In keeping with the title of this b

In keeping with the title of this book, our focus in this chapter is on the role that heuristic models can play in tackling any particular ecological problem, and we are of the opinion that such models play a vital role in forwarding our current understanding of how ecosystems work. We begin by examining the historical development of ecological modelling, as well as more recent approaches (focusing on spatially explicit models) drawing examples from the ‘animal ecology’ literature. Nevertheless, many of our general points are relevant to all types of spatial (ecological) modelling.