The Black-Tailed Prairie Dog*

Hoogland documents interactions within and among families of prairie dogs to examine the advantages and disadvantages of coloniality. By addressing such topics as male and female reproductive success, inbreeding, kin recognition, and infanticide, Hoogland offers a broad view of conflict and cooperation. Among his surprising findings is that prairie dog females sometimes suckle, and at other times kill, the offspring of close kin.

Enhanced by more than 100 photographs, this book illuminates the social organization of a burrowing mammal and raises fundamental questions about current theory. As the most detailed long-term study of any social rodent, The Black-Tailed Prairie Dog will interest not only mammalogists and other vertebrate biologists, but also students of behavioral and evolutionary ecology.

Table of Contents
Preface
Ch. 1: Prairie Dogs and Coloniality
Ch. 2: Taxonomy and Natural History
Ch. 3: Burrows
Ch. 4: Study Sites and Methods
Ch. 5: Costs and Benefits of Coloniality
Ch. 6: The Coterie
Ch. 7: Infanticide, the Major Cause of Juvenile Mortality
Ch. 8: The Antipredator Call
Ch. 9: Communal Nursing
Ch. 10: Kin Recognition, Social Learning, and Eusociality
Ch. 11: Behavioral Observations of Estrus and Copulations
Ch. 12: Annual and Lifetime Reproductive Success
Ch. 13: Factors That Affect Annual and Lifetime Reproductive Success
Ch. 14: Levels of Inbreeding
Ch. 15: Do Mothers Manipulate the Sex Ratio of Their Litters?
Ch. 16: Demography and Population Dynamics
Ch. 17: Behavioral Ecology of Prairie Dogs
Appendix A. Common and Scientific Names of Organisms Mentioned in This Book
Appendix B. Descriptions of Infanticides by Marauding Females
Bibliography
Index