Dunnock Behaviour and Social Evolution (Oxford Series in Ecology and Evolution)
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
At first sight just a small brown bird, the dunnock's unobtrusive appearance belies its extraordinary behavior and mating patterns. This book gives a full account of the mating systems of the dunnock or hedge sparrow, Prunella modularis, which include pairs, a male with two females, two males
with one female, and several males with several females. Detailed observations, elegant field experiments, and DNA fingerprinting are combined to show how this variable social organization arises from selfish individuals competing to maximize their own reproductive success. Further experiments
reveal how the cuckoo may thwart the dunnock's parental efforts. David Quinn's exquisite drawings provide a visual summary of the bird's behavior. All students of ecology, evolution, and animal behavior will want to be familiar with this work, which addresses the wider issues of the influence of
ecology on mating systems and the evolutionary significance of conflict within and between species. This is the third volume in the Oxford Series in Ecology and Evolution, and the first in this series to address behavioral ecology.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Dunnock Behaviour and Social Evolution (Oxford Series in Ecology and Evolution),N. B. Davies,Oxford University Press, USA,0198546742,Behavior,Bird Behavior,Birds & Birdwatching - General,Dunnock,Individual Species Of Birds,Nature,Nature/Ecology,Sexual behavior in animals,Animal behaviour,Animal reproduction,Birds (ornithology),Life Sciences | Vertebrate Zoology | Ornithology
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