Recent Trends in Animal Behaviour

Studies on animal behavior are vital for several reasons most importantly in connection with conservation, livestock and wildlife management, animal welfare, sustainable use of animal and human resources, and ultimately for better understanding of human behavior. In its formative stages, behavioral studies were mostly observational till the classic work of Lorenz, tin Bergen and Frisch catapulted them into Nobel laureates. This had a cascading effect on research on animal behavior resulting in intense studies in several areas of behavior mainly information acquisition (neuroethology) and transfer (communication), ecological aspects (habital related, foraging strategies, migration, predator-prey interactions, population ecology etc.), socio-biology (parent-filial interaction, co-operation & conflict, grouping & dispersion, social organization etc.) reproductive strategies, evolutionary aspects (kin selection, altruism, life history strategies etc.), physiology (behavioral endocrinology, rhythms, neurobiology) and applied behavior (conservation, animal welfare, livestock production, wild life management, man-animal conflict etc.