Cooperative Breeding in Mammals

This book is solely devoted to cooperative breeding in mammals and represents the work of leading researchers in the field.

Nancy G. Solomon (Edited by), Jeffrey A. French (Edited by)

9780521038287, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 29 June 2007

408 pages, 54 b/w illus. 29 tables
22.7 x 15.1 x 2.3 cm, 0.618 kg

"...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

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 behaviour. The contributors to this book explore the evolutionary, ecological, behavioural 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 dedicated exclusively to the study of mammalian cooperative breeding. It will appeal to zoologists, ecologists, evolutionary biologists, and to those interested in animal behaviour.

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.

Subject Areas: Animal behaviour [PSVP], Animal reproduction [PSVH]