Course Animal Ecology PDF
Introduction
Animal ecology is an important area of study for scientists. It is the study of animals and how they related to each other as well as their environment. It can also be defined as the scientific study of interactions that determine the distribution and abundance of organisms. Since this is a course in animal ecology, we will focus on animals, which we will define fairly generally as organisms that can move around during some stages of their life and that must feed on other organisms or their products. There are various forms of animal ecology. This includes:
-Behavioral ecology, the study of the behavior of the animals with relation to their environment and others.
-Population ecology, the study of the effects on the population of these animals.
-Marine ecology is the scientific study of marine-life habitat, populations, and interactions among organisms and the surrounding environment including their abiotic (non-living physical and chemical factors that affect the ability of organisms to survive and reproduce) and biotic factors (living things or the materials that directly or indirectly affect an organism in its environment).
-Evolutionary ecology is the study of how animals evolve over time to meet the demands on them.
This course deals with the historical concept of ecology, ecology of local and aquatic animals. The other contents are growth rate, age structure of animal population, Natality and Mortality, Survivorship Curves, Life Tables and K-Factor Analysis, Competition, The Natural Regulation of Animal Numbers, Population Cycles, Dynamics of Predator-Prey Systems, Ecology of African Mammals and Behavioural Ecology.
Course Animal Ecology PDF