An Introduction to Animal Behaviour

by Aubrey Manning, Marian Stamp Dawkins

Using its powerful beak, a lorikeet gently preens its mate's feathers; young cheetahs rest together in the shade; fireflies semaphore to each other across a darkened landscape and a mongoose deftly bites its prey to death. The study of animal behavior is about all these things and more. It involves absolute stillness and violent activity, all the noises and smells and changes of color and shape that characterize animal life. Taking the organization of behavior within the individual animal as its core, this clear, concise and readable foray into the fascinating world of animal behavior investigates Tinbergen's questions of causation, evolution, development and function. It provides lucid accounts of all levels of behavior from the nerve cell to that of the population. The broad biological approach of this new, rewritten edition makes it an excellent choice for all students of animal behavior and psychology and their teachers.

Genres: Science, Animals, Biology, Textbooks, Academic, Dogs, Anthropology

460 pages, Paperback

First published July 27, 1972

Reviews

[Niloofar Moharrami · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice book, I believe it was chaptered very well,I really enjoyed the fact that it referred to many useful articles and studies and I can check them on later.
I chose this book as I found it as the text book of online study of animal behavior in Edinburgh university.
But reading the paper book for me was a bit uncomfortable as it’s a large book with super white pages which reflects the light badly into the eyes, and the font is very small. Reading it on kindle or as an audiobook would be much more comfortable, I hope they provide it like that too.

[Ria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really useful, I used this for my studies.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just used this book to teach animal behavior. Previously, I have used Alcock. While neither is organized in an intuitive way, I like Manning and Dawkins book because it is less dense and allows for the inclusion of more primary literature in class. It is also organized around Tinbergen's four questions instead of all evolution all the time. I find this to be very assessable for introductory students, especially when they are not from a biology background. Finally, Manning and Dawkins regularly include anthrozoological examples, which is attractive to students dealing with this topic for the first time, or students whose main interest is in humans or human animal interactions.

[Gabi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read this book for a uni course (on animal behaviour), so unfortunately I've experienced it out of order the authors intended. Nonetheless, even though there is plenty information and graphs which facilite learning, I found many instances of unscientific writing. There's also a glaring lack of discussion of ethics in most of the book, which presents plenty of studies/experiments. I expected more.

[Chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellently written and incredibly interesting.

[Marco D'Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un'eccellente visione d'insieme di svariati argomenti etologici. È un libro "da manuale" per un primo approccio all'etologia; comprende concetti essenziali e anche altri più specifici, il tutto corredato da disegni, foto ed esempi pratici presi, ovviamente, dalla natura stessa. Per quanto il numero di pagine possa spaventare, trattandosi anche di un manuale consigliato agli studenti universitari, risulta essere molto scorrevole, adatto anche a semplici curiosi e a novizi che comunque non vogliono intraprendere questo percorso di studi seriamente.

[Cole Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the third edition. I come from a mathematical background and was impressed with how easily the concepts were explained.

[Michele Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

College textbook.