Sociobiology of Caviomorph Rodents

Luis A. Ebensperger, P. Universidad Católica de Chile, ChileLuis Ebensperger has developed a research career to examine causes (ecological, evolutionary) and consequences of rodent social living. He has successfullycombined field observational, demographical, and lab approaches to address why animals congregate, how they cooperate, and what are the fitness effectsof group-living and cooperation. His recent work has addressed the neuroendocrine and immune responses of social mammals and the links between these mechanisms and direct fitness. He has been able to acquire evidence not only from several caviomorph rodent models, but also from other animal models, including ungulates. In addition to publishing research papers in high impact journals, he has produced papers aimed to summarize andprovide an integrative view to current social behavior theory. Loren D. Hayes, Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, USALoren Hayes' research program examines the ecological and neural drivers of social systems, costs and benefits of communal care, and fitness consequences of group-living. Hayes has successfully combined field and laboratory work to determine the mechanisms of maternal investment and neuroendocrine sources of direct fitness variation in social voles and degus, respectively. His NSF-funded program includes collaborations in Chile, the U.S., and Taiwan and has generated 30 peer-reviewed papers, including two synthetic reviews on an integrated theory for sociality. Additionally, he co-organized a workshop on vertebrate sociality in Chile, participated in a National Evolutionary Synthesis Center working group on integrative animal sociality, and co-coordinated a Journal of Mammalogy Special Feature on caviomorph social systems.

• Acknowledgments ixNotes on contributors xiIntroduction xv1 The caviomorph rodents: distribution and ecological diversification 1Ricardo A. Ojeda, Agustina A. Ojeda and Agustina Novillo2 Diversity of social behavior in caviomorph rodents 28Christine R. Maher and Joseph R. Burger3 Comparative neurobiology and genetics of mammalian social behavior 59Annaliese Beery, Yasmin Kamal, Raúl Sobrero and Loren D. Hayes4 Developmental underpinnings of social behavior 91Valentina Colonnello, Ruth C. Newberry and Jaak Panksepp5 Dispersal in caviomorph rodents 119Eileen A. Lacey6 Mechanisms of social communication in caviomorph rodents 147Gabriel Francescoli, Selene Nogueira and Cristian Schleich7 Causes and evolution of group-living 173Luis A. Ebensperger and Loren D. Hayes8 Rodent sociality: a comparison between caviomorphs and other rodent model systems 201Nancy G. Solomon and Brian Keane9 Cooperation in caviomorphs 228Rodrigo A. Vásquez10 Caviomorphs as models for the evolution of mating systems in mammals 253Emilio A. Herrera11 Parent-offspring and sibling-sibling interactions in caviomorph rodents: a search for elusive patterns 273Zuleyma Tang-Martínez and Elizabeth R. Congdon12 Fitness consequences of social systems 306Loren D. Hayes and Luis A. Ebensperger13 An integrative view of caviomorph social behavior 326Luis A. Ebensperger and Loren D. HayesGlossary 356Index 371