Model Systems in Behavioral Ecology

by Dugatkin, Lee Alan

• ISBN13: 9780691006529
• ISBN10: 0691006520
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-10-01
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

A key way that behavioral ecologists develop general theories of animal behavior is by studying one species or a closely related group of species--''model systems''--over a long period. This book brings together some of the field's most respected researchers to 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. Their model systems encompass a wide range of animals and behavioral issues, from dung flies to sticklebacks, dolphins to African wild dogs, from foraging to aggression, territoriality to reproductive suppression.Model Systems in Behavioral Ecology offers an unprecedented ''systems'' focus and revealing insights into the confluence of personal curiosity and scientific inquiry. It will be an invaluable text for behavioral ecology courses and a helpful overview--and a preview of coming developments--for advanced researchers. The twenty-five chapters are divided into four sections: insects and arachnids, amphibians and reptiles, birds, and mammals.In addition to the editor, the contributors include Geoff A. Parker, Thomas D. Seeley, Naomi Pierce, Kern Reeve, Gerald S. Wilkinson, Bert Hölldobler and Flavio Roces, George W. Uetz, Michael J. Ryan and Gil Rosenthal, Judy Stamps, H. Carl Gerhardt, Barry Sinervo, Robert Warner, Manfred Milinski, David F. Westneat, Alan C. Kamil and Alan B. Bond, Paul Sherman, Jerram L. Brown, Anders Pape Møller, Marc Bekoff, Richard C. Connor, Joan B. Silk, Christopher Boesch, Scott Creel, A.H. Harcourt, and Tim Caro and M. J. Kelly.

Author Biography

Lee Alan Dugatkin is Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Louisville

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Lee Alan Dugatkin
Acknowledgments	xxiii
PART I Insect & Arachnid Model Systems
Golden Flies, Sunlit Meadows: A Tribute to the Yellow Dungfly	3	(24)
Geoff A. Parker
A Feeling and a Fondness for the Bees	27	(14)
Thomas D. Seeley
Peeling the Onion: Symbioses between Ants and Blue Butterflies	41	(16)
Naomi E. Pierce
In Search of Unified Theories in Sociobiology: Help from Social Wasps	57	(15)
Hudson Kern Reeve
Genetic Consequences of Sexual Selection in Stalk-Eyed Flies	72	(20)
Gerald S. Wilkinson
The Behavioral Ecology of Stridulatory Communication in Leaf-Cutting Ants	92	(18)
Bert Holldobler
Flavio Roces
Understanding the Evolution of Social Behavior in Colonial Web-Building Spiders	110	(23)
George W. Uetz
PART II Fish, Amphibian, & Reptile Model Systems
Variation and Selection in Swordtails	133	(16)
Michael J. Ryan
Gil G. Rosenthal
Learning from Lizards	149	(20)
Judy Stamps
Acoustic Communication in Frogs and Toads	169	(22)
H. Carl Gerhardt
Selection in Local Neighborhoods, the Social Environment, and Ecology of Alternative Strategies	191	(36)
Barry Sinervo
Synthesis: Environment, Mating Systems, and Life History Allocations in the Bluehead Wrasse	227	(18)
Robert R. Warner
The Economics of Sequential Mate Choice in Sticklebacks	245	(20)
Manfred Milinski
PART III Bird Model Systems
Conversing with a Bird: Studies of Mating and Parental Behavior in Red-Winged Blackbirds	265	(23)
David F. Westneat
The Evolution of Virtual Ecology	288	(23)
Alan C. Kamil
Alan B. Bond
Wood Ducks: A Model System for Investigating Conspecific Parasitism in Cavity-Nesting Birds	311	(27)
Paul W. Sherman
The Mexican Jay as a Model System for the Study of Large Group Size and Its Social Correlates in a Territorial Bird	338	(21)
Jerram L. Brown
Sexual Selection in the Barn Swallow	359
Anders Pape Moller
PART IV Mammal Model Systems
Cunning Coyotes: Tireless Tricksters, Protean Predators	281	(127)
Marc Bekoff
Bottlenose Dolphins: Social Relationships in a Big-Brained Aquatic Mammal	408	(25)
Richard C. Connor
Bonnet Macaques: Evolutionary Perspectives on Females' Lives	433	(20)
Joan B. Silk
Chimpanzee Hunters: Chaos or Cooperation in the Forest?	453	(13)
Christophe Boesch
Cooperative Hunting and Sociality in African Wild Dogs, Lycaon pictus	466	(25)
Scott Creel
Gorilla Socioecology: Conflict and Compromise between the Sexes	491	(21)
A. H. Harcourt
Cheetahs and Their Mating System	512	(21)
M. Caro
M. J. Kelly
Closing Thoughts	533	(2)
Lee Alan Dugatkin
Contributors	535	(4)
Index	539