set and the desired level of study precision, this book provides quantitative consideration, statistical models, estimator variance, assumptions and examples of use. The authors focus on estimation techniques using sex and age ratios because this data is relatively easy to collect and commonly used by wildlife management. - Applicable to a wide array of wildlife species, including game and non-game birds and mammals - Features more than 100 annotated examples illustrating application of statistical methods - Includes more than 640 references of the analysis of nontagging data and the factors that may influence interpretation - Derives historical and ad hoc demographic methods in a modern statistical framework