EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY.

The article discusses the main principles of evolutionary ecology. The first principle is that one must be clear from the start as to which features of an animal species or population are evolutionary adaptations and which are merely consequences of population dynamics. The second principle is that adaptive features are to be interpreted on two levels, proximately in terms of the physiological and behavioral factors. The third principle is to stress that the overriding agent of evolution is natural selection. The fourth principle is that it is important to study evolutionary ecology in the natural habitats of a species.