• Description
• Contents
• Reviews

What are the benefits that animals gain from living in a social group? More than just an up-to-date review of current knowledge on the behaviour and ecology of the African buffalo this book illustrates more general principles in exploring why individuals within a population behave as they do and the ecological and conservation consequences of this. Using his detailed studies of the African buffalo with its high intraspecific diversity of social organisation, Prins also explores the impact that this study has on the study of social structure and organization in other species. Contents: Social organisation in Bovidae. Distribution of resources in time and space. Phenological ecology: the yearly cycle of condition. Social organisation of cows: the herd. Social organisation of bulls. The effect of ecology on social organisation. Catastrophes and stability. Habitat selection, predation and competing for food. Patches visited and revisited. Selecting grazing grounds: a case of voting? Synthesis: individuals in a community or a community of individuals?