In a paper published in Ecology in 1978, David Inouye demonstrated, using removal experiments and careful observation in Gothic, Colorado, that the use of resources by a bumblebee species is affected by the presence of other bumblebee species , a finding that suggested that competitive exclusion...
Behaviour
Revisiting Bshary & Grutter 2006
In a paper published in Nature in 2006, Redouan Bshary and Alexandra Grutter provided experimental evidence for, both, image scoring by clients and increased cooperation by cleaners in the presence of image-scoring clients in a cleaner fish mutualism, suggesting that the mutualism is a case of...
Revisiting Bond and Kamil 2002
In a paper published in Nature in 2002, Alan Bond and Alan Kamil showed, with experiments using real jays and digital moths, that frequency-dependent predation led to the evolution of greater crypticity and phenotypic variation. Fourteen years after the paper was published I spoke to Alan Bond...
Revisiting Kirkpatrick 1982
In a paper published in Evolution in 1982, Mark Kirkpatrick showed, theoretically, that strong female mating preference for a male trait that reduces viability is neither selected for or against, but the mating advantage it provides to the males it prefers can lead to maintenance of that male...
Revisiting Clutton-Brock and Albon 1979
In a paper published in Behaviour in 1979, Tim Clutton-Brock and Steve Albon showed, using observations and playback experiments, that red deer stags use roaring contests to assess each other's fighting abilities when there aren't any obvious size discrepancies. Twenty-seven years after the paper...
Revisiting West and King 1988
In a paper published in Nature in 1988, Meredith West and Andrew King demonstrated that that a wing stroke visual display by female cowbirds, which don't sing, plays a role in song learning of male cowbirds. The findings of the study provided evidence for the role of visual stimulation in song...
Revisiting Gillespie 2004
In a paper published in Science in 2004, Rosemary Gillespie demonstrated that both dispersal and in situ speciation contribute to accumulation of species numbers of Tetragnathid spiders on Hawaiian islands. Moreover, accumulation, whether through dispersal or speciation, happens in a way that no...
Revisiting Komdeur et al. 1997
In a paper published in Nature in 1997, Jan Komdeur, Serge Daan, Joost Tinbergen and Christa Mateman showed, through a combination of observation, experiment and genetic analysis, that, in the endemic and endangered Seychelles warbler, parents can manipulate sex ratio adaptively to improve their...
Revisiting Gill and Wolf 1975
In a paper published in Ecology in 1975, Frank Gill and Larry Wolf examined the costs and benefits of feeding territoriality in the golden-winged sunbird, a species found commonly in the montane regions of Kenya. Gill and Wolf found that maintaining territories was beneficial when the nectar...
Revisiting Heinrich 1976
In a paper published in Ecological Monographs in 1976, Bernd Heinrich demonstrated, through careful observation and experiment on marked individuals, how bumblebees develop specialization in their foraging at the individual level, and examined the costs and benefits of of specialization through...