Model Systems in Behavioral Ecology: Integrating Conceptual, Theoretical, and Empirical Approaches

Lee Alan Dugatkin

Princeton University Press, Oct 7, 2001 - Science - 551 pages

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.

Contents

• Golden Flies Sunlit Meadows A Tribute to the Yellow Dungfly: 3
• A Feeling and a Fondness for the Bees: 27
• Peeling the Onion Symbioses between Ants and Blue Butterflies: 41
• In Search of Unified Theories in Sociobiology Help from Social Wasps: 57
• Genetic Consequences of Sexual Selection in StalkEyed Flies: 72
• The Behavioral Ecology of Stridulatory Communication in LeafCutting Ants: 92
• Understanding the Evolution of Social Behavior in Colonial WebBuilding Spiders: 110
• Variation and Selection in Swordtails: 133
• Stamps Judy Learning from Lizards: 149
• Acoustic Communication in Frogs and Toads: 169
• Selection in Local Neighborhoods the Social Environment and Ecology of Alternative Strategies: 191
• Synthesis Environment Mating Systems and Life History Allocations in the Bluehead Wrasse: 227
• The Economics of Sequential Mate Choice in Sticklebacks: 245
• Conversing with a Bird Studies of Mating and Parental Behavior in RedWinged Blackbirds: 265
• The Evolution of Virtual Ecology: 288
• Wood Ducks A Model System for Investigating Conspecific Parasitism in CavityNesting Birds: 311
• The Mexican Jay as a Model System for the Study of Large Group Size and Its Social Correlates in a Territorial Bird: 338
• Sexual Selection in the Barn Swallow: 359
• Cunning Coyotes Tireless Tricksters Protean Predators: 381
• Bottlenose Dolphins Social Relationships in a BigBrained Aquatic Mammal: 408
• Bonnet Macaques Evolutionary Perspectives on Females Lives: 433
• Chimpanzee Hunters Chaos or Cooperation in the Forest?: 453
• Cooperative Hunting and Sociality in African Wild Dogs Lycaon pictus: 466
• Gorilla Socioecology Conflict and Compromise between the Sexes: 491
• Cheetahs and Their Mating System: 512
• Closing Thoughts: 533
• Contributors: 535
• Index: 539

About the author

Lee Alan Dugatkin is Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Louisville. He is the author of The Imitation Factor: Evolution Beyond the Gene, Cheating Monkeys and Citizen Bees: The Nature of Cooperation in Animals and Humans, Cooperation Among Animals: an Evolutionary Perspective, and the coeditor of, Game Theory and Animal Behavior.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Model Systems in Behavioral Ecology: Integrating Conceptual, Theoretical, and Empirical Approaches; Model Systems in Behavioral Ecology: Integrating Conceptual, Theoretical, and Empirical Approaches, Lee Alan Dugatkin; Volume 23 of Monographs in Behavior and Ecology, ISSN 2691-8625
• Editor: Lee Alan Dugatkin
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2001
• ISBN: 0691006539, 9780691006536
• Length: 551 pages
• Subjects: Science / Life Sciences / Biology; Science / Life Sciences / Ecology; Science / Life Sciences / Zoology / Ethology (Animal Behavior); Science / Life Sciences / Zoology / General