Marmot Biology : Sociality, Individual Fitness, and Population Dynamics

Reporting the results of a forty-year research project on the yellow-bellied marmot in the Upper East River Valley in Colorado, this book discusses life-history features of marmots and demonstrates how population biology can explain major ecological and evolutionary theories, especially inclusive fitness and population regulation.

Focusing on the physiological and behavioral factors that enable a species to live in a harsh seasonal environment, this book places the social biology of marmots in an environmental context. It draws on the results of a forty-year empirical study of the population biology of the yellow-bellied marmot near the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in the Upper East River Valley in Colorado, USA. The text examines life-history features such as body-size, habitat use, environmental physiology, social dynamics, and kinship. Considerable new data analyses are integrated with material published over a fifty-year period, including extensive natural history observations, providing an essential foundation for integrating social and population processes. Finally, the results of research into the yellow-bellied marmot are related to major ecological and evolutionary theories, especially inclusive fitness and population regulation, making this a valuable resource for students and researchers in animal behavior, behavioral ecology, evolutionary biology, ecology and conservation.