Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Dunnock Behaviour and Social Evolution

Dunnock Behaviour and Social Evolution

Davies, N. B.
Quinn, David

Paperback

Series: Oxford Ecology and Evolution

BirdsBirdwatchingZoology

ISBN10: 0198546750
ISBN13: 9780198546757
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: Sep 24 1992
Pages: 286
Weight: 1.21
Height: 0.73 Width: 6.17 Depth: 9.22
Language: English
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.

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