Rodent Societies: An Ecological and Evolutionary Perspective - Tapa dura

"Undoubtedly the most exhaustive and progressive analysis of rodent social behavior to date. Deftly edited . . . this well-organized book . . . [is] a significant compendium of more than 50 years of research."--Heather Patisaul "Integrative and Comparative Biology "

"Rodent Societies" synthesizes and integrates the current state of knowledge about the social behavior of rodents, providing ecological and evolutionary contexts for understanding their societies and highlighting emerging conservation and management strategies to preserve them. It begins with a summary of the evolution, phylogeny, and biogeography of social and nonsocial rodents, providing a historical basis for comparative analyses. Subsequent sections focus on group-living rodents and characterize their reproductive behaviors, life histories and population ecology, genetics, neuroendocrine mechanisms, behavioral development, cognitive processes, communication mechanisms, cooperative and uncooperative behaviors, antipredator strategies, comparative socioecology, diseases, and conservation. Using the highly diverse and well-studied Rodentia as model systems to integrate a variety of research approaches and evolutionary theory into a unifying framework, "Rodent Societies" will appeal to a wide range of disciplines, both as a compendium of current research and as a stimulus for future collaborative and interdisciplinary investigations.