Animal Behavior

Dustin Rubenstein is a Professor of Ecology at Columbia University and an integrative behavioral and evolutionary ecologist who studies (1) the evolution of complex animal societies and (2) how organisms adapt to and cope with environmental change.

• 1 An Introduction to Animal Behavior 1.1 Natural Selection and the Evolution of Behavior --1.1.1 The Cost-Benefit Approach --1.1.2 The Levels of Analysis --1.1.3 The Integrative Study of Animal Behavior 1.2 Approaches to Studying Behavior 1.2.1 Examining the Adaptive Basis of Behavior 1.2.2 Inferring the Evolutionary History of Behavior 2 The Integrative Study of Behavior 2.1 The Development of Song Learning --2.1.1 Intraspecific Variation and Dialects --2.1.2 Social Experience and Song Development 2.2 Mechanisms of Song Learning --2.2.1 The Genetics of Song Learning --2.2.2 The Avian Song Control System 2.3 The Evolution of Song Learning --2.3.1 An Evolutionary History of Bird Song --2.3.2 Song Learning: A Comparative Approach 2.4 The Adaptive Value of Song Learning --2.4.1 Ecological and Social Correlates of Song Learning --2.4.2 Social Competition and Mate Choice 3 The Developmental and Molecular Bases of Behavior 3.1 Behavior Requires Genes and the Environment --3.1.1 Behavioral Ontogeny --3.1.2 Gene Regulation Influences Behavior 3.2 The Evolutionary Development of Behavior --3.2.1 The Evo-Devo Approach to Understanding Behavior --3.2.2 Molecular Toolkits and the Development of Behavior 3.3 The Development of Behavioral Variation --3.3.1 Early Life Developmental Conditions --3.3.2 Alternative Behavioral Phenotypes 4 The Neural Basis of Behavior 4.1 Responding to Stimuli --4.1.1 Complex Behavioral Responses to Simple Stimuli --4.1.2 How Moths Avoid Bats 4.2 Sensory Stimuli and Nervous System Control --4.2.1 Decision Making in the Brain --4.2.2 Alternative Sensory Modalities 105 4.3 Translating Sensory Stimuli into Behavior --4.3.1 Neural Mechanisms of Information Transfer --4.3.2 Stimulus Filtering 5 The Physiological and Endocrine Bases of Behavior 5.1 Endogenous Rhythms and Changing Behavioral Priorities --5.1.1 Endogenous versus Exogenous Control of Behavioral Priorities --5.1.2 Mechanisms of Changing Behavioral Priorities 5.2 Cues that Entrain Cycles of Behavior --5.2.1 Predictable Environmental Cues --5.2.2 Unpredictable Environmental Cues 5.3 Hormones and Behavior --5.3.1 Activational Effects of Hormones --5.3.2 Hormonal Causes and Consequences of Behavior 6 Avoiding Predators and Finding Food 6.1 Antipredator Behavior --6.1.1 Blending In --6.1.2 Standing Out --6.1.3 Social Defenses --6.1.4 Optimality Theory and Antipredator Behavior 6.2 Foraging Behavior --6.2.1 Optimal Foraging Theory --6.2.2 Landscapes of Fear --6.2.3 Cognition and Finding Food --6.2.4 Frequency Dependence and Foraging Behavior 7 Territoriality and Movement 7.1 Where to Live --7.1.1 Habitat --7.1.2 Selection --7.1.3 Territoriality 7.2 To Stay or Go --7.2.1 Dispersal --7.2.2 Variation in Migratory Behavior and Connectivity 225 8 Principles of Communication 8.1 Communication and Animal Signals --8.1.1 A Communication Framework --8.1.2 Functionally Referent Signals 8.2 The Evolution of Animal Signals --8.2.1 Preexisting Traits --8.2.2 Preexisting Biases --8.2.3 Preexisting Traits versus Preexisting Biases 8.3 The Function of Animal Signals --8.3.1 Honest Signaling --8.3.2 Deceitful Signaling --8.3.3 Eavesdropping on Others 9 Reproductive Behavior 9.1 Sexual Selection and the Evolution of Sex Differences --9.1.1 Sex Differences in Behavior and Investment --9.1.2 A Reversal in Sex Differences 9.2 Intrasexual Selection and Competition for Mates --9.2.1 Competition and Access to Mates --9.2.2 Conditional Mating Tactics versus Alternative Mating Strategies --9.2.3 Sperm Competition --9.2.4 Paternity Assurance 9.3 Intersexual Selection and Mate Choice --9.3.1 Female Mate Choice: Direct versus Indirect Benefits --9.3.2 Cryptic Female Choice --9.3.3 Signal Evolution: Runaway versus Chase-Away Sexual Selection 9.4 Sexual Conflict --9.4.1 The Manipulation of Female Choice --9.4.2 Sexual Arms Races 10 Mating Systems 10.1 Monogamy: A Lack of Multiple Mating --10.1.1 Why Be Monogamous? 10.1.2 Monogamy and Biparental Care 10.2 Polyandry: Multiple Mating by Females --10.2.1 Female versus Male Control of Mating --10.2.2 Indirect versus Direct Benefits 327 10.3 Polygyny: Multiple Mating by Males --10.3.1 Female Defense Polygyny --10.3.2 Resource Defense Polygyny --10.3.3 Lek Polygyny --10.3.4 Scramble Competition Polygyny 10.4 Polygynandry and Promiscuity: Multiple Mating by Both Sexes --10.4.1 Polygynandry --10.4.2 Promiscuity 11 Parental Care 11.1 Offspring Value and Parental Investment --11.1.1 Parental Care Decisions --11.1.2 Parental Favoritism in Offspring Care and Production --11.1.3 Family Conflict 11.2 To Care or Not to Care --11.2.1 Current versus Future Reproduction --11.2.2 Sexual Conflict and Parental Care --11.2.2 Maternal versus Paternal Care 11.3 (Non-)Discriminating Parental Care --11.3.1 Offspring Recognition and Interspecific Brood Parasitism --11.3.2 Coevolutionary Arms Races --11.3.3 The Evolution of Brood Parasitism 12 Principles of Social Evolution 12.1 Altruism and Levels of Selection --12.2.1 Individual versus Group Selection --12.2.2 Kin Selection 12.2 Kin Selection and Inclusive Fitness Theory --12.2.1 Haplodiploidy and the Evolution of Eusociality --12.2.2 Inclusive Fitness and Monogamy --12.2.3 Sterility and Caste Differentiation 12.3 Social Conflict in Animal Societies --12.3.1 Reproductive Conflict --12.3.2 Consequences of Social Conflict 13 Social Behavior and Sociality 13.1 Forms of Social Behavior --13.1.1 Mutual Benefit --13.1.2 Altruism and Reciprocity --13.1.3 Selfishness and Spite 13.2 The Evolution of Cooperative Breeding --13.2.1 Direct versus Indirect Benefits --13.2.2 Costs of Breeding Cooperatively --13.2.3 Individual Differences in Cooperative Behavior 13.3 Reproductive Conflict --13.3.1 Social Organization and Reproductive Skew --13.3.2 Reproductive Suppression and Senescence 14 Human Behavior 14.1 Human Speech and Complex Language --14.1.1 The Development and Evolutionary History of Human Speech --14.1.2 The Neurophysiology of Human Speech --14.1.3 The Adaptive Value of Human Speech 14.2 Human Reproductive Behavior --14.2.1 Mate Choice in Humans --14.2.2 Social Conflict in Humans

This is a book that attempts to integrate proximate and ultimate mechanisms of animal behavior across different physiological levels and across varying environmental contexts. The breadth and context-dependence of animal behavior makes this a very challenging task, but the authors do a good job of integrating both within an organism's organizational structure as well as across proximate and ultimate mechanisms in a compelling way." -Matthew Zipple, Duke University