Cooperative Breeding in Mammals

by Nancy G. Solomon, Jeffrey A. French

Overview

Cooperative breeding refers to a social system in which individuals other than the parents provide care for the offspring. Since individuals delay breeding and invest in the offspring of others, cooperative breeding poses a challenge to a Darwinian explanation of the evolution of social behavior. The contributors to this book explore the evolutionary, ecological, behavioral, and physiological basis of cooperative breeding in mammals. The book contains a collection of chapters by the leading researchers in the field, and it is the first book dedicated exclusively to the study of mammalian cooperative breeding.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521038287
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/29/2007
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	5.94(w) x 8.94(h) x 0.91(d)

Table of Contents

List of contributors; Preface; 1. The study of mammalian cooperative breeding Nancy G. Solomon and Jeffrey A. French; 2. The bioenergetics of parental behaviour and the evolution of alloparental care in marmosets and tamarins Suzette D. Tardif; 3. Proximate regulation of singular breeding in Callitrichid primates Jeffrey A. French; 4. Cooperative breeding, reproductive suppression and body size in canids Patricia D. Moehlman and Heribert Hofer; 5. Hormonal and experiential factors in the expression of social and parental behaviour in canids Cheryl S. Asa; 6. Variation in reproductive suppression among dwarf mongooses: interplay between mechanisms and evolution Scott R. Creel and Peter M. Waser; 7. Dynamic optimization and cooperative breeding: an evaluation of future fitness effects Jeffrey R. Lucas, Scott R. Creel and Peter M. Waser; 8. Examination of alternative hypotheses for cooperative breeding in rodents Nancy G. Solomon and Lowell L. Getz; 9. The psychobiological basis of cooperative breeding in rodents C. Sue Carter and R. Lucille Roberts; 10. Cooperative breeding in naked mole-rats: implications for vertebrate and invertebrate sociality Eileen A. Lacey and Paul W. Sherman; 11. The physiology of a reproductive dictatorship: regulation of male and female reproduction by a single breeding female in colonies of naked mole-rats Christopher G. Faulkes and David H. Abbott; 12. Factors influencing the occurrence of communal care in plural breeding mammals Susan E. Lewis and Anne E. Pusey; 13. A bird's-eye view of mammalian cooperative breeding Ronald L. Mumme; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"This volume is the first on cooperative breeding in mammals, and it will consequently serve as a landmark in the field." Jerram L. Brown, The Quarterly Review of Biology

"...an important reference for behavioral ecologists, ethologists, physiologists, and mamalogists. It should be read by ornithologists who wish to avoid 'taxonomic tunnel vision'" Jerram L. Brown, The Quarterly Review of Biology

From the Publisher