I'd love to have some opinions from lecturers/ researchers in Animal behaviour/ behavioural ecology on the state of modern textbooks. While I appreciate the breadth of coverage in introductory textbooks (e.g. Alcock, Dugatkin), I feel some things are missing. In particular, I've never found a textbook with an explicit lab/tutorial component (common in introductory Biology textbooks). Also, I'm struggling to find "real world" connections for my students. Dugatkin's book appears exceptional in having "conservation connection" sections. What is your opinion/ experience? What are you looking for in Animal Behaviour textbooks, that you can't currently find?
There is now then years that i work with animal for my experience. That i notice, is your result are good when you can yourself have time to feed them, give them to drink. One week before your experience, you can pass some time with them.
Hi Aliza,
I would second your call for an applied section in Animal Behavior books; examples from the real world where studies of animal behavior inform conservation initiatives or wildlife management that answer the question that always seems to come up: thats neat but why do we bother and who cares. A few examples that come to mind: the debate about wildlife corridors and whether they serve as prey-traps, ecological traps and the selection of suboptimal or poor habitat, links between animal behavior and disease that inform management or disease monitoring initiatives, and how studies of behavior can inform modeling of disease outbreaks, genetics or population growth. In general I think many studies of animal behavior are inherently interdisciplinary and it would be nice to see those links explicitly discussed in text books.
All the best and if you have any recommendations for text books, I would love to hear them,
Jan
Caroline and Jan, I'm glad to see others also say this -- it is sometimes difficult to make animal behaviour "real" for students, based on only the textbook. As you say, Animal Behaviour is inherently relevant, applied and interdisciplinary; I'm wondering why we struggle to articulate that in introductory textbooks.
I appreciate your input!
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