behaviour

In this book Janine Benyus takes us inside the world of the animal kingdom and examines the behaviour of creatures great and small in their natural environments. With a definite focus on Africa this book is divided geographically into five sections including Africa, Asia, North America, the oceans and the poles. The book examines and describes the behaviour of twenty different animals explaining basic behaviours, communication behaviour and parenting behaviour.

A captivating exploration of the homing instinct in animals and humans, from the celebrated naturalist and author of Mind of the Raven. Having returned every year since boyhood to a beloved patch of western Maine woods, Heinrich questions the biology in humans of this deep pull toward a particular place, and how it relates to animal homing. Heinrich explores the fascinating science chipping away at the mysteries of animal migration: how geese imprint true visual landscape memory; how scent trails are used by many creatures, from fish to insects to amphibians, to pinpoint their home if they are displaced from it; and how the tiniest of songbirds are equipped for solar and magnetic orienteering over vast distances. Most movingly, Heinrich chronicles the spring return of a pair of sandhill cranes to their home pond in the Alaska tundra. With his trademark prose, he portrays the unmistakable signs of deep psychological emotion in the newly arrived birds and the need for humans not to ignore their own biology. Also available in hardcover [stock id 36847].

Nature has perfected the art of deception. Thousands of creatures all over the world – including butterflies, moths, fish, birds, insects and snakes – have honed and practised camouflage over hundreds of millions of years. Imitating other animals or their surroundings, nature’s fakers use mimicry to protect themselves, to attract and repel, to bluff and warn, to forage and to hide. The advantages of mimicry are obvious – but how does ‘blind’ nature do it? And how has humanity learnt to profit from nature’s ploys? This book tells the unique and fascinating story of mimicry and camouflage in science, art, warfare and the natural world. Discovered in the 1850s by the young English naturalists Henry Walter Bates and Alfred Russel Wallace in the Amazonian rainforest, the phenomenon of mimicry was seized upon as the first independent validation of Darwin’s theory of natural selection. But mimicry and camouflage also created a huge impact outside the laboratory walls.
Peter Forbes’ cultural history links mimicry and camouflage to art, literature, military tactics and medical cures across the twentieth century, and charts its intricate involvement with the dispute between evolution and creationism.

The principles of the revolutionary “clicker training” method. Eight methods of ending undesirable habits – from furniture-clawing cats to sloppy room-mates. The ten laws of “shaping” behaviour – for results without strain or pain through “affection training”. Tips for house-training the dog, improving your tennis game, or dealing with an impossible teenager. Explorations of exciting new uses for reinforcement training.