Animal Behavior (Hardcover)

Animal Behavior looks at the fascinating activities of animals as they progress from birth to maturity-how they attract a mate and care for their young, find shelter and food, defend themselves, navigate sometimes vast distances and survive the many challenges of life.

Written by a team of international experts, this beautiful book is full of examples drawn from the activities of all types of animals-mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, and insects. The relationships animals have with other animals-those on whom they depend, those whom they must repel-are a major element in their activities. More than a source of beauty and wonder, animals’ behavior is important to the earth’s ecological balance, and thus a key to the vitality of the planet.

Fifteen international zoologists here contribute essays that cover just about every phase of animal life. Halliday, a professor of biology at Great Britain's Open University, writes the introduction and closing chapter, "Adapting to a Changing World." Other pieces survey the behavior of animals observed courting, mating and rearing their young; in groups; in relation to food and shelter and to instinct and intelligence. There are stories of species that hunt together, like cormorants and pelicans, snowy egrets and pie-billed grebes. We learn that 20 families of songbirds use spider silk for nest-building and that other species use snakeskin. In "Living with Other Animals," addressing parasitism, commensalism (in which the behavior of one species benefits another without damaging itself) and symbiosis, we see hornbills and mongooses as symbiotic: mongooses flush insects for hornbills, which act as sentinels for the mongooses. Illustrated with 251 color plates, the text is filled with delectable bits of animal lore.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Thirteen chapters by 15 experts associated with universities in Great Britain and Europe make up this general overview of animal behavior for the lay reader. The writing is clear, if uninspired, but the oversize format and colorful illustrations will appeal to secondary school students. Occasionally, information is presented in a confusing manner. For example, a sidebar on long-distance bird migraton discusses the journey of Arctic terns from pole to pole, but the accompanying illustration depicts a hummingbird, also a long-distance flyer. Not an essential purchase, but a worthwhile addition if libraries are looking for copiously illustrated books on wildlife for general readers.-Laurie Tynan, Montgomery Cty.
Norristown P.L., Pa.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This is a nice enough little book that should find its way into the hands of those anxious to find out about the natural world. It proffers the straight skinny on how animals are born, live, and die, very completely tricked out with color photographs. It is so straight that the "younger and more sensitive" conceivably could have difficulty with the pictures of praying mantises mating, a process during which the female dines on the male. Oh, the well-rounded text does cover its share of cuddly, fuzzy critters, but reading about even these makes you aware that life for all animals is hard, indeed, and then they die. Still, this is far from a comprehensive look at its subject. It is instead a basic book, and as such, right on target. Jon Kartman