1 - Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 August 2010
Summary
Some of the most conspicuous behaviours performed by an animal are related to communication – communication that mediates reproduction and survival. As explained below, a knowledge of animal communication is important in more respects than simply its role in understanding such fundamental aspects of animals'lives. This book is about a perspective that can increase our understanding of animal communication.
One way in which animal communication is important is that it interfaces with and links several fields of study. In the field of behaviour, for example, communication is often used to illustrate Niko Tinbergen's four types of question (function, mechanism, development and evolution) and how the answers complement each other (e.g. Krebs & Davies, 1993). Communication has interfaces with many other areas of biology including evolution, ecology, population genetics, neurobiology and physiology. For example, it can be a window into the cognitive worlds of animals (e.g. Ch. 24). Links with other sciences are shown by the use of ideas and techniques from psychology to understand how communication is perceived (Ch. 20), and using information from physics and chemistry to explain how communication is achieved (e.g. Bradbury & Vehrencamp, 1998).
Communication cannot occur in isolation; it is an inherently social behaviour. This makes it even more surprising that the wider social context in which communication takes place is rarely considered explicitly. As explained in the next paragraph, it is likely that communication commonly occurs in the context of a network of several animals.
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- Animal Communication Networks , pp. 1 - 6Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005
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