Promoting a Tinbergian Approach to Animal Behaviour.

Abstract

Promoting Tinbergian Approach to Animal Behaviour Review of The Behavior of Animals: Mechanisms, Function, and Evolution, Johan J. Bolhuis and Luc-Alain Giraldeau (Eds.) (Maiden, MA, Oxford, UK, Carlton, Australia: Blackwell Publishing, 2004), 515 pages) This edited volume is meant as a comprehensive textbook on animal behavior (from the Preface by the editors, p. xvii). The Preface states two main aims: 1) to incorporate all the contemporary subdisciplines of behavioral biology, such as animal welfare, conservation biology, evolutionary psychology, animal cognition, and behavioral (p. xvii), and 2) to present perspectives on all four of Niko Tinbergen's classic (1963) whys of animal behaviour, namely about causation, development, function, and evolution (p. xvii). The result is collection of 17 chapters, each written by one or two experts on the topic, bound in paper and sprinkled with black-and-white figures and photographs. Tinbergen's four whys are featured in the beginning of number of contemporary single-authored textbooks on animal behaviour (Alcock, 2005; Barnard, 2004), but not all (Dugatkin, 2005). Of the four whys, proximate questions comprise the immediate conditions, both in the environment and in the organism, that trigger behaviour (mechanism) and the unfolding of behaviour over the course of an individual's life (development). Ultimate questions comprise the adaptive value of the behaviour (function) and the evolutionary history that led to the behaviour (evolution). The editors set out to give emphasis to both proximate and ultimate questions, in different sections of the book. I, Mechanisms of Behavior topics and discipines with mechanistic bent. It includes chapters on stimulus perception (J-P- Ewert, neuroethological perspective), motivation (J. A. Hogan), biological rhythms (R. E. Mistlberger & B. Rusak), behavioural neuroscience (D. F. Sherry), development Q. J. Bolhuis), animal learning (K. Kirkpatrick & G. Hall), and animal cognition (N. J. Emery & N. S. Clayton). II, Function and Evolution of Behavior features chapters on function (L.-A. Giraldeau), communication (P. K. McGregor), sex and mating (two chapters, the other by A. P. M011er, one by M. A. Elgar), and sociality (A. E. Pusey). III, Animal Behavior and Human Society comprises three chapters on topics of concern to humans, on animal welfare (D. Fraser & D. M. Weary), conservation (T. Caro & J. Eadie), and evolutionary psychology (M. DaIy & M. Wilson), which is the attempt to provide evolutionary explanations of human behaviour. Thus, while animal welfare and conservation do not fit comfortably into Tinbergian framework, the chapter on human behaviour is squarely evolutionary in outlook, and can fit into Part II. Textbooks that feature human behaviour, however, typically place the chapter at the end (Alcock, 2005; Barnard, 2004). How do the individual chapters fare? As with most collected volumes, the tone, style, density of content, and quality vary. Some chapters present topics at great depth. Thus, Jorg-Peter Ewert's chapter on stimulus perception present visual mechanisms, including much of Ewert's own work, in great depth. I rate this level of depth too much for an introductory text on animal behaviour. This depth means that little else is covered, and many fascinating and unusual perceptual capabilites are neglected, including the echolocation of bats, the tactile capabilities of the star-nosed mole, the perception of polarized light by insects, and magnetoperception in sea turtles, to name some exotic cases found in Alcock's latest (2005) edition. Some sense of the Umwelt created by these modes of perception is good to convey, as they differ, sometimes starkly, from the human perceptual world. Some chapters present manytopics superficially. Thus, Jerry Hogan's chapter on motivation whips through systems of hunger, parenting, aggression, sex, self-maintenance (grooming), sleep, and fear at around page piece. …