Primate Ecology: Studies of Feeding and Ranging Behavior in Femurs, Monkeys and Apes describes the behavioral aspects of ecology, including activity patterning, food selection, and ranging behavior. The book is composed of 19 chapters; 17 of which are concerned with the ecology or behavior of particular social groups of primates, arranged in the taxonomic order of the species concerned. The final two chapters review some of the generalizations emerging from comparison of inter- and intraspecific differences in feeding and ranging behavior. The book aims to suggest areas of particular interest where research can be usefully developed.
This volume brings together leading experts in comparative and evolutionary psychology. Top scholars summarize the histories and possible futures of their disciplines, and the contribution of each to illuminating the evolutionary forces that give rise to unique abilities in distantly and closely related species.
Primate Behavioral Ecology, described as “an engaging, cutting-edge exposition,” incorporates exciting new discoveries and the most up-to-date approaches in its introduction to the field and its applications of behavioral ecology to primate conservation. This unique, comprehensive, single-authored text integrates the basics of evolutionary, ecological, and demographic perspectives with contemporary noninvasive molecular and hormonal techniques to understand how different primates behave and the significance of these insights for primate conservation. Examples are drawn from the “classic” primate field studies and more recent studies on previously neglected species from across the primate order, illustrating the vast behavioral variation that we now know exists and the gaps in our knowledge that future studies will fill.
This 1980 book considers the patterns of population fluctuations of animals and intraspecific social relations by means of comparative methods and discusses the evolution of population regulation mechanisms and social relations. The author proposes that parental care has evolved in environments in which it is difficult for the young to obtain food, whilst high fecundity has evolved in the opposite environment. He presents evidence from a wide range of organisms to argue that during evolution animals repeatedly face the 'choice' of two strategies - low fecundity combined with parental protection, or high fecundity - and that this choice determined the amplitude, regularity and associated main factors of population fluctuations as well as the main characteristics of social relations as expressed in group life or dispersed living involving territory. Although many examples are drawn from insects, with which the author is most familiar, mammal, birds and other animal groups are also examined in depth.
This collection of 29 papers grew out of a symposium entitled "Setting the Future Agenda for Neotropical Primates. " The symposium was held at the Department of Zoo logical Research, National Zoological Park, Washington D. C. , on February 26-27, 1994, and was sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Smith sonian Institution, and Friends of the National Zoo. We put the symposium together with two objectives: to honor Warren G. Kinzey for his contributions to the growing field of platyrrhine studies and to provide researchers who work in the Neotropics with the oppor tunity to discuss recent developments, to identify areas of research that require additional study, and especially to help guide the next generation of researchers. The symposium provided the opportunity to recognize Warren as a mentor and col laborator to the contribution of the study of platyrrhines. Contributions to the book were expanded in order to provide a more comprehensive view of platyrrhine evolution and ecology, to emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of many of these studies, and to high light the central role that New World monkeys play in advancing primatology. If this vol ume were to require major revisions after just one more decade of research, that would be a fitting testament to Warren's enthusiasm and his drive to continually update the field with new ideas and methods. Tributes to Warren and a list of his publications have been published elsewhere (Norconk, 1994, 1996; Rosenberger 1994, 1995).
This book results from a two-day symposium and three-day workshop held in Cambridge between March 22nd and March 26th 1982 and sponsored by the Primate Society of Great Britain and the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. More than 100 primatologists attended the symposium and some 35 were invited to participate in the workshop. Speakers from Prance, Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa and the U. S. A. , as weIl as the U. K. , were invited to contribute. In recent years feeling had strengthened that primatologists in Europe did not gather together sufficiently often. Distinctive tradit ions in primatology have developed in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy and the U. K. in particular, and it was feIt that attempts to blend them could only benefit primatology. Furthermore, studies of primate ecology, behaviour, anatomy, physiology and evolution have reached the points where further advances depend on inter-disciplinary collaboration. It was resolved to arrange a regular series of round table discussions on primate biology in Europe at the biennial meeting of the German Society for Anthropology and Human Genetics in Heidel berg in September 1979, where Holger Preuschoft organised sessions on primate ecology and anatomy. In June 1980 Michel Sakka convened a most effective working group in Paris to discuss cranial morphology and evolution. In 1982 it was the turn of the U. K.
Darwin famously described special difficulties in explaining social evolution in insects. More than a century later, the evolution of sociality - defined broadly as cooperative group living - remains one of the most intriguing problems in biology. Providing a unique perspective on the study of social evolution, this volume synthesizes the features of animal social life across the principle taxonomic groups in which sociality has evolved. The chapters explore sociality in a range of species, from ants to primates, highlighting key natural and life history data and providing a comparative view across animal societies. In establishing a single framework for a common, trait-based approach towards social synthesis, this volume will enable graduate students and investigators new to the field to systematically compare taxonomic groups and reinvigorate comparative approaches to studying animal social evolution.
