Mammal Societies aims to integrate our understanding of mammalian societies into a novel synthesis that is relevant to behavioural ecologists, ecologists, and anthropologists. It adopts a coherent structure that deals initially with the characteristics and strategies of females, before covering those of males, cooperative societies and hominid societies. It reviews our current understanding both of the structure of societies and of the strategies of individuals; it combines coverage of relevant areas of theory with coverage of interspecific comparisons, intraspecific comparisons and experiments; it explores both evolutionary causes of different traits and their ecological consequences; and it integrates research on different groups of mammals with research on primates and humans and attempts to put research on human societies into a broader perspective.
Preface
Chapter 1: Social Evolution
Chapter 2: Female sociality
Chapter 3: Female dispersal and philopatry
Chapter 4: Female mating decisions
Chapter 5: Maternal care
Chapter 6: Social development
Chapter 7: Communication
Chapter 8: Competition between females
Chapter 9: Cooperation between females
Chapter 10: Mating systems
Chapter 11: Association between males
Chapter 12: Male dispersal and its consequences
Chapter 13: Reproductive competition among males
Chapter 14: Relationships between males in multi-male groups
Chapter 15: Males and females
Chapter 16: Paternal Care
Chapter 17: Cooperative breeding
Chapter 18: Sex differences
Chapter 19: Hominins and humans
Chapter 20: Human behaviour
Index
"[...] Overall, this book represents an astonishing store of information and insight. There is little to criticise and any concerns are minor, or easily rebuffed [...]"
– Phil Stephens, BES Bulletin, Volume 48(4), December 2017