Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword by Robert L. Trivers
- Preface
- PART I INTRODUCTION
- PART II SEXUAL SIGNALS: SUBSTRATES AND FUNCTION
- PART III SEXUAL SELECTION IN ACTION
- PART IV DEVELOPMENT AND CONSEQUENCES
- 10 Development and sexual selection in primates
- 11 Alternative male reproductive strategies: male bimaturism in orangutans
- 12 Sexual selection and the careers of primate males: paternity concentration, dominance-acquisition tactics and transfer decisions
- 13 Sexual selection, measures of sexual selection, and sexual dimorphism in primates
- 14 Sex ratios in primate groups
- 15 Natural and sexual selection and the evolution of multi-level societies: insights from zebras with comparisons to primates
- Index
- References
15 - Natural and sexual selection and the evolution of multi-level societies: insights from zebras with comparisons to primates
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Foreword by Robert L. Trivers
- Preface
- PART I INTRODUCTION
- PART II SEXUAL SIGNALS: SUBSTRATES AND FUNCTION
- PART III SEXUAL SELECTION IN ACTION
- PART IV DEVELOPMENT AND CONSEQUENCES
- 10 Development and sexual selection in primates
- 11 Alternative male reproductive strategies: male bimaturism in orangutans
- 12 Sexual selection and the careers of primate males: paternity concentration, dominance-acquisition tactics and transfer decisions
- 13 Sexual selection, measures of sexual selection, and sexual dimorphism in primates
- 14 Sex ratios in primate groups
- 15 Natural and sexual selection and the evolution of multi-level societies: insights from zebras with comparisons to primates
- Index
- References
Summary
INTRODUCTION
Animal societies derive from the social relationships that exist among its members (Hinde, 1983). Behavioural ecologists have traditionally focused on the core relationships defining a mating system as a means toward understanding the role of ecology in the evolution of sociality (e.g. Jarman, 1974; Bradbury & Vehrencamp, 1977). Typically, these core relationships emerge from the operation of both natural and sexual selection and how they differently affect the behaviour of females and males (Rubenstein, 1986; van Schaik, 1989). However, emphasis on mating systems has tended to marginalise the importance to social evolution of interactions and relationships that extend beyond the basic breeding unit. This is even true for the small subset of species with multi-level societies, where breeding units and other social subgroups are themselves organised into more complex social groups within a population. By examining how natural and sexual selection operate within multi-level societies, however, a more complete understanding of the function and evolution of sociality emerges than would by investigating the dynamics of mating systems alone (e.g. Dunbar, 1988).
Although the societies of many primate species are multi-levelled, the relative simplicity of societies of plains zebras (Equus burchelli) where only two tiers exist – the core breeding units and the herds they often comprise – can provide insights into the rules that give form to multi-level societies. In this chapter we begin by highlighting the environmental and sociosexual factors that shape zebra mating systems and herd dynamics.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Sexual Selection in PrimatesNew and Comparative Perspectives, pp. 266 - 279Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004
References
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