Understanding Animal Behaviour: What to Measure and Why

'Describing what animals actually do in their normal daily activities was deemed essential by the early naturalists and ethologists. Today, many journals actively discourage publishing such research findings. What the Pellis team accomplishes in this book is to document, based on their and others' extensive experience and accomplishments, that careful description can itself be hypothesis driven and answer research questions that experiments with simple, but convenient, dependent measures cannot. This compact guide elegantly shows how to use modern methods to describe and quantify behaviour and embed findings in the behaviour systems in which they occur. From seemingly simple behaviour patterns such as righting, huddling, and reaching, to fighting, foraging, play, and courtship, the authors provide myriad insights and research guidance. Today, in a rapidly changing world, it is more essential than ever to study how the behaviour of animals is being altered, both in natural communities and in experimental laboratories.' Gordon M. Burghardt, University of Tennessee, USA 'The Pellis' little book is a big gift box in which you'll find a trove of crafted ideas and handy examples of how behaviour can be analysed in ways that reveal marvellous, unsuspected dimensions of behavioural organisation. Using some of the “simplest” and most common individual and social acts in animal behaviour, they offer observational and analytic tools for seeing the deep structure of behaviour and how, in some cases, their approach can take us into the brain or out to emergent levels of organisation. Practical for students and researchers, and delightful for science-oriented fans of organisms. Put it on your shelf for repeated openings and explorations.' Jeffrey R. Alberts, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA '… a fascinating new way of considering animal behavior … This would be a most useful text for any student or researcher of animal behaviors … Highly recommended.' D. C. Marston, Choice Magazine