The Handbook of Mammalian Vocalization represents a collective effort of over 80 authors representing 13 countries from 5 continents in creating this extensive monograph. The central subject, the mammalian vocalization, has been approached from a multitude of angles originating both from essential as well as side disciplines. The main, leading concept of the Handbook comes from the perspective of integrative neuroscience, which cements together many views and approaches and offers the best synthetic grasp of the phenomenon. In order to achieve this goal, however, many chapters from disciplines other than neuroscience appeared to be necessary to broaden the general knowledge of all important aspects of vocal behavior from molecular, cellular, pharmacological, organ and systems approaches on one side, to zoological, developmental, genetic, evolutionary, ecological, etho- logical and communication issues on the other.