This book provides advanced students and researchers with comprehensive reviews of biological questions related to feeding in vertebrates living in aquatic and terrestrial environments. Based on recent technical developments and novel conceptual approaches, the book covers functional questions on trophic behavior in nearly all vertebrate groups to provide major baselines for understanding the functioning of these organisms, with examples in a series of taxa, and ranging from structures to behavior. In turn, the book demonstrates the importance of adopting an integrative approach to the trophic system in order to understand evolutionary mechanisms under the biodiversity of vertebrates.

My interest in the behaviour and movements of birds of arid and semi-arid ecosystems began when my wife, Sue Milton, and I were Roy Siegfried, Director, at that time, of the Percy approached by Prof. FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, to set up a project to investigate granivory in the South African Karoo. Sue and I spent some time finding a suitable study site, setting up accommodations and an automatic weather station at Tierberg, in the southern Karoo near the village of Prince Albert, and planning projects. Among our first projects was a transect where we noted plant phe­ nology, measured seed densities on the soil surface, counted birds, observed ant activity, measured soil surface temperatures and col­ lected whatever climate data we could at 40 sites along a 200-km oval route. Along the way, we became interested in the marked presence and absence of birds at certain sites - abundant birds one day, and very few birds at the same site a month later. Subsequent counts along fixed transects through shrublands confirmed that a number of bird species were highly nomadic over short and long distances, locally and regionally, leading to speculation on how widespread these movements were in the arid ecosystems of the world.

This book provides advanced students and researchers with comprehensive reviews of biological questions related to feeding in vertebrates living in aquatic and terrestrial environments. Based on recent technical developments and novel conceptual approaches, the book covers functional questions on trophic behavior in nearly all vertebrate groups to provide major baselines for understanding the functioning of these organisms, with examples in a series of taxa, and ranging from structures to behavior. In turn, the book demonstrates the importance of adopting an integrative approach to the trophic system in order to understand evolutionary mechanisms under the biodiversity of vertebrates.

Most scientists agree that the 21st century will be the "Century of Biology". The revolution that started a few decades ago with the extraordinary develop­ ment of molecular biology, has provided the basis for the understanding of the mechanisms that govern life through the regulation of cell function and cell-to­ cell interactions. Neuroscience will surely be one of the biological disciplines that will profit the most from this revolution. Neuroscience comprises the study of the brain, and the more difficult relationship of brain and behavior.