Dolphins live in complex social groupings with a wide variety of social strategies. In this
chapter we investigate the role that differing habitats and ecological conditions have played …

The resource dispersion hypothesis (RDH) asserts that, if resources are heterogeneous in
space or time, group living might be less costly than was previously thought, regardless of …

Many conservation organisations rely heavily on volunteers, and the government often relies
on them to achieve tasks for which funding is insufficient—for example, the monitoring of …

Virtually nothing in nature is uniform. Observed at the right scale, most entities are clustered
rather than evenly distributed, spatially and temporally, and this applies across domains …

Despite the extensive literature describing the impacts of habitat fragmentation on the
distribution and abundance of species, fragmentation effects on life-history strategies have …

The social system of animals involves a complex interplay between physiology, natural
history, and the environment. Long relied upon discrete categorizations of “social” and …

Aim The European badger (Meles meles, innaeus 1758) has been a focus for numerous
studies of behaviour, physiology and ecology and, in particular, for testing theories …

The costs and benefits of natal philopatry are central to the formation and maintenance of
social groups. Badger groups, thought to form passively according to the resource …

The idea that groups of individuals may develop around resource patches led to the
formulation of the Resource Dispersion Hypothesis (RDH). We tested the predictions of the …

Badgers are facultatively social, forming large groups at high density. Group‐living appears
to have high reproductive costs for females, and may lead to increased levels of inbreeding …