The mating game plays a central role in promoting individual biological fitness, but many other life-history traits (physical, physiological, and behavioral) also influence fitness. This book is about the optimal method for measuring biological fitness in mammals. This involves measuring lifetime reproductive success of individuals that survive to breeding age while living freely in nature. Constant monitoring of individuals is required, which explains why such studies are difficult to conduct and rare. I use a long-term study of extremely polygynous northern elephant seals (over 62 continuous years) to illustrate the necessary operations, benefits, pitfalls, and difficulties in conducting such studies. The aim of this treatise is to inform and facilitate future investigations of other animals.
The Quest for Darwinian Fitness: Case Studies of Elephant Seals is a long-term study of the lifetime reproductive success of individuals, a practical approach to determining biological fitness. This case study is based on an animal that has been studied intensively. The aim of this chronicle is to facilitate the future long-term of other animals.
LONGTERM STUDY OF INDIVIDUALS.- SOCIAL BEHAVIOR ON LAND.- POPULATION DYNAMICS.- PHYSIOLOGY.- DIVING AND FORAGING.- CONCLUDING COMMENTS.
Bernard Le Boeuf was born in southern Louisiana. He attended UC Berkeley, earning his PhD in experimental psychology in 1966. While at Berkeley, he also studied zoology and experimental biology. He arrived at UCSC in 1967 as a member of the psychology board and of Crown College. He already had a strong interest in evolutionary biology and participated in the biology boards meetings as an outside member. He also began working with biology professor Richard Peterson on seal and sea lion research. After Petersons death, the biology board invited Le Boeuf to take Petersons place on the board, and he accepted.
Le Boeuf is internationally known as a pioneer of the field of marine mammal behavior. He has focused on the social and reproductive behavior of elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris), as well as their diving, foraging, and migratory behavior. Le Boeuf has conducted extensive research on the behavioral ecology and physiology of a variety of marine mammals, and also investigated the effects of environmental pollutants such as DDT on marine mammals.
