Encyclopaedia of Zoological Characteristics and Behaviour of Animals: Their Nature, Characteristics and Responses

Animals have evolved specific behaviours they use in certain contexts such as in resource defense. Reproduction and environmental exploration. Such behaviours and their variations have fundamental implications for an individual's ability to acquire and defend resources, such as territories, nest sites and mates and thus are important life history and fitness components. Understanding causes and consequences of these behavioral traits in response to ecological and social demands and constraints is essential in understanding evolutionary processes leading to and maintaining variation in these characteristics. Individuals of many species have been shown to differ consistently in several behaviorally relevant characteristics while traditionally, These differences were seen as random noise around an adaptive mean behavioural ecologists have increasingly become aware that variation in these traits can be adaptive on its own. Animal personality describes the entirety of these so called personality traits within a specific population, including genetic and neuroendocrine differences. In order to survive and thrive in specific environments, animal species have developed a host of amazing characteristics that help them find food protect themselves, cope with tough environments, and reproduce. Some of these are physical characteristics like sharp beaks bright coloration, or body types that can take advantage of thermals and updrafts. Others are behavioural. These include building nests, communicating with one another, and ways of finding food Migration is a behavioural adaptation central to this project. This book provides a comprehensive, should prove to be useful resource. It is intended that this compendium will be a well-informed and indispensable companion to the students and researchers of zoology and allied fields.