We have written this book as a guide to the design and analysis of field studies of resource selection, concentrating primarily on statistical aspects of the comparison of the use and availability of resources of different types. Our intended audience is field ecologists in general and, in particular, wildlife and fisheries biologists who are attempting to measure the extent to which real animal populations are selective in their choice of food and habitat. As such, we have made no attempt to address those aspects of theoretical ecology that are concerned with how animals might choose their resources if they acted in an optimal manner. The book is based on the concept of a resource selection function (RSF), where this is a function of characteristics measured on resourceunits such that its value for a unit is proportional to the probability of that unit being used. We argue that this concept leads to a unified theory for the analysis and interpretation of data on resource selection and can replace many ad hoc statistical methods that have been used in the past.

We have written this book as a guide to the design and analysis of field studies of resource selection, concentrating primarily on statistical aspects of the comparison of the use and availability of resources of different types. Our in tended audience is field ecologists in general and wildlife biologists in particular who are attempting to measure the extent to which real animal populations are selective in their choice of food and habitat. As such, we have made no attempt to address those aspects of theoretical ecology that are concerned with how animals might choose their resources if they acted in an optimal manner. The book is based on the concept of a resource selection function, where this is a function of characteristics measured on resource units such that its value for a unit is proportional to the probability of that unit being used. We argue that this concept leads to a unified theory for the analysis and interpretation of data on resource selection and can replace many ad hoc statistical methods that have been used in the past.

Radio Tracking and Animal Populations is a succinct synthesis of emerging technologies and their applications to the empirical and theoretical problems of population assessment. The book is divided into sections designed to encompass the various aspects of animal ecology that may be evaluated using radiotelemetry technology - experimental design, equipment and technology, animal movement, resource selection, and demographics. Wildlife biologists at the leading edge of new developments in the technology and its application have joined forces.

The field of whole genome selection has quickly developed into the breeding methodology of the future. As efforts to map a wide variety of animal genomes have matured and full animal genomes are now available for many animal scientists and breeders are looking to apply these techniques to livestock production. Providing a comprehensive, forward-looking review of animal genomics, Genomic Selection in Animals provides coverage of genomic selection in a variety of economically important species including cattle, swine, and poultry. The historical foundations of genomic selection are followed by chapters that review and assess current techniques. The final chapter looks toward the future and what lies ahead for field as application of genomic selection becomes more widespread. A concise, useful summary of the field by one of the world’s leading researchers, Genomic Selection in Animals fills an important gap in the literature of animal breeding and genomics.

This book is about resource allocation matters with the aim to further development thoughts and models on resource allocation applied to livestock production. It contains 18 chapters divided into 4 parts which discuss resources and resource allocation patterns, trade-offs, metabolic constraints to resource allocation and the process of homeorhesis with a special emphasis to homeorhesis during heat stress; the relationship between food intake and resources allocated to body maintenance, growth, reproduction and the immune response; the consequences of high production efficiency in pigs, poultry and dairy cattle and the consequences of improved production by means of biological engineering and options to include resource allocation matters in the breeding objective, animal welfare and in resource allocation modelling.

This is a book about proximate mechanisms. Although some theoreti cal structure is used to introduce the subject, the intent is to offer a comprehensive view of the mechanistic side of searching (or foraging) so as to balance the current emphasis of books on mathematical and functional models. It seems to me that the pendulum needs to swing back to studies of how animals behave, and that maybe in so doing models will become valuable again in driving experimentation. I have probably included too many examples in this book, and some are even presented in great detail. Hopefully, they provide a complete picture of the kind of animals used, the experimental setup, the kinds of data yielded, and how the data were analysed. I have done this in response to frustrating experiences of reading chapters in behavioural ecobgy books that provide insufficient information with which to evaluate an author's conclusion.