This single source reference text brings together information on southern African mammals, what they do and why they do it. The first section introduces the concepts of ethology - the science of animal behaviour - and traces its development and the techniques that have been designed to tackle the formidable problems of working with animals in the wild. Section two consists of 117 species accounts describing the behaviour of mammals from hedgehogs to hares, baboons to pangolins, dassies to aardvarks, lions to rats, whales to tsessebe, and even fruit bats. The reader needs no special knowledge of zoology or animal behaviour to understand and enjoy this book - technical jargon is avoided and the ethological terms are explained in the text and in a glossary. An index to English and scientific names makes the book easy to use.