Mammal Societies

Mammal Societies is an authoritative and magnificently written synthesis of mammalian social behavior. As Tim Clutton-Brock states in the preface, his goal was to . . .create an integrated account of mammalian societies. . ., which he achieves with a seamless elegance honed through decades of long-term research on primates, ungulates, and carnivores. The book explains the fundamental theory underlying sociality, and then applies it to understand the diversity of mammalian behavior. Unlike previous syntheses that separate humans from non-human primates, and primates from non-primates, Clutton-Brock masterfully integrates his knowledge of these disparate literatures, and of behavioral diversity in general, to create a genuinely interesting and stimulating overview and synthesis of what we do and do not know about mammalian social behavioral diversity with implications for understanding ourselves.....Throughout, Clutton-Brock clearly deconstructs hypotheses and critically reviews both the logic and the data supporting them...Mammal Societies is a goldmine for graduate students and those establishing new studies about the adaptive value of sociality in any taxa. It would make an outstanding book to read in a graduate seminar and should be on the desk of any graduate student or academic interested in social behavior in any taxa...In summary, Mammal Societies is an intellectual tour de force that will become a citation classic and will set the stage for the next generation of studies on the adaptive value of sociality. Although not an easy read, it is a must read for anyone interested in the diversity of social behavior and its implications for population demography, and the evolution and maintenance of animal sociality... (Journal of Wildlife Management-December 2016) Shortlisted for the British Ecological Society s Marsh Book of the Year Award 2017', which acknowledges the important role that books have on ecology and its development.