The study of animal behaviour is one of the fastest growing sub-disciplines in biology. The resulting diversity of conceptual approaches and methodological innovations makes it increasingly difficult for professionals and students to keep abreast of important new developments. This edited volume provides up-to-date reviews that facilitate orientation in key areas of animal behaviour, including communication, cognition, conflict, cooperation, sexual selection and behavioural variation. The contributions address evolutionary and proximate aspects of behaviour and also cover both invertebrates and vertebrates. Important concepts are dealt with in separate glossaries and key examples highlighted in separate text boxes. Richly illustrated with colour figures, this volume offers a well structured overview of all the main developments in current animal behaviour research. It is ideal for teaching upper-level courses, where it will be essential reading for advanced students familiar with basic concepts and ideas.

Communication and cognition

Visual communication: evolution, ecology, and functional mechanisms
Vocal communication in social groups
Kin recognition: an overview of conceptual issues, mechanisms and evolutionary theory
Honeybee cognition
Individual performance in complex social systems: the greylag goose example
Conflict and cooperation
Conflict and conflict resolution in social insects
Social insects, major evolutionary transitions and multilevel selection
Cooperation between unrelated individuals - a game theoretic approach
Group decision-making in animal societies
Parental care: adjustments to conflict and cooperation
Sex and reproduction
The quantitative study of sexual and natural selection in the wild and in the laboratory
Mate choice and reproductive conflict in simultaneous hermaphrodites
Extra-pair behaviour
Extreme polyandry in social Hymenoptera: evolutionary causes and consequences for colony organisation
Monogynous mating strategies in spiders
Mating systems, social behaviour and hormones
Behavioural variation
The social modulation of behavioural development
Alternative reproductive tactics and life history phenotypes
Animal personality and behavioural syndromes
Social learning and culture in animals
Levels and mechanisms of behavioural variability.