Contributions to Behavioral Ecology

• Falsifying the ‘multiple pairs in cathemeral lemurs’ hypothesis that explained even adult sex ratios in small lemur groups
• Proposition of a new, testable hypothesis of defused sexual conflict and male cooperation
• Proposing a causal link between life history traits commonly found in group-living lemurs, male coalition formation and the lack of convergence in group composition between lemurs and anthropoids
• Demonstrating a systematic diet-related problem of feasibility with hormone analyses from feces
• Proposing a theoretical model incorporating ecology based group size related variation in female physical condition into the Trivers-Willard hypothesis for adaptive sex ration variation
• Demonstrating the effect of infanticide risk on male androgen and glucocorticoid levels
• Proposing an explanation for the patchy occurrence of hibernation among cheirogaleids
• Proposing how ecological, physiological, and social factors may explain the variation in social organization found among mouse lemurs
• Providing the first proof of unconditional female dominance from a wild population of nocturnal lemurs
• Identifying several cases of often ignored ecological influences on male social organization
• Demonstrating that ecology can constrain group size even if social factors act limiting simultaneously
• Showing that digestive constraints may explain large parts of the ‘folivore paradox’ of group size
• Providing the first test of the socioecological model in a pair-living primate
• Demonstrating the equal importance of variation in food-specific ingestion rates and nutritional composition for relative food quality
• Proposing the intersexual feeding competition hypothesis for the evolution of pair-living