Why do birds have regional accents? Can horses learn math? What do animals without eyes see? Questions such as these have fascinated scientists and animal lovers alike long before ethology -- the study of animal behavior -- became recognized as a science in the 1970s. Now, as issues of conservation and welfare dominate the field, an understanding of how and why animals act the way they do has become even more critical.

Communicating the passion of the scientists who have driven the discipline, John Byers draws together evolutionary theory, ecology, population biology, genetics,...