Part 1: Basics -- Chapter 1: Behavioral Biology: Content and History -- Chapter 2: Methods and Concepts of Behavioral Biology -- Chapter 3: Behavior, Evolution and Life histories -- Part 2: Survival Strategies -- Chapter 4: Basic Function and Behavior -- Chapter 5: Orientation in Time and Space -- Chapter 6: Habitat and Food Selection -- Chapter 7: Predation -- Part 3: Reproduction -- Chapter 8: Sexual selection: Evolutionary Foundations -- Chapter 9: Intrasexual selection: how males compete -- Chapter 10: Intersexual selection: how females choose -- Part 4: Parental Care and Infant Development -- Chapter 11: Parental care -- Chapter 12: Development and control of behaviour -- Part 5: Social evolution -- Chapter 13: Social systems -- Chapter 14: Social structure.

This textbook presents all basic principles of animal behaviour in a clear and concise manner and illustrates them with up-to-date examples. Emphasis is placed on behavioural biology as an integrative discipline of organismic biology, focusing on the adaptive value of behaviours that facilitate resource access, predator avoidance and reproductive success and underlie parental care, all within a comprehensive presentation of social complexity. This new textbook provides a rich resource for students (and teachers) from a wide range of life science disciplines.