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"The authors consider individual organisms before considering habitats; they demonstrate how to apply such an approach to animal ecology in the field. The book is meant for wildlife professionals who are interested in exploring what kinds of insights this alternative approach can yield"--

This book provides expert evaluation of the use of video techniques in a wide range of behavioural and ecological research situations. Covering applied techniques both in the laboratory and the field, the latest results from leading expert researchers are given

AbstractTracking technology has been heralded as transformative for animal ecology. In this paper I examine what changes are taking place, showing how current animal movement research is a field ripe for philosophical investigation. I focus first on how the devices alter the limitations and biases of traditional field observation, making observation of animal movement and behaviour possible in more detail, for more varied species, and under a broader variety of conditions, as well as restricting the influence of human presence and observer bias. I reconstruct these as shifts in scope, objectivity, accuracy and fruitfulness. The second transformation is slightly less obvious but equally significant for animal ecology. Tracking devices generate complex data that demands both statistical and biological expertise, which has led to increasingly frequent and intensive collaborations between statisticians and biologists. Based on interviews, I examine how researchers in these interdisciplinary collaborations negotiate the collection, analysis and interpretation of movement data, integrating research interests, methodological constraints, previous field observations, and background theory. Tracking technology is therefore also shifting which disciplinary considerations are brought to bear on research into animal movement and behaviour and how this research is conducted.

This book continues the authoritative and established sequence of theoretical ecology books initiated by Robert M. May which helped pave the way for ecology to become a more robust theoretical science, encouraging the modern biologist to better understand the mathematics behind their theories.

Intro -- BEHAVIORAL AND CHEMICAL ECOLOGY -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- COLLECTING ARTHROPOD AND AMPHIBIAN SECRETIONS FOR CHEMICAL ANALYSES -- ABSTRACT -- 1. INTRODUCTION -- 1.1. Arthropod Secretions and Venoms -- 1.2. Amphibian Skin Secretions -- 1.3. Sources of Defensive Chemicals Known from Amphibian Skin Secretions -- 1.3.1. Microsymbionts that Produce Defensive Chemicals -- 1.3.2. Dietary Sequestration of Toxins -- 1.3.3. Biosynthesis of defensive chemicals -- 1.4. Chemicals Used in Communication -- 1.4.1. Pheromones and allelochemicals -- 1.4.2. Behavioral studies in the field and laboratory -- 1.5. Aim of This Chapter -- 2. COLLECTION PREPARATION AND LOGISTICS -- 2.1. In-Country Collaborators and Local Support -- 2.2. Research/Collecting and Export/Import Permits -- 2.3. Tropical Field Work -- 2.4. Materials -- 3. COLLECTION METHODS -- 3.1. Record Keeping -- 3.2. Avoiding Contamination -- 3.3. Nonlethal Amphibian Skin Secretion Collection -- 3.3.1. Secretion induction via electronic stimulation -- 3.3.2. Secretion induction via mechanical stimulation -- 3.3.3. Other Techniques for Secretion Induction and Collection -- 3.3.4. Genetic Material -- 3.4. Frog Voucher Collection -- 3.4.1. Euthanization and Skinning -- 3.4.2. Stomach Contents -- 3.4.3. Genetic Material -- 3.5. Arthropod Chemicals -- 3.5.1. Whole Animal Extracts -- 3.5.2. Specialized Arthropod Secretion And Venom Collection -- 4. CHEMICAL ANALYSIS-OVERVIEW FOR BIOLOGISTS AS IS RELEVANT TO COLLECTION TECHNIQUES -- 4.1. Purification and Fractionation -- 4.2. Spectroscopic Methods -- 4.3. Contamination- An Example from the Literature -- 4.4. Artifacts -- 5. CONCLUSION -- 6. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- 7. REFERENCES -- 8. APPENDIX: EXAMPLE PACKING LIST FOR TROPICALFIELD WORK -- Personal Supplies for Carry-on -- Camping -- Personal -- Medical -- Team Supplies (Camping, Food, Clothes, Etc).

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- What Are Partnerships? -- Strange Friends -- Cleaning Services -- Teamwork -- Farmers and Scavengers -- Underwater Partners -- Be My Guest! -- Masters of Disguise -- Unwelcome Guests -- Glossary -- Websites -- Read More -- Index -- Back Cover.

"This book covers selected topics on research methods in modern ecology, through the lens of 12 different chapters, focusing on animal ecology, landcover assessment and habitat change, human perspectives and management, and research techniques. Topics emphasize the development of enhanced computer software techniques and the syntheses of these into pre-existing research methods, chemical analyses, including studies of animal dietary and foraging patterns, landcover, habitat and plant ecological change and even human/animal relations, and genetic studies. Remote sensing and geographical information systems are considered as cutting-edge research methods, at small, medium and large-scale levels, including more accurate positioning systems, more sensitive tracking systems, the removal of obstacles to clearer observation and species identification, such as darkness and poor lighting, dense vegetation and coarse image resolution and more comparative studies across different local contexts and global ecosystems. The topics cover vulture ecology, the factors for the decline and management of Asian vultures, the use of tracking technologies including drones, in the study of urban vulture ecology, the use of thermal and infrared drones in the study of large mammalian carnivores, the role of remote sensing and GIS in the assessment of natural resource development, clustering around the central concept of change detection, the monitoring of agricultural development using socio-cultural parameters, the impacts of chemical pollution on raptors, the chemistry of vulture foraging, habitat dynamics for storks in Malaysia, Indian ecotourism in tiger habitats, and human-wildlife conflicts in Brazil. Other topics concern research on Bio-environmental Monitoring and Assessment using eDNA and Genome-based environmental monitoring, and the dynamics social perceptions of natural landscapes in Europe, and international examples of the Landscape Ecology of Urban Avian Scavengers. This book argues that these issues represent some cutting factors among the vast number of current ecological issues"--