Gorilla society : conflict, compromise, and cooperation between the sexes /

Harcourt and Stewart (both, Univ. of California, Davis) offer a robust contribution to the study of how the evolution of survival, mating, and rearing strategies interacts with physical and social environments. This work on gorillas is very much a textbook of primate socioecology, and a major study of how and why primate societies evolve. The 14 comprehensive chapters cover a huge range of topics, and employ a style of detailed outlining, chapter summaries, and writing that is easily accessible to virtually anyone, amateur and professional alike. Focusing on gorillas, the topics encompass ecology, predation, mating, and rearing in a social context, female strategies of feeding, competition and cooperation, emigration, male competition, and the influence of males and females on one another in these areas of interaction. The book gives ample attention to comparisons with chimpanzees and orangutans. The authors dissect, in great detail, female and male mating strategies. A whole chapter covers primate socioecology, and another is devoted to the role of socioecological studies and conservation. A huge list of references rounds out this fine book. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels. F. S. Szalay University of New Mexico