Collective animal behaviour is the study of how interactions between individuals produce group level patterns, and why these interactions have evolved. This study has proved itself uniquely interdisciplinary, involving physicists, mathematicians, engineers as well as biologists. Almost all experimental work in this area is related directly or indirectly to mathematical models, with regular move...

Cuttlefish are masters of disguise, rapidly changing colour to blend with their backgrounds. A new study shows that they break camouflage to direct warning messages at certain predators, but only those likely to be dissuaded by visual signals.

In recent years, the concept of self-organization has been used to understand collective behaviour of animals. The central tenet of self-organization is that simple repeated interactions between individuals can produce complex adaptive patterns at the level of the group. Inspiration comes from patterns seen in physical systems, such as spiralling chemical waves, which arise without complexity a...

Over the last decade a shift in paradigm has occurred with respect to the interaction between environment and genes. It is now clear that animal genomes are regulated to a large extent as a result of input from environmental events and experiences, which cause short- and long-term modifications in epigenetic markings of DNA and histones. In this review, the evidence that such epigenetic modific...

Sir Francis Galton famously demonstrated that, by combining the individual estimates of people guessing the weight of an ox at a country fair, one could arrive at an estimate that was considerably more accurate than any one individual’s guess. He named this effect the ‘vox populi’ and, since then, there have been many other demonstrations of ‘the wisdom of the crowds’ (for an excellent review, ...

animal dispersion in relation to social behaviour. Book lovers, when you need a new book to read, find the book here. Never worry not to find what you need. Is the animal dispersion in relation to social behaviour your needed book now? That's true; you are really a good reader. This is a perfect book that comes from great author to share with you. The book offers the best experience and lesson ...

Having a bath is one of the simple pleasures in life. There are many ways of relaxing in the bath; for children, the fun comes from having a tub that contains more toys thanwater (and the floor contains more water than toys), while for adults, water warms the outside and a good glass of wine warms the soul. For some animals, however, a bath may be a life or death matter; going without a bath mi...

Homo sapiens is increasingly being studied within the evolutionary (adaptationist, selectionist) framework favoured by animal behaviour researchers. There are various labels for such work, including evolutionary psychology, human behavioural ecology and human sociobiology. Collectively, we call these areas 'human evolutionary psychology' (HEP) because their shared objective is an evolutionary u...

Animal behaviour and the ecology and evolution of parasites are inextricably linked. For this reason, animal behaviourists and disease ecologists have been interested in the intersection of their respective fields for decades. Despite this interest, most research at the behaviour-disease interface focuses either on how host behaviour affects parasites or how parasites affect behaviour, with lit...