A comparative and integrative overview of how and why animals as diverse as insects and humans behave the way that they do, linking behaviors to the brain, genes, and hormones, as well as to the surrounding ecological and social environments.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. An Introduction to Animal Behavior
Natural Selection and the Evolution of Behavior
The Cost-Benefit Approach to Behavioral Biology
The Levels of Analysis
Box 1.1. Natural selection and infanticide in primates
The Integrative Study of Animal Behavior
Approaches to Studying Behavior
The Adaptive Basis of Behavior: Mobbing in Gulls
Box 1.2. Phylogenies and the comparative method
Box 1.3. The benefit of high nest density for the arctic skua
The Science of Animal Behavior
The Integrative Study of Behavior

Chapter 2. The Integrative Study of Behavior
The Development of Song Learning
Box 2.1. Characterizing sounds made by animals
Intraspecific Variation and Dialects
Social Experience and Song Development
Mechanisms of Song Learning
Box 2.2. Song learning in birds adoptedby another species
The Genetics of Song Learning
Control of the Avian Song System
Box 2.3. Proximate mechanisms underlying song preferences in females
The Evolution of Song Learning
An Evolutionary History of Bird Song
Mechanisms of Song Learning and the Comparative Approach
Human versus Avian Vocal Learning
The Adaptive Value of Song Learning
Box 2.4. Why might song learning make males communicate more effectively with rivals or potential mates?
Adapting to the Local Environment
Recognition: Friends versus Foes
Sexual Selection: Male-Male Competition
Sexual Selection: Female Choice and Assortative Mating
The Integrative Study of Bird Song

Chapter 3. The Developmental and Genetic Bases of Behavior
Behavior Requires Genes and the Environment
The Interactive Theory of Development
Box 3.1. Behavioral genetics: Identifying the genetic basis of differences in behavior
Environmental Differences Can Cause Behavioral Differences
Genetic Differences Can Also Cause Behavioral Differences
Box 3.2. Migratory restlessness
Learning and Cognition
Learning Requires Both Genes and Environment
Learning in Complex Environments
The Adaptive Value of Learning
The Evolutionary Development of Behavior
The Evo-Devo Approach to Understanding Behavior
Box 3.3. The genetics of foraging behavior in honey bees
Early Life Developmental Conditions
The Role of the Social Environment
Developmental Homeostasis versus Developmental Constraint
Developmental Switch Mechanisms
Supergenes and Behavioral Polymorphisms

Chapter 4. The Neural Basis of Behavior
Responding to Stimuli
Complex Responses to Simple Stimuli
How Moths Avoid Bats
Box 4.1. Ultrasound detection in the moth ear
Ultrasonic Hearing in Other Insects
Neural Command and Control
Decision Making in the Brain
From Ultrasound to Ultraviolet Radiation
Selective Relaying of Sensory Inputs
Responding to Relayed Messages
The Proximate Basis of Stimulus Filtering
Box 4.2. Determining how female parasitoid wasps choose their singing male bush-cricket hosts
Box 4.3. Cortical magnification in mammals
The Evolution of Cognitive Skills
Box 4.4. Do energetic demands explain why humans have such large brains?

Chapter 5. The Physiological Basis of Behavior
Endogenous Rhythms and Changing Behavioral Priorities
Mechanisms of Changing Behavioral Priorities
The Neurobiology of Circadian Timing
The Genetics of Circadian Timing
The Physiology of Circadian Timing
Seasonal and Annual Cycles of Behavior
Cues That Entrain Cycles of Behavior
Predictable Environmental Cues
Box 5.1. Hormonal responses to light in birds
Unpredictable Environmental Cues
Social Conditions and Changing Priorities
Hormonal Mechanisms Underlying Behavioral Change
Organizational versus Activational Effects of Hormones on Behavior and Development
Box 5.2. Measuring hormones in animals
Box 5.3. Do steroid hormones modulate male parental behavior in California mice?
Hormones and Reproduction
Testosterone and Reproductive Behavior
The Costs of Hormonal Regulation
Glucocorticoids and Responding to Environmental Change

Chapter 6. Avoiding Predators and Finding Food
Avoiding Predators
Social Defenses
Box 6.1. Evolutionary game theory
Game Theory and Social Defenses
Box 6.2. Game theory and the selfish herd
Blending In
Standing Out
Optimality Theory and Antipredator Behavior
Finding Food
Optimality Theory and Foraging Decisions
Box 6.3. Territoriality and feeding behavior in golden-winged sunbirds
Box 6.4. Optimal foraging by pike cichlid fish
Criticisms of Optimal Foraging Theory
Landscapes of Fear
Game Theory and Feeding Behavior

Chapter 7. Territoriality and Migration
Where to Live
Habitat Selection
Territoriality and Resource-Holding Potential
Box 7.1. How to track migratory songbirds
Why Give Up Quickly When Fighting for a Territory?
The Dear Enemy Effect
To Stay or Go
Dispersal
Box 7.2. Opposite patterns of sex-biased dispersal in mammals and birds
Migration
The Costs and Benefits of Migration
Box 7.3. Behaviors to reduce the costs of flying during migration
Variation in Migratory Behavior
Box 7.4. Migratory pathways of Swainson's thrush

Chapter 8. Principles of Communication
Communication and Animal Signals
Information Use and Animal Signals
The Evolution of Animal Signals
Preexisting Traits and the Development of a Strange Display
The Panda Principle and Preexisting Traits
Preexisting Biases and the Evolution of Animal Signals
Box 8.1. Spiders hunting prey at night
Preexisting Traits versus Preexisting Biases
Box 8.2. Why do female moths mate with males that produce ultrasonic mimetic signals similar to those produced by predatory bats?
The Function of Animal Signals
The Adaptive Function of a Strange Display
Honest Communication and Threat Displays
Honest Signaling
Box 8.3. Mechanisms and measurement of animal coloration
When Multiple Honest Signals Are Better Than One
Deceitful Signaling
Eavesdropping on Others

Chapter 9. Reproductive Behavior
Sexual Selection and the Evolution of Sex Differences
Sex Differences in Reproductive Behavior
Box 9.1. Are sperm always cheap?
Sex Differences and Parental Investment
A Reversal in Sex Differences
Intrasexual Selection and Competition for Mates
Competition and Access to Mates
Coexistence of Conditional Mating Tactics
Coexistence of Alternative Mating Strategies
Sperm Competition
Mate Guarding and Paternity Assurance
Intersexual Selection and Mate Choice
Female Mate Choice for Direct Benefits
Female Mate Choice for Indirect Benefits
Box 9.2. Sexual selection in the peacock
Runaway versus Chase-away Sexual Selection
Cryptic Female Choice
Sexual Conflict
The Manipulation of Female Choice
Sexual Arms Races

Chapter 10. Mating Systems
Monogamy: A Lack of Multiple Mating
Why Be Monogamous?
Monogamy in Species with Paternal Care
Monogamy When Paternal Care Is Rare
Polyandry: Multiple Mating by Females
Monogamous Males and Polyandrous Females
Box 10.1. Sexual parasitism, dwarf males, and the evolution of gigolos
Polyandry and Indirect Genetic Benefits
Box 10.2. Extra-pair paternity and good genes in birds
Polyandry and Direct Benefits
Polygyny: Multiple Mating by Males
Female Defense Polygyny
Resource Defense Polygyny
Lek Polygyny
Scramble Competition Polygyny
Box 10.3. Lekking females in a sex-role reversed pipefish
Polygynandry and Promiscuity: Multiple Mating by Both Sexes
Polygynandry
Promiscuity

Chapter 11. Parental Care
Offspring Value and Parental Investment
Parental Care Decisions
Parental Favoritism in Offspring Care and Production
Parental Favoritism in Humans
Family Conflict
To Care or Not to Care
The Costs and Benefits of Parental Care
Sexual Conflict and Parental Care: Who Cares?
Box 11.1. Why do females provide all of the care in treehoppers?
Why Do Females Care?
Why Do Males Care?
Box 11.2. Reactions of nest-defending bluegill males to potential egg and fry predators under two conditions
Discriminating Parental Care
Recognizing One's Own Offspring
Box 11.3. Why do parents in some species adopt genetic strangers of their own species?
Interspecific Brood Parasitism
Choosing the Correct Host
Coevolutionary Arms Races
The Evolution of Interspecific Brood Parasitism

Chapter 12. Principles of Social Evolution
Box 12.1. The major evolutionary transitions
Altruism and the Levels of Selection
Individual versus Group Selection
Altruism and the Role of Kin Selection
Box 12.2. Calculating genetic relatedness
Kin Selection and Inclusive Fitness Theory
Challenges to Kin Selection and Inclusive Fitness Theory
Box 12.3. Altruism in amoebae
Haplodiploidy and the Evolution of Eusociality
Testing the Haplodiploidy Hypothesis
Inclusive Fitness and Monogamy in Eusocial Insects
Box 12.4. Division of labor in clonal trematode flatworms
Sterility and Caste Differentiation
Social Conflict in Animal Societies
Reproductive Conflict

Chapter 13. Social Behavior and Sociality
The Evolution of Social Behavior
Forms of Social Behavior
Mutual Benefit
Box 13.1. How do groups of animals decide where to go?
Box 13.2. Social network analysis
Altruism and Reciprocity
Non-cooperative Social Behaviors: Selfishness and Spite
Individual Differences in Social Behavior
Personalities in Social Species
The Evolution of Cooperative Breeding
Reproductive Cooperation and Kin Selection
Reproductive Benefits and Cooperative Breeding
Box 13.3. Mobbing and kinship in groups of Siberian jays
Reproductive Costs and Cooperative Breeding
Reproductive Conflict in Cooperative Breeders
Reproductive Suppression
Reproductive Skew, Extra-pair Paternity, and Social Structure
Box 13.4. Why do males and females both have elaborate traits in social species?

Chapter 14. Human Behavior
Communication
The Development and Evolutionary History of Human Speech
Box 14.1. Ethical studies of humans and other animals
The Neurophysiology of Speech
The Adaptive Value of Speech
Reproductive Behavior
An Evolutionary Analysis of Human Mate Choice
Mate Choice by Women
Box 14.2. Female choice and the features of dominant versus attractive men
Box 14.3. Human mate choice in an online world
Mate Choice by Men
Reproductive and Sexual Conflict in Humans
Extreme Sexual Conflict in Humans: Polygamy and Extramarital Affairs
Coercive Sex
Practical Applications of Behavioral Theory
Evolutionary Medicine
The Triumph of an Evolutionary Analysis of Human Behavior