Bøger i Monographs in Behavior and Ecology serien

Research into the lives of animals in their natural environments has revealed a rich tapestry of complex social relationships and previously unsuspected social and mating systems. The evolution of this behavior is increasingly well understood. At the same time, laboratory scientists have made significant discoveries about how steroid and peptide hormones act on the nervous system to shape behavior. An exciting and rapidly progressing hybrid zone has developed in which these two fields are integrated, providing a fuller understanding of social behavior and the adaptive functions of hormones. This book is a guide to these fascinating connections between animal social behavior and steroid and peptide hormones--a synthesis designed to make it easier for graduate students and researchers to appreciate the excitement, engage in such integrative thinking, and understand the primary literature. Throughout, Elizabeth Adkins-Regan emphasizes concepts and principles, hypothesis testing, and critical thinking. She raises unanswered questions, providing an unparalleled source of ideas for future research. The chapter sequence is by levels of biological organization, beginning with the behavior and hormones of individuals, proceeding to social relationships and systems, and from there to development, behavioral evolution over relatively short time scales, life histories and their evolution, and finally evolution over longer time scales. The book features studies of a wide variety of wild and domestic vertebrates along with some of the most important invertebrate discoveries.

The self-sacrifice of sterile workers in ant colonies has been particularly difficult for evolutionary biologists to explain. This title presents an overview of the scientific knowledge about social evolution in ants. It shows how studies on ants have contributed to an understanding of many fundamental topics in behavioral ecology.

Providing a synthesis of sexual selection, this work describes the theory and its development; examines models, methods, and empirical tests; and identifies unsolved problems. It discusses such topics as the selection and evolution of mating preferences; relations between sexual selection and speciation; constraints on sexual selection; and more.

Describes the sexual behavior of guppies and examines how mate choice by females leads to the evolution of the conspicuous colors and the courtship displays for which guppies are recognized. The author explores the implications of her findings for behavioral ecologists who study sexual selection in other species.

Many evidences have begun to reveal flaws in the assumption of female passivity and lack of discrimination after copulation has begun. This book features research on the ability of females to shape the outcome of mating. It also describes studies of cryptic mechanisms by which a female can accept a male for copulation but reject him as a father.

Analyzes theoretical and empirical work on insect sperm competition. This work considers both male and female interests in sperm utilization and the sexual conflict that can arise when these differ. It covers the mechanics of sperm transfer and utilization, morphology, physiology, and behavior.

Synthesizing studies of parental care in a wide variety of animals, this book provides general answers to the following important questions: Why does the extent of parental care vary so widely between species? Why do only females care for eggs and young in some animals, only males in others, and both parents in a few?

Presents a conceptual and statistical framework for understanding the evolution of reproductive strategies. Using the concept of the opportunity for sexual selection, this book illustrates how and why sexual selection, though restricted to one sex and opposed in the other, is one of the strongest and fastest of all evolutionary forces.

Features researchers, who describe why they chose their systems, how they integrate theoretical, conceptual, and empirical work, lessons for the practice of the discipline, and potential avenues of future research. This book offers a "systems" focus and insights into the confluence of personal curiosity and scientific inquiry.

Brings together leading researchers from biological disciplines to outline the potential conflicts and discuss how they are resolved. This volume presents a comprehensive survey of the theoretical and empirical research in evolutionary biology.

Analyzes how parasites shape the biology of social insects: the ants, wasps, bees, and termites. This book places the issues such as division of labor, genetics, immunology, and epidemiology in a common framework to examine two of the most successful adaptations of life: parasitism and sociality.

Providing an introduction to parasitoid natural history and taxonomy, this book asks how a consideration of evolutionary biology can help us understand the behavior, ecology, and diversity of the approximately one to two million species of parasitoid found on earth. It also discusses the theoretical background to the subject.

Treats one of the central problems in evolutionary biology, the evolution of social cooperation and conflict. This book tackles the problem with an original combination of approaches: game theory, classical models of natural selection, quantitative genetics, and kin selection.

How can we make better sense of animal behavior by using what we know about the brain? This is the first book that attempts to answer this important question by applying neural network theory. Scientists create Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to make models of the brain. These networks mimic the architecture of a nervous system by connecting elementary neuron-like units into networks in which they stimulate or inhibit each other's activity in much the same way neurons do. This book shows how scientists can employ ANNs to analyze animal behavior, explore the general principles of the nervous systems, and test potential generalizations among species. The authors focus on simple neural networks to show how ANNs can be investigated by math and by computers. They demonstrate intuitive concepts that make the operation of neural networks more accessible to nonspecialists. The first chapter introduces various approaches to animal behavior and provides an informal introduction to neural networks, their history, and their potential advantages. The second chapter reviews artificial neural networks, including biological foundations, techniques, and applications. The following three chapters apply neural networks to such topics as learning and development, classical instrumental condition, and the role of genes in building brain networks. The book concludes by comparing neural networks to other approaches. It will appeal to students of animal behavior in many disciplines. It will also interest neurobiologists, cognitive scientists, and those from other fields who wish to learn more about animal behavior.

This volume brings together more than a decade of information collected in the field and lab on the naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber), a northeast African mammal unique for its physical characteristics and eusociality. Nearly blind and virtually hairless, naked mole-rats inhabit large subterranean colonies in which only one female and her one to three mates conceive offspring, while the young from previous litters maintain and defend the group as do workers in colonies of the social insects. In this first major treatise on naked mole-rats an international group of researchers covers such topics as the evolution of eusociality, phylogeny and systematics of the rodent family Bathyergidae, population and behavioral ecology and genetics of naked mole-rats in the field, vocal and nonvocal behaviors, social organization and divisions of labor within colonies, and climatic, social, and physiological factors affecting growth, reproduction, and reproductive suppression. In addition to the editors, the contributors are D. H. Abbott, M. W. Allard, N. C. Bennett, R. A. Brett, S. H. Braude, B. Crespi, S. V. Edwards, C. G. Faulkes, L. M. George, R. L. Honeycutt, E. A. Lacey, C. E. Liddell, E. McDaid, K. Nelson, K. M. Noonan, J. O''Riain, J. W. Pepper, H. K. Reeve, and D. A. Schlitter.Originally published in 1991.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Gull chicks beg for food from their parents. Peacocks spread their tails to attract potential mates. Meerkats alert family members of the approach of predators. But are these--and other animals--sometimes dishonest? That's what William Searcy and Stephen Nowicki ask in The Evolution of Animal Communication. They take on the fascinating yet perplexing question of the dependability of animal signaling systems. The book probes such phenomena as the begging of nesting birds, alarm calls in squirrels and primates, carotenoid coloration in fish and birds, the calls of frogs and toads, and weapon displays in crustaceans. Do these signals convey accurate information about the signaler, its future behavior, or its environment? Or do they mislead receivers in a way that benefits the signaler? For example, is the begging chick really hungry as its cries indicate or is it lobbying to get more food than its brothers and sisters? Searcy and Nowicki take on these and other questions by developing clear definitions of key issues, by reviewing the most relevant empirical data and game theory models available, and by asking how well theory matches data. They find that animal communication is largely reliable--but that this basic reliability also allows the clever deceiver to flourish. Well researched and clearly written, their book provides new insight into animal communication, behavior, and evolution.

Describes a flexible technique for the modeling of behavior, based on evolutionary principles. The technique employs stochastic dynamic programming and permits the analysis of behavioral adaptations wherein organisms respond to changes in their environment and physiological state. This book shows how to construct and use dynamic behavioral models.

This work is based on a six year study of African wild dogs, lycaon pictus, in Tanzania's Selous Game Reserve, the largest protected area in Africa and one of the least-studied.

The past decade has seen a profound change in the scientific understanding of reproduction. The traditional view of reproduction as a joint venture undertaken by two individuals, aimed at replicating their common genome, is being challenged by a growing body of evidence showing that the evolutionary interests of interacting males and females diverge. This book demonstrates that, despite a shared genome, conflicts between interacting males and females are ubiquitous, and that selection in the two sexes is continuously pulling this genome in opposite directions. These conflicts drive the evolution of a great variety of those traits that distinguish the sexes and also contribute to the diversification of lineages. Goran Arnqvist and Locke Rowe present an array of evidence for sexual conflict throughout nature, and they set these conflicts into the well-established theoretical framework of sexual selection. The recognition of conflict between the sexes is transforming our theories for the evolution of mating systems and the sexes themselves. Written by two top researchers in the field, Sexual Conflict is the first book to describe this transformation. It is a must read for all scholars and students interested in the evolutionary biology of reproduction.

Focuses on the ways in which animals search and compete for food in groups. This book identifies social foraging as an economic interaction between the actions of individuals and those of other foragers. It is of interest to researchers and graduate students in such areas as behavioral ecology, population ecology, and wildlife management.

This volume brings together more than a decade of information collected in the field and lab on the naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber), a northeast African mammal unique for its physical characteristics and eusociality. Nearly blind and virtually hairless, naked mole-rats inhabit large subterranean colonies in which only one female and her one to three mates conceive offspring, while the young from previous litters maintain and defend the group as do workers in colonies of the social insects. In this first major treatise on naked mole-rats an international group of researchers covers such topics as the evolution of eusociality, phylogeny and systematics of the rodent family Bathyergidae, population and behavioral ecology and genetics of naked mole-rats in the field, vocal and nonvocal behaviors, social organization and divisions of labor within colonies, and climatic, social, and physiological factors affecting growth, reproduction, and reproductive suppression. In addition to the editors, the contributors are D. H. Abbott, M. W. Allard, N. C. Bennett, R. A. Brett, S. H. Braude, B. Crespi, S. V. Edwards, C. G. Faulkes, L. M. George, R. L. Honeycutt, E. A. Lacey, C. E. Liddell, E. McDaid, K. Nelson, K. M. Noonan, J. O''Riain, J. W. Pepper, H. K. Reeve, and D. A. Schlitter.Originally published in 1991.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This text presents existing knowledge on two main aspects of lekking - the gathering together of males in small territories in order to display and thus attract a mate. It asks why leks evolve in some species and not others, and why females select their males through lekking.