Experience and learning in changing environments

This chapter investigates how animals use learning to adapt to environmental change. It explores the consequences of anthropogenic activities on learning and the adjustment of animal behaviour as a response. It considers the role of learning in the development and evolution of behaviour. It identifies circumstances under which learning is likely to play a key role in the adaptation to novel environments and rapid environmental change. It provides examples of processes in which animals adapt to human-induced habitat change, using urbanization and climate change as case studies. It presents general conclusions about certain characteristics of species that enable them to cope with rapid environmental shifts.