Reproduction and Fitness in Baboons: Behavioral, Ecological, and Life History Perspectives

This volume brings together current research on the behavior, ecology, reproduction, and life history - and the interrelations among these variables - of baboons of the genus Papio. Baboons, found throughout Africa and into Arabia, represent one of the best-known primate lineages, renowned for their ecological and behavioral flexibility and adaptability. These characteristics are intimately intertwined with features of baboon life history and reproduction. Contributors to this volume, representing several major, long-term research projects from throughout the African continent, explore reproductive behavior and strategies of adult male and female baboons in a variety of ways. In Part I, authors explore various aspects of baboon reproduction and social organization, focusing on issues such as infanticide, mating strategies and investment, hybridization and genetics in examining how adults go about mating and reproducing. In Part II, these aspects of life are juxtaposed with detailed examinations of life history and parental investment. Together, the chapters in this volume explore reproduction and parenting from a variety of angles and motivate research from both the parental and offspring perspectives and at a variety of taxonomic levels. Articulating studies of reproduction with those of life history conveys a richly detailed portrait of life phases with critical evolutionary consequences. These lines of inquiry together forge new ways to investigate the life periods that matter most in evolution.