Category: Behaviour

Revisiting Brown 1988

In a paper published in Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology in 1988, Joel Brown developed a method to use a forager's giving up density on a resource patch to understand energetic, predation and missed opportunity costs of foraging and then demonstrated its utility, through field experiments, on an Arizonian desert rodent community. Twenty-nine years after the paper … Continue reading Revisiting Brown 1988 →

Revisiting Taborsky 1984

In a paper published in Animal Behaviour in 1984, Michael Taborsky presented a cost-benefit analysis of helping behaviour in the cichlid fish Lamprologus brichardi. In this species, individuals of earlier broods stay on in their parents' territories and contribute to the care of the current brood. Evidence from field observations and lab experiments, suggested that … Continue reading Revisiting Taborsky 1984 →

Revisiting Johnsingh 1983

In a paper published in the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society in 1983, AJT Johnsingh reported the findings of his study on large mammalian predators and prey in Bandipur Tiger Reserve, Karnataka. This study formed part of Johnsingh's PhD dissertation on dholes, likely the first PhD in wildlife biology by an Indian biologist. … Continue reading Revisiting Johnsingh 1983 →

Revisiting Packer et al. 1990

In a paper published in The American Naturalist in 1990, Craig Packer, David Scheel and Anne Pusey used field data on lions from Serengeti National Park to argue against a dominant idea at the time: grouping patterns are determined only by foraging success. Packer and colleague's observations suggested, instead, that grouping patterns are linked to … Continue reading Revisiting Packer et al. 1990 →

Revisiting Ostrom & Nagendra 2006

In a paper published in PNAS in 2006, Elinor Ostrom and Harini Nagendra synthesized the findings of a long-term research program aimed at understanding how institutional factors affect forests managed under different kinds of tenure. Bringing together satellite images, socio-ecological studies in the field, and laboratory experiments of human behaviour, Ostrom and Nagendra showed that … Continue reading Revisiting Ostrom & Nagendra 2006 →

Revisiting Davies & Brooke 1988

In a paper published in Animal Behaviour in 1988, Nick Davies and Michael Brooke unraveled, using a mix of natural history observation and clever experiments, the nature of the interaction between the brood-parasitic common cuckoo and its host the reed warbler. Their experiments showed that many facets of the cuckoo's behaviour are likely to have … Continue reading Revisiting Davies & Brooke 1988 →

Revisiting Dingemanse et al. 2002

In a paper published in Animal Behaviour in 2002, Niels Dingemanse, Christiaan Both, Piet Drent, Kees van Oers and Arie van Noordwijk showed, using an open field test in the laboratory on wild caught great tits, that, 1. there is consistent individual variation in behaviour, and 2. this behaviour is heritable. Fourteen years after the … Continue reading Revisiting Dingemanse et al. 2002 →

Revisiting Schmitz et al. 1997

In a paper published in Ecology in 1997, Oswald Schmitz, Andrew Beckerman and Kathleen O'Brien experimentally tested the relative importance of direct and indirect effects of predation in causing tropic cascades, Using an old-field system that included herbaceous plants, a herbivorous grasshopper and a spider predator, Schmitz and colleagues showed that indirect effects of predation, … Continue reading Revisiting Schmitz et al. 1997 →

Revisiting Inouye 1978

In a paper published in Ecology in 1978, David Inouye demonstrated, using removal experiments and careful observation in Gothic, Colorado, that the use of resources by a bumblebee species is affected by the presence of other bumblebee species , a finding that suggested that competitive exclusion occurs in these species. Thirty-nine years after the paper … Continue reading Revisiting Inouye 1978 →