Ecological Aspects of Social Evolution: Birds and Mammals

Seeking common principles of social evolution in different taxonomic groups, the contributors to this volume discuss eighteen groups of birds and mammals for which long-term field studies have been carried out. They examine how social organization is shaped by the interaction between proximate ecological pressures and “culture” –the social tradition already in place and shaped by local and phylogenetic history. Strategies of females and males are analyzed separately, with respect to avoiding predators and obtaining access to both environmental resources and mates. Variations on a monogamous theme are discussed by Lewis W. Oring and David B. Lank, Marion Petrie, Patricia D. Moehlman, Glen E. Woolfenden and John W. Fitzpatrick, Mark Leighton, Jon P. Rood, and Frank McKinney. Patterns among polygnous societies are treated by Scott K. Robinson, Sandy J. Andelman, Mark V. Flinn and Bobbi S. Low, L.M. Gosling, Daniel I. Rubenstein, Kenneth B. Armitage, Robin I. M. Dunbar, Richard W. Wrangham, Robert M. Gibson and Jack W. Bradbury, Peter J. Jarman and Colin J. Southwell, and Craig Packer. Daniel I. Rubenstein is Associate Professor of Biology at Princeton University. Richard W. Wrangham is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Biology at the University of Michigan.