Social behaviour in animals
Subtitle: With Special Reference to Vertebrates
By: With a new foreword by G. P. Baerends
Publisher: Chapman & Hall
Published: 1990
Place of publication: London, New York, Tokyo, Melbourne, Madras
Language: eng
Translated from: dut
Translation of: Inleiding tot de diersociologie
Format: paperback
Number of pages: 184
ISBN-13: 9780412369209
Copyright date: © 1953, 1964, 1965, N. Tinbcrgen
Other titles: Inleiding tot de diersociologie
Description: THIS book is a revised and translated version of a Dutch text which originally appeared in 1946. Tinbergen had written it during the war, much of it when he was imprisoned in a German hostage camp. He based it largely on his own observations and research which he had carried out in the late 1920s and the 1930s, a time that included the seven years in which he introduced the newly developing discipline of ethology into the biological curriculum of the University of Leiden. [...]

The original Dutch title can be translated as 'Animal Sociology'. The book was conceived at a time when in botany plant sociology had become very popular. This made ecologically oriented zoologists keen to develop a zoological counterpart. Tinbergen, however, pointed out that whereas plant sociology was mainly concerned with types of vegetation and the relationships between different species of plants, animal sociology should primarily focus upon the interrelationships between individuals of the same species, and should thus be seen as more closely allied to human sociology.

The book has become a classic. [...]

Before he died in December 1988, Tinbergen felt somewhat ambivalent about the appearance of a facsimile edition of his book. On the one hand he liked the idea because he believed its educational value had not diminished. On the other hand, he was aware that the book contained certain interpretations of behaviour which no longer hold today and which he himself had abandoned or revised. This, however, only demonstrates how productive Tinbergen's approach has been; it has contributed to the spectacular development of the discipline of behavioural ecology in the last three decades. At the request of the publisher I have in the following tried to point out, for newcomers in this field in particular, where views have changed importantly, combining this with a rough sketch of the trends taken in behavioural ecology. [From the foreword by G. P. Baerends]
Notes: Facsimile reprint of 1st English edition 1953
Table of contents: label: I
title: INTRODUCTION
pagenum: 1; title: Statement of the problems - The Herring Gull - The Three-spined Stickleback - The Grayling - Types of social co-operation; label: II
title: MATING BEHAVIOUR
pagenum: 22; title: The functions of mating behaviour - Some instances of timing - Persuasion and appeasement - Orientation - Reproductive isolation - Conclusion; label: III
title: FAMILY AND GROUP LIFE
pagenum: 40; title: Introduction - Family life - Group behaviour; label: IV
title: FIGHTING
pagenum: 57; title: Reproductive fighting - The functions of reproductive fighting - The causes of fighting - The peckorder; label: V
title: ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL CO-OPERATION
pagenum: 72; title: Recapitulation - The actor's behaviour - The behaviour of the reactor - Review of releasers - Conclusion; label: VI
title: RELATIONS BETWEEN DIFFERENT SPECIES
pagenum: 87; title: The release of reactions - The avoidance of release; label: VII
title: THE GROWTH OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS
pagenum: 99; title: Differentiation and integration - The establishment of social ties - Further developments - Conclusion - Regulation; label: VIII
title: EVOLUTIONARY ASPECTS OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
pagenum: 118; title: The comparative method - Comparison of social systems - Comparison of releasers - Conclusion; label: IX
title: SOME HINTS FOR RESEARCH IN ANIMAL SOCIOLOGY
pagenum: 129; title: BIBLIOGRAPHY
pagenum: 140; title: INDEX
pagenum: 147