Pheromones and Animal Behaviour: Communication by Smell and Taste [Paperback]

Tristram D. Wyatt (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0521485266 | ISBN-13: 978-0521485265 | Publication Date: March 24, 2003

The importance of chemical communication is illustrated in this study with examples from a diverse range of animals including humans, marine copepods, Drosophila, Caenorhabditis elegans, moths, snakes, goldfish, elephants and mice. For students of ecology, evolution and behavior, Tristram Wyatt provides an introduction to the rapid progress in the understanding of olfaction at the molecular and neurological level. In addition, he offers chemists, molecular biologists and neurobiologists insights into the ecological, evolutionary and behavioral context of olfactory communication.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Wyatt demonstrates an impressive grasp of the literature and has written a most enjoyable and informative textbook (one that I read non-stop)."
Nature Neuroscience

"...an accessible textbook that offers advanced undergraduate and graduate students a data-based, integrative, and broadly comparative synthesis of this field...it's readable and engaging style will launch many productive arguments along the way."
Ethology

"...as an accessible and intelligent general work on pheromones, this book is invaluable. It is also rare and welcome in its capacity for easy and readable explanation of both the proximate and the ultimate roles of pheromones in animal behavior."
International Journal of Primatology

"The text is sufficiently referenced and well indexed. It would be hard to overstate the importance of this book for its contribution to the understanding of animal behavior."
Human Nature Review

"Pheromones are by far the most important signals used by organisms of all kinds. Wyatt's book is an excellent text and review: up-to-date, comprehensive, balanced, detailed, clearly written, and nicely illustrated."
Edward O. Wilson

"This fascinating book...is an advance over previous monographs in that it is truly interdisciplinary, including as it does studies through the disciplines of chemistry, behavior, neurobiology, endocrinology, ecology and evolution...A highly recommended source of inspiration and information for all interested in behavior and ecology."
Bulletin of the British Ecological Society

"Enjoyable reading and a highly successful endeavor that can serve as a course text, and update on the field, or a reference book."
American Entomologist

"This well-illustrated, thoroughly referenced work is admirably accessible and lucid. It offers much both as a textbook and as an introduction to this remarkable field for new investigators. Tristram Wyatt has given us a gem!"
Quarterly Review of Biology, John G. Hildebrand

"Recommended."
Choice

"Overall, Pheromones and Animal Behaviour is enjoyable reading and a highly successful endeavor that can serve as a course text, an update on the field, or a reference book."
Bruce A. Schulte, Entomological Society of America

Book Description

All animals communicate using scents called pheromones, which, amongst other things, are used to find mates, to warn off or encourage others of the same or different species, and to label places as 'home'. The first book to cover the whole animal kingdom at this level for 25 years, it draws examples from humans, insects, fish, snakes and mice. This book takes the reader further into the story of pheromones than all existing texts, but will be understandable and enjoyed by students and researchers from a wide variety of disciplines.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (March 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521485266
• ISBN-13: 978-0521485265
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,396,536 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear, helpful, up-to-date introduction, November 20, 2009

By 

Peter S. Oliphant, Ph.D. (Rising Sun, Maryland) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pheromones and Animal Behaviour: Communication by Smell and Taste (Paperback)

Tristram Wyatt's introductory text on pheromones and animal behavior is clearly written, most terms are defined with pointers to their origins, and terms are consistently used. His presentation is comprehensive in that its follows a list of sexual, alarm, aggregation, recruitment, scent, primer, and orientation pheromones, devoting a chapter to each. He includes summary tables, helpful illustrations, examples from many species, and discussions of the literature to date. He explains the chemistry of chemical signals, the anatomy of production and uptake, and observed biological consequences for reproduction and social organization. Following its list of pheromones, his book closes with a chapter on the preliminary use of pheromones and a chapter on the inconclusive data as to the possibility that humans may use sexual pheromones. Darwinian biology underlies references to theory, but Darwinian evolutionary theory itself is not formally explicated. He reports the familiar just-so stories that Darwinians speculate with, but mostly just reviews the various Darwinian hypotheses on the relation of reproduction to speciation and hedges when data do not support the theory and when the theory does not explain the data. Anyone who wants an overview and update on the technical literature will greatly benefit from this nicely written, professional book.

5.0 out of 5 stars A must have if you research on pheromones, October 14, 2011

By 

Neurobiologist - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pheromones and Animal Behaviour: Communication by Smell and Taste (Paperback)

I am a 3rd year postdoc in the field of neurosciences. I am interested in olfaction, innate behaviors and neural circuits. Recently I ordered this book and I am very happy with it. It is a must have if you are interested in how olfactory cues can affect behavior and/or physiology. Very very helpful! 5 starts IMHO