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The Gordon Lab - http://www.stanford.edu/~dmgordon/
A long-term study of ant colony behavior, organization and ecology undertaken by Deborah Gordon and her colleagues at Stanford University. |
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Dolphin Institute - http://www.dolphin-institute.org/
Dedicated to conservation of and education about dolphins and whales. Research projects include dolphin echolocation. |
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About Gender: Ethology - http://www.gender.org.uk/about/index.htm#ethol
An introduction to animal reproduction, maternal strategies, living in groups, dominance and male behavior. The rest of the site deals with human gender roles, variance and identity. |
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The Ryan Lab - http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/ryan/
Situated at the University of Texas, this lab is addressing questions concerning the evolution and function of animal behavior. Most of the work centers on frogs and fish. |
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Hummingbirds and Torpor - http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2006/04/hummingbirds_and_torpor.php
Article by Devorah Bennu on the strategy used by hummingbirds to conserve energy in order to survive long cold nights. |
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Cooperative Breeding - http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Cooperative_Breeding.html
Communal breeding occurs when more than two birds of the same species provide care in rearing the young from one nest. |
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Brood Parasitism - http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Brood_Parasitism.html
This essay describes the behavior of birds that lay their eggs in the nest of another species, with links to other essays covering similar topics. |
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ReefQuest - http://www.elasmo-research.org/site_map.htm
A comprehensive source of information on the biology of sharks and rays including behavioral studies. |
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Chelonian Research Foundation - http://www.chelonian.org/
This foundation supports worldwide turtle and tortoise research and produces a journal – Chelian Conservation and Biology. |
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Deep-sea Octocorals as Homes for Other Species - http://www.oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/04mountains/background/commensals/commensals.html
Researchers at the Darling Marine Center at the University of Maine, examine the commensal relationships of octocorals with brittle stars and marine scale worms. |
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Ethology - http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0179-1613
Tables of contents, contacts and subscription information from this journal by Blackwell Publishing. |
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Figs and Fig wasps - http://www.figweb.org/
An example of mutualism, fig wasps only live for a few days but manage to perform their amazing task of finding and pollinating the flowers that are hidden deep inside the fig. |
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Animal Behavior Lab - http://galliform.bhs.mq.edu.au/
Overview of current research at Macquarie University, Australia, with detailed material on each project. |
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Cognitive Architecture of a Mini-brain: The Honeybee - http://groups.inf.ed.ac.uk/ppig/readinglist/minibrain.pdf
Article by Randolf Menzel and Martin Giurfa examining the extent to which adaptive behaviour in honeybees exceeds elementary forms of learning, and identifying the neural mechanisms involved. |
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Sexual Selection in Bowerbirds - http://www.life.umd.edu/biology/borgialab/
Research at the Borgia Lab concentrates on understanding the evolution of the complex sexual male displays in the Satin Bowerbird, Ptilonorhynchus violaceus. |
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Mammalian Hibernation - http://www.ucalgary.ca/~kmuldrew/cryo_course/cryo_chap12_1.html
Article by Ken Muldrew on mammalian hibernation, sleep and torpor. |
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Animal Behaviour Research Unit - http://web.anglia.ac.uk/appsci/lifesci/abru/
Established in Mikumi National Park, Tanzania, ABRU undertakes long term research into yellow baboons and now also studies the African Elephant. |
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Nature-Wildlife - http://www.nature-wildlife.com/
Besides photographing African wildlife, Spook Skelton provides notes on African mammals and their behaviour, gleaned from reading and direct observation. |
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Universal Parasitism and the Co-evolution of Extended Phenotypes - http://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/dawkins/WorldOfDawkins-archive/Dawkins/Work/Articles/1989univpara.shtml
Article by Richard Dawkins argues that we should ask “Which animal is benefiting from this behavior?” rather than asking “In what way is this animal benefiting from this behavior?” Parasites are used to illustrate this thesis. |
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Research Projects in the Mammal Research Unit - http://www.bio.bris.ac.uk/research/mammal/research.html
Details of the current research projects being undertaken at the Mammal Research Unit at Bristol University, England. |
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Animal Cognition - http://cognition.icapb.ed.ac.uk
Researchers at Edinburgh University are using both evolutionary and behavioral approaches to try to understand the factors that shape animal cognitive abilities. |
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Multiple Sexual Ornaments in Satin Bowerbirds - http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/14/4/503
Article by Stephanie Doucet and Robert Montgomerie on their research into the interrelationship between bower features, plumage coloration, and indicators of male quality in this species. |
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Bird Behavior - http://www.ucc.uconn.edu/~millerd/bbframes.html
Bird Behavior is an international and interdisciplinary journal that publishes research on avian behavior, including the areas of ethology, behavioral ecology, comparative psychology, and behavioral neuroscience. |
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Dominance in Domestic Hen Triads - http://cogprints.org/1960/
The role of individual differences and patterns of resolution in the formation of dominance orders in domestic hen triads. |
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Adaptation - http://www.dartmouth.edu/~mcpeek/adaptation.html
Mark A McPeek outlines his research on how damselflies evade their predators, in particular the trade off they make between foraging rate and predation risk. |
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Behavioral Ecology Research Group - http://www.uq.edu.au/berg/
Research on the evolution of social systems and social learning at the University of Queensland, Australia. |
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Dominance in Crayfish. - http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/21/8/2759
Article from the Journal of Neuroscience on patterns of behavior, including the activation of neural circuits, during the formation of a dominance hierarchy in crayfish. |
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Phenology - http://sws-wis.com/lifecycles/
Animal activity and growth responses to seasonal climatic changes. Discussion of phenology data on animal cycles of life. |
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Feral Cats - http://members.aol.com/catsferal/
Information on a study of feral cats in Portsmouth Naval Dockyard, United Kingdom, conducted by Jane Dards in the 1970s. |
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Consciousness in Animals and People with Autism - http://grandin.com/references/animal.consciousness.html
Temple Grandin discusses his views on animal consciousness, using comparisons from his experience with autism, citing scientific evidence on other neurological disorders which affect consciousness. |
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Animal Behaviour and Welfare Science Research Group. - http://www.uoguelph.ca/abw/
The University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada examines how an understanding of the behavior of domesticated animals and poultry can contribute to their welfare. |
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EcoBirds: Anting - http://birds.ecoport.org/Behaviour/EBanting.htm
Article discussing the strange behavior adopted by some birds in using ants in preening or in some instances, lying down among ants. |
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Pelican Lagoon Research Centre - http://www.echidna.edu.au
This centre in Australia provides habitats for long term field studies, especially on monotremes, free from the impact of introduced species. |
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Causes and Consequences of a Lack of Coevolution in Mullerian Mimicry - http://www.ucl.ac.uk/taxome/jim/pap/mimcoev.pdf
Article by James Mallet in which he discusses whether the unpalatable species that copy one another for their mutual benefit evolved together. |
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Laboratory of Animal Ecology, Rikkyo University - http://www.rikkyo.ne.jp/grp/animal-ecology/en/
Current research includes the ecological and evolutionary basis for animal behavior, avian behavioral ecology, and what behaviors help an animal to adapt to its environment. |
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Animal Behavior and Sociobiology - http://www.science.mcmaster.ca/psychology/psych1a6/1aa3/EvoPsych/lec1-1.htm
Lecture on sociobiological behavior based on experimental animal observation from McMaster University, Canada. |
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NPR: Animal Thought and Communication - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1601349
Ira Flatow and guests look at thought and communication in apes, gorillas and monkeys [Real Audio broadcast]. |
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Warning Colour and Mimicry - http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucbhdjm/courses/b242/Mimic/Mimic.html
Mimicry is a great example of evolution by natural selection. Outline of a lecture on the subject from the Evolutionary Genetics course at University College, London. |
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The Nest Building Behaviour of Higher Apes - http://home.worldcom.ch/~negenter/081NestbApes_E.html
Noel Egenter outlines his research into the ability of apes to weave branches into a stable construction and whether this requires a definite learning process. |
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Oklahoma University Behavioral Neuroscience - http://www.ou.edu/oubns/
Research in the OU Zoology Department addresses major biological questions through studies of molecules, cells, organisms, and ecosystems to uncover mechanisms of physiology, development, behavior, and evolution. |
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Why Grandmothers? - http://scienceblogs.com/grrlscientist/2007/09/why_grandmothers.php
Article by Devorah Bennu examining whether grandmothers play any part in the cooperative rearing of young birds. |
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Bee Behavior - http://www.beebehavior.com/
A project studying the behavior of bees as individuals and as a colony, including a live feed from a hive. |
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Braun Lab of Hydroacoustic Research and Discovery - http://urban.hunter.cuny.edu/~cbraun/braunwebsite/Research.htm
Current research at Hunter College, New York, concentrates on the multiple sensory systems that fish use to detect moving and sound-producing objects, including the gymnotiform fishes that use electricity to communicate. |
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Article: Bee Behavior - http://www.beesource.com/pov/usda/beekpUSA33.htm
By studying bees as individuals and as a colony, Stephen Taber researches how their behavior may be changed to our benefit. The site also provides a sourcebook for beekeeping. |
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Animal Behaviour - http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/dbs/abc/dm_behaviour_paper_1.htm
Daniel Mills and Gill Sheppard describe an evolutionary approach to the analysis, assessment and treatment of behavior problems. |
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Animal Behavior/Sensory Biology - Wikibooks, collection of open-content textbooks - http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Animal_Behavior/Sensory_Biology#Sensory_Perception
Article from Wikibooks explaining that, by learning how the senses gather information, a better understanding of behavior is gained. |
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Alina Simona Rusu - http://www.geocities.com/a_s_rusu/
Researcher whose publications include coping strategies in mice, chemical communication in mammals and cognitive ethology. |
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The Centre for Avian Cognition - http://bsweb.unl.edu/avcog
Research at the University of Nebraska covering a broad range of behavioral and cognitive studies on birds, each combining psychological and biological perspectives. |
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Overview of Our Research on the Variable Field Cricket - http://cricket.unl.edu/research.html
At the Wagner Laboratory at the University of Nebraska, research is being undertaken on the evolution of male singing behavior and female song preferences in the variable field cricket |
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Processing Towards Life - http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2861
L Charles Birch discusses self-organisation as exampled by termites, ants and slime moulds, where patterns of behavior are determined, not by some centralised authority, but by local interactions about decentralised components |
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Wolf Behavior - http://www.freewebs.com/alphawolfsabrina/
Dedicated to the general public education of the behavioral habits of the wolf. Includes data on reproduction and diet. |
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Ontologies for Ethology - http://www.mesquiteproject.org/ontology/
Peter E. Midford's research in coding animal behavior descriptions, particularly ethograms using ontology. |
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Baboon and Impala Together - http://home.comcast.net/~tom-day/babim.html
Discusses how baboons and impala interact. Offers scientific observations and images. |
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Theory of Mind in Nonhuman Primates - http://www.bbsonline.org/documents/a/00/00/05/46/bbs00000546-00/bbs.heyes.html
C M Heyes revisits the question asked by Premack and Woodruff, "Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind?" This question dominates the study of both social behavior in nonhuman primates and cognitive development in children. |
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Reading: Manning and Dawkins, Animal Behavior - http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/way/yek18/greg/docs/reading%20-%20Manning%20and%20Dawkins,%20animal%20behaviour.htm
Notes on Chapters 2 to 7 of this book covering aspects of communication, learning, memory, evolution and social organisation. |
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Antipredator Adaptations: Crypsis - http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~croman/crypsis/antipredator.htm
Notes, with photographs, on the four cryptic strategies employed by animals to blend in with their background and avoid detection. |
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The Evolution of Imperfect Mimicry in Hoverflies - http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/archive/00000096/01/ImperfectMimicry.pdf
Article by Francis Gilbert describing Batesian mimicry and discussing the extent to which hoverflies succeed in mimicing bees, wasps and bumblebees. |
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The Peripheral Auditory Characteristics of Noctuid Moths - http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/199/4/857.pdf
Research by Dean Waters into the auditory systems sensitive to ultrasound possessed by these moths and their ability to recognise and respond to the echolocation sounds emitted by bats. |
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How Locusts Decide it is Time to Swarm - http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9255-how-locusts-decide-its-time-to-swarm.html
Article from the New Scientist discussing the factors that turn a relatively harmless cloud of insects into a devastating plague. |
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Animal Cognition Network - http://www.animalcognition.net
Provides links to current scientific literature in the field of animal cognition. Includes journal articles, reviews, books and relevant websites. |
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Animal Behaviour - http://www.animalbehaviour.org
Birmingham University’s introduction to animal behavior for biology students. Covers a wide range of topics with references for further study and a quiz to test understanding. |
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Cognitive Ethology and the Explanation of Nonhuman Animal Behavior - http://cogprints.org/157/00/199709002.html
In this paper, Marc Bekoff attempts to demonstrate the importance of cognitive ethological investigations for advancing the understanding of animal cognition. |
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Group Predation of Lions - http://www.cs.bath.ac.uk/~amb/papers/lionsIJCAI05.pdf
An investigation into the visual cues required to coordinate the complex cooperative behavior involved in hunting. |
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Wolf and Wildlife Studies - http://www.wolfandwildlifestudies.com
Discusses ongoing field research concerning the behavioral habits of the Fishtrap wolf pack in northwest Montana. |
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Social Behaviour of African Wild Dogs - http://www.shef.ac.uk/aps/mbiolsci/green-kathleen/level3dissertation.pdf
Katherine Green at the University of Sheffield, England, examines how the social behavior of the African wild dog is contributing to its high risk of extinction. |
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Fauna Communications Research - http://animalvoice.com/
Institute that researches bioacoustics and animal communication, especially of endangered species. |
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Robot Modelling of Insect Proto-Cognition - http://www.ipab.informatics.ed.ac.uk/PROPOSALS/smith_thesis_proposal.pdf
D J Smith’s thesis concerns a bio-robotic investigation of the elementary forms of cognition that might be present in small brains, specifically insect brains. |
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A Century of Generalization - http://cogprints.org/5279/01/ghirlanda_enquist2003.pdf
This article aims to organise existing data to test the theory that, when a behavior has been established in response to a certain stimulus, novel stimuli resembling the first will usually elicit the same response. |
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Play Signals as Punctuation: The Structure of Social Play in Canids - http://cogprints.org/158/00/199709003.html
Paper by Marc Bekoff discussing the use by animals of specific signals primarily to initiate or maintain social play. |
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Cophylogeny between Pocket Gophers and Chewing Lice - http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/~rdmp1c/book/draft/hafner.pdf
Article discussing the symbiotic association between gophers and chewing lice, creatures whose life histories are conducive to parallel speciation. |
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Variation in Lekking Costs in Blackbuck - http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/ks410/Isvaran_Jhala_2000.pdf
Researchers at the Wildlife Institute of India examine the hypothesis that among lekking males of the species Antilope cervicapra, variations in lekking costs is related to differences in mating benefits. |
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Essay: A Baboon’s Life - http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/stanfordtoday/ed/9607/9607essy01.shtml
An essay written by Robert Sapolsky in 1996 on violence between male baboons, aging and friendship. |
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Fish Behaviour - http://www.vet.ed.ac.uk/animalwelfare/Fish%20pain/Behaviour.htm
Describes certain behaviors that can indicate pain in fish and the behavioral evidence for the perception of pain by fish. |
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Long-distance Land Bird Migration - http://petcaretips.net/bird-migration.html
This article discusses the reasons for migration, its advantages and disadvantages, and the different patterns of migration adopted by different bird groups. |
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All About How Males Attract Female Birds - http://petcaretips.net/how-bird-attracts.html
Describes research into the extent to which female birds choose their mates according to their vocal ability. |
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Movie Archives of Animal Behavior - http://www.momo-p.com/index-e.html
An online animal behavior video database available in various formats. Most clips filmed in Japan. |
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Elephant Corner: Mentality, Cognition and Behavior of Elephants - http://www.is.wayne.edu/mnissani/ElephantCorner/front.htm
Moti Nissani details his research into elephant behavior, cognition and senses, with sounds and video clips. |
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Behaviour: Altruism - http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/mammals/explore/altruism.shtml
Article discussing how helping another member of the same species may have benefits for the donor. |
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Behaviour: Looking after Relatives - http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/mammals/explore/relatives.shtml
Article discussing the reasons behind actions such as a female molerat working to help raise her mother's children. |
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Flocker 1.1 - http://www.behav.org/flocker.htm
This free software quantifies and compares statistical measures of group size. It differentiates between outsiders' view (group size) versus insiders' view (crowding) measures, controls for the ties among data points in the latter case and handles biased distributions correctly. |
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Behaviour - http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/mammals/explore/behaviour.shtml
Article from the BBC Science and Nature series on why mammals have developed such complex social strategies. |
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The Finch Self-Medication Website - http://astorwilliam.tripod.com/
Birds and animals have often been seen using plants, soil, insects or fungi as 'medicines'. William Astor explains his findings on this remarkable ability with regard to Estrildid finches. |
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University of Los Andes Frog Research - http://gecoh.uniandes.edu.co
Group working on frog behavior and ecophysiology at Universidad de Los Andes, Bogota, Colombia. |
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Conflict and Cooperation - http://www.bath.ac.uk/podcast/powerpoint/Szekely_CharterDay2007.pdf
Tamas Szekely provides a really short, illustrated guide to the family life of birds. |
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Behavioural and Cognitive Influences of Kairomones on an Araneophagic Jumping Spider - http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/research/groups/ccnr/Papers/Downloads/Jackson_Behav2002.pdf
Jackson, Clark and Harland researched the factors influencing the predatory habits of the jumping spider, Portia fimbriata, which eats other spiders. |
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Nests and Nest-Building in Birds - http://docserver.bis.uni-oldenburg.de/publikationen/dissertation/2005/metada05/pdf/introduction.pdf
Outlines a study of the Red Bishop, a colony breeding weaverbird from sub-Saharan Africa, and examines aspects of male nest-building behavior and resulting male reproductive success. |
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Group Mobbing Behaviour and Nest Defence - http://www.gla.ac.uk/ibls/DEEB/ka/abstracts/ethology.pdf
Outlines research carried out by Katheryn E Arnold using co-operative breeding Noisy Miners (Manorina melanocephala) in Australia on whether mobbing behavior assisted reproductive success. |
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Sexual Conflict, Ecology and Breeding Systems in Shorebirds - http://www.bath.ac.uk/bio-sci/biodiversity-lab/publications/BioScience_Octobert2006.pdf
Paper by Tamas Szekely, Gavin Thomas and Innes Cuthill examining the different reproductive payoffs for male and female birds of adopting various diverse breeding systems. |
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Konrad Lorenz Institute for Ethology - http://www.oeaw.ac.at/klivv/
Austrian organization that investigates major unsolved problems in behavioral and evolutionary ecology. |
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Trade-offs Between Extraterritorial Prospecting and Helping in a Cooperative Mammal - http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/ajy20/Trade-offs%20between%20prospecting%20and%20helping%20in%20meerkats.pdf
Researchers at Cambridge University investigated whether male meerkats trade off their cooperative contributions to pup feeding against searching for mating and dispersal opportunities. |
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Animal Behavior, Behavioral Ecology and Arachnology - http://www.biology.uc.edu/faculty/uetz/sitemap.htm
Dr George Uetz at the University of Illinois is leading research into colonial web-building spiders, communication in wolf spiders and other aspects of arachnid behavior. |
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The Dwarf Mongoose: Social Cooperation - http://www.bio.davidson.edu/people/vecase/behavior/Spring2003/Rizi/SC.htm
Article discussing the benefit for dwarf mongooses of living in a cohesive group. Also describes their symbiotic cooperation with hornbills in Kenya. |
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Journal of Insect Behavior - http://www.springerlink.com/content/1572-8889/
With six editions a year, this journal covers a wide range of behavioral research. |
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Compass Education and Training - http://www.neotericdesign.co.uk/compass1/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
Offers home study courses in animal behavior at intermediate and advanced level, and equine, feline, canine, reptile and parrot behavior and psychology studies. |
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Historical Information about Animal Cognition - http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/psych26/history.htm
A brief survey of important scientists in the history of the study of animal behavior. |
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Describing Social Insect Behaviour Using Process Algebra - http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Chris_Tofts/Papers/SocialInsects.pdf
Chris Tofts at University College Swansea, Wales, presents robust algorithms that describe three different ant behaviours: synchrony, task allocation and sorting |
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Kohler’s Research on the Mentality of Apes - http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/psych26/kohler.htm
Excerpt from a book by Gould and Gould discussing the tests that Kohler set the chimpanzees he was marooned with during the First World War. |
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Avian Visual Cognition - http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/avc/toc.htm
This multimedia cyberbook provides a comprehensive survey of this area of comparative research with chapters by top international scientists. |
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Alpha Status, Dominance, and Division of Labor in Wolf Packs - http://www.scallywags1.freeserve.co.uk/alstat/alstat.htm
Describes the wolf-pack social order as it occurs in nature, discusses the alpha concept and social dominance and submission, and presents data on the precise relationships among members in free-living packs. |
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Research Centre for Behavioural and Physiological Ecology (BPERC) - http://www.une.edu.au/zoology/bperc.php
BPERC aims to investigate behavioral and physiological adaptations of native Australian mammals and birds living in various habitats and the impact of environmental change on them. |