Foundations for Advancing Animal Ecology

A look at how wildlife professionals can modernize their approaches to habitat and population management with a fresh take on animal ecology.

How can we maximize the probability that a species of wild animal will persist into the future? This audacious book proposes that advancing animal ecology¿and conservation itself¿demands that we reenvision our basic understanding of how animals interact with their environments and with each other.

Synthesizing where we are and where we need to go with our studies of animals and their environs, Foundations for Advancing Animal Ecology asserts that studies of animal ecology should begin with a focus on the behaviors and characteristics of individual organisms. The book examines

¿ the limitations of classic approaches to the study of animal ecology
¿ how organisms organize into collections, such as breeding pairs, flocks, and herds
¿ how the broader biotic and abiotic environment shapes animal population