Animal Signals

Animal Signals
Title Animal Signals PDF eBook
Author John Maynard Smith
Publisher Oxford University Press
Pages 184
Release 2003-11-06
Genre Nature
ISBN 9780198526858

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The reliability of animal signals is a central problem for evolutionary biologists. This text argues that it is maintained in several ways, relevant in different circumstances, and that biologists must learn to distinguish between them.

Animal Signals

Animal Signals
Title Animal Signals PDF eBook
Author Yngve Espmark
Publisher Tapir Academic Press
Pages 504
Release 2000
Genre Science
ISBN 9788251915458

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How can we explain the peacock's beautiful tail decorations, or the wonderful song of the nightingale? Why are some smells nice and others nasty? How do animals signal their intentions and qualities to potential partners? How do offspring tell parents about their needs? Are signals tuned to the environment, and to the mental abilities of receivers? Essential for understanding how animals cope with their ecological and social environment, the study of animal signals is one of the most active research areas in evolutionary biology. Understanding the signalling systems of nature has wide-ranging relevance including biological conservation and human communication. Written by international scientists, this is a comprehensive overview of the fascinating diversity of animal signals and signalling functions. Combining reviews and research, the book is aimed at both students and professional scientists.

Coding and Redundancy

Coding and Redundancy
Title Coding and Redundancy PDF eBook
Author Jack P. Hailman
Publisher Harvard University Press
Pages 280
Release 2008-05-31
Genre Computers
ISBN 9780674027954

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This book explores the strikingly similar ways in which information is encoded in nonverbal man-made signals (e.g., traffic lights and tornado sirens) and animal-evolved signals (e.g., color patterns and vocalizations). The book also considers some coding principles for reducing certain unwanted redundancies and explains how desirable redundancies enhance communication reliability. Jack Hailman believes this work pioneers several aspects of analyzing human and animal communication. The book is the first to survey man-made signals as a class. It is also the first to compare such human-devised systems with signaling in animals by showing the highly similar ways in which the two encode information. A third innovation is generalizing principles of quantitative information theory to apply to a broad range of signaling systems. Finally, another first is distinguishing among types of redundancy and their separation into unwanted and desirable categories. This remarkably novel book will be of interest to a wide readership. Appealing not only to specialists in semiotics, animal behavior, psychology, and allied fields but also to general readers, it serves as an introduction to animal signaling and to an important class of human communication.

Animal Communication and Noise

Animal Communication and Noise
Title Animal Communication and Noise PDF eBook
Author Henrik Brumm
Publisher Springer Science & Business Media
Pages 452
Release 2013-12-16
Genre Science
ISBN 364241494X

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The study of animal communication has led to significant progress in our general understanding of motor and sensory systems, evolution, and speciation. However, one often neglected aspect is that signal exchange in every modality is constrained by noise, be it in the transmission channel or in the nervous system. This book analyses whether and how animals can cope with such constraints, and explores the implications that noise has for our understanding of animal communication. It is written by leading biologists working on different taxa including insects, fish, amphibians, lizards, birds, and mammals. In addition to this broad taxonomic approach, the chapters also cover a wide array of research disciplines: from the mechanisms of signal production and perception, to the behavioural ecology of signalling, the evolution of animal communication, and conservation issues. This volume promotes the integration of the knowledge gained by the diverse approaches to the study of animal communication and, at the same time, highlights particularly interesting fields of current and future research.

Animal Acoustic Communication

Animal Acoustic Communication
Title Animal Acoustic Communication PDF eBook
Author Steven L. Hopp
Publisher Springer Science & Business Media
Pages 437
Release 2012-12-06
Genre Science
ISBN 3642762204

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The last decades have brought a significant increase in research on acoustic communi cation in animals. Publication of scientific papers on both empirical and theoretical aspects of this topic has greatly increased, and a new journal, Bioacoustics, is entirely devoted to such articles. Coupled with this proliferation of work is a recognition that many of the current issues are best approached with an interdisciplinary perspective, requiring technical and theoretical contributions from a number of areas of inquiry that have traditionally been separated. With the notable exception of a collection edited by Lewis (1983), there have been fewvolumes predominatelyfocused on technical issues in comparative bioacoustics to follow up the earlyworks edited by Lanyon and Tavolga (1960) and Busnel (1963). It was the tremendous growth of expertise c:()ncerning this topic in particular that provided the initial impetus to organize this volume, which attempts to present fundamental information from both theoretical and applied aspects of current bioacoustics research. While a completely comprehensive review would be impractical, this volume offers a basic treatment of a wide variety of topics aimed at providing a conceptual framework within which researchers can address their own questions. Each presentation is designed to be useful to the broadest possible spectrum of researchers, including both those currently working in any of the many and diverse disciplines of bioacoustics, and others that may be new to such studies.

Pheromones and Animal Behavior

Pheromones and Animal Behavior
Title Pheromones and Animal Behavior PDF eBook
Author Tristram D. Wyatt
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Pages 425
Release 2014-01-23
Genre Medical
ISBN 0521112907

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This book explains how animals use chemical communication, emphasising the evolutionary context and covering fields from ecology to neuroscience and chemistry.

Animal Tracks & Signs

Animal Tracks & Signs
Title Animal Tracks & Signs PDF eBook
Author Jinny Johnson
Publisher National Geographic Books
Pages 204
Release 2008
Genre Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN 9781426302534

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A compendium of tracking information on animals, both exotic and familiar.