Social learning commonly refers to the social transfer of information and skill among individuals. It encompasses a wide range of behaviors that include where and how to obtain food, how to interact with members of one's own social group, and how to identify and respond appropriately to predators. Mammalian Social Learning discusses a wide diversity of species, some of which have never been discussed in this context before, with particular reference made to their natural life strategies. Expert chapters consider social learning in humans in comparison with other mammals, especially in their...

Social learning commonly refers to the social transfer of information and skill among individuals. It encompasses a wide range of behaviors that include where and how to obtain food, how to interact with members of one's own social group, and how to identify and respond appropriately to predators. Mammalian Social Learning discusses a wide diversity of species, some of which have never been discussed in this context before, with particular reference made to their natural life strategies. Expert chapters consider social learning in humans in comparison with other mammals, especially in their...

Primates are very responsive to environmental change, although the raction and ability to adapt varies from species to species. These differences reflect their life strategies and influence their social and reproductive fitness. Their responsiveness to changes are of intrinsic interest not only to scientists who study animal behaviour but also has a much wider significance as pressure mounts on natural habitats. Additionally, there is growing concern about the well-being of primates held in the artificial environments created by human beings for captive non-human primates.

One of the most obvious changes that has occurred in behavioural biology in recent years is that it has become conspicuously a problem orientated subject. Moreover, one of the most impor- tant consequences of this has been to stimulate interdisciplinary links between evolutionary biology, zoology, ecology, anthro- pology and psychology. The time is now right to ask questions which relate whole animals in the contexts of their ecosystems, with their social behaviour and development, with their perceptual and cog- nitive capacities. These are new ways of looking at old problems, but we are...