Animal Population Ecology

One cannot work in a subject for twenty years without developing one's own set of prejudices. One of mine is that I believe that a real understanding of the factors determining the abundance of animals can be obtained only by the intensive study of animal populations in the field. In my opinion, only limited progress can be made in constructing realistic population models until there is a firmer basis of field data on which to build. I have little doubt that this bias will be readily recognisable in this book, but I should like to think that this will encourage students to study real situations rather than to build elaborate theories for which the basic assumptions cannot be tested. The latter is an attractive past-time, since it avoids the need for committing many years to the collection of data. On the other hand, population ecology suffers from a surfeit of theories and a scarcity of hard evidence. Added to this, considerable satisfaction can be obtained from trying to unravel the complex of factors which affect an animal's numbers, and there are many problems facing Man today which can be solved only by an understanding of the dynamics of animal populations. I have no hesitation in recommending population ecology as a worthwhile and challenging subject for study. I hope that I have managed to convey some of its excitement in this short book.