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Tibbetts, E. A., & Dale, J. (2007). Individual recognition: it is good to be different. Trends. Ecol. Evol, 22(10), 529–537.
Abstract: Individual recognition (IR) behavior has been widely studied, uncovering spectacular recognition abilities across a range of taxa and modalities. Most studies of IR focus on the recognizer (receiver). These studies typically explore whether a species is capable of IR, the cues that are used for recognition and the specializations that receivers use to facilitate recognition. However, relatively little research has explored the other half of the communication equation: the individual being recognized (signaler). Provided there is a benefit to being accurately identified, signalers are expected to actively broadcast their identity with distinctive cues. Considering the prevalence of IR, there are probably widespread benefits associated with distinctiveness. As a result, selection for traits that reveal individual identity might represent an important and underappreciated selective force contributing to the evolution and maintenance of genetic polymorphisms.
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Conradt, L., & Roper, T. J. (2005). Consensus decision making in animals. Trends Ecol Evol, 20(8), 449–456.
Abstract: Individual animals routinely face decisions that are crucial to their fitness. In social species, however, many of these decisions need to be made jointly with other group members because the group will split apart unless a consensus is reached. Here, we review empirical and theoretical studies of consensus decision making, and place them in a coherent framework. In particular, we classify consensus decisions according to the degree to which they involve conflict of interest between group members, and whether they involve either local or global communication; we ask, for different categories of consensus decision, who makes the decision, what are the underlying mechanisms, and what are the functional consequences. We conclude that consensus decision making is common in non-human animals, and that cooperation between group members in the decision-making process is likely to be the norm, even when the decision involves significant conflict of interest.
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Noë, R., & Hammerstein, P. (1995). Biological markets. Trends. Ecol. Evol, 10(8), 336–339.
Abstract: In biological markets, two classes of traders exchange commodities to their mutual benefit. Characteristics of markets are: competition within trader classes by contest or outbidding; preference for partners offering the highest value; and conflicts over the exchange value of commodities. Biological markets are currently studied under at least three different headings: sexual selection, intraspecific cooperation and interspecific mutualism. The time is ripe for the development of game theoretic models that describe the common core of biological markets and integrate existing knowledge from the separate fields.
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Purvis, A. (2006). The h index: playing the numbers game. Trends. Ecol. Evol, 21(8), 422.
Abstract: Article Outline
References
The ‘h index’ was developed recently as a measure of research performance [1]: a researcher's h is the number of his or her papers that have been cited at least h times. In their thoughtful critique of the index, Kelly and Jennions [2] point out many ways in which h is no better than ‘traditional’ bibliometrics, such as total citation counts. However, there is one way in which, for researchers, it could be very much better, especially if (as Hirsch suggests [1]) it is to inform hiring and promotion decisions. The skewed nature of the distribution of citations among publications means that most researchers have several papers that nearly but not quite count. Consequently, h can be distorted much more easily than can total citation count just by finding a subtle way to cite one's own papers that are ‘bubbling under’. Incidentally, bats show broadly the same life-history allometries as other mammalian clades [3].
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List, C. (2004). Democracy in animal groups: a political science perspective. Trends Ecol Evol, 19(4), 168–169.
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Lusseau, D. (2007). Evidence for social role in a dolphin social network. Evol. Ecol., 21(3), 357–366.
Abstract: Abstract Social animals have to take into consideration the behaviour of conspecifics when making decisions to go by their daily lives. These decisions affect their fitness and there is therefore an evolutionary pressure to try making the right choices. In many instances individuals will make their own choices and the behaviour of the group will be a democratic integration of everyone’s decision. However, in some instances it can be advantageous to follow the choice of a few individuals in the group if they have more information regarding the situation that has arisen. Here I provide early evidence that decisions about shifts in activity states in a population of bottlenose dolphin follow such a decision-making process. This unshared consensus is mediated by a non-vocal signal, which can be communicated globally within the dolphin school. These signals are emitted by individuals that tend to have more information about the behaviour of potential competitors because of their position in the social network. I hypothesise that this decision-making process emerged from the social structure of the population and the need to maintain mixed-sex schools.
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Wilson, S. D., Clark, A. B., Coleman, K., & Dearstyne, T. (1994). Shyness and boldness in humans and other animals. Trends. Ecol. Evol, 9(11), 442–446.
Abstract: The shy-bold continuum is a fundamental axis of behavioral variation in humans and at least some other species, but its taxonomic distribution and evolutionary implications are unknown. Models of optimal risk, density- or frequency-dependent selection, and phenotypic plasticity can provide a theoretical framework for understanding shyness and boldness as a product of natural selection. We sketch this framework and review the few empirical studies of shyness and boldness in natural populations. The study of shyness and boldness adds an interesting new dimension to behavioral ecology by focusing on the nature of continuous behavioral variation that exists within the familiar categories of age, sex and size.
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Bergmüller, R. (2010). Animal Personality and Behavioural Syndromes. In P. Kappeler (Ed.), Animal Behaviour – Evolution and Mechanisms (pp. 587–621). Heidelberg: Springer.
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Pusey, A. E. (1987). Sex-biased dispersal and inbreeding avoidance in birds and mammals. Trends. Ecol. Evol, 2(10), 295–299.
Abstract: Sex differences in dispersal distance are widespread in birds and mammals, but the predominantly dispersing sex differs consistently between the classes. There has been persistent debate over the relative importance of two factors -- intrasexual competition and inbreeding avoidance -- in producing sex-biased dispersal, and over the sources of the difference in dispersal patterns between the two classes. Recent studies cast new light on these questions.
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Connor, R. C. (1995). Altruism among non-relatives: alternatives to the 'Prisoner's Dilemma'. Trends Ecol Evol, 10(2), 84–86.
Abstract: Triver's model of reciprocal altruism, and its descendants based on the Prisoner's Dilemma model, have dominated thinking about cooperation and altruism between non-relatives. However, there are three alternative models of altruism directed to non-relatives. These models, which are not based on the Prisoner's Dilemma, may explain a variety of phenomena, from allogrooming among impala to helping by non-relatives in cooperatively breeding birds and mammals.
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