An Introduction to Animal Behaviour

by Aubrey Manning, Marian Stamp Dawkins

Wolves excitedly greet each other as members of the pack come together; a bumble bee uses its long tongue to reach the nectar at the base of a foxglove flower; a mongoose swiftly and deftly bites its prey to death; young cheetahs rest quietly together, very close to sleep. Now in full color, this revised and updated edition of Manning and Dawkins' classic text provides a beautifully written introduction to the fundamentals of animal behavior. Tinbergen's four questions of causation, evolution, development and function form the fundamental framework of the text, illustrated with fascinating examples of complex behavioral mechanisms. The authors provide accounts of all levels of behavior from the nerve cell to that of the population. The strengths of An Introduction to Animal Behavior as a textbook include its clear explanations and concise, readable text and the enthusiasm of the authors for their subject.

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

467 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.

[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.