The goal of this book is to illustrate the power of ethology's broad and integrative approach in unraveling how behavior, both simple and complex, is organized and orchestrated. The book develops this theme by looking first at traditional ethology to establish familiarity with the models which will then be used to examine neural mechanisms, social behavior and species interactions, and finally our own species.

Suggested readings at the end of each chapter serve to broaden the book's base with examples of first-rate research treated in far more detail than would be possible in text. Where such concise, semitechnical supplements are not available, short essays devoted to particular experiments or approaches a company the text.

Study questions at the end of each chapter are designed to stimulate creative thinking about the chapter's subject, and rarely have an obvious or even uniquely correct answer.

Students wishing to delve deeper into the literature surrounding a particular subject may make use of the chapter-by-chapter selected bibliography at the end.