Why do birds often live in pairs and rear chicks together, whereas female mammals usually live in groups and rear their young without male help? Why do males sometimes live with a single mate when they are capable of fertilizing more than one female's eggs? Is male helping behavior important for monogamous partnerships? This book provides answers concerning the biological roots of social monogamy in animal groups as diverse as ungulates, carnivores, rodents, birds and primates (including humans) for students and researchers in behavioral ecology, evolutionary anthropology and zoology.

Explores the biological roots of social, sexual and reproductive monogamy in birds, mammals and humans.

Ulrich Reichard is a research scientist in the Department of Primatology at the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig.Christophe Boesch is Scientific Director of the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and Professor of Primatology at the University of Leipzig.

Introduction: 1. Monogamy: past and present Ulrich H. Reichard; Part I. Evolution of Social Monogamy: 2. The evolution of monogamy: mating relationships, parental care and sexual selection Anders Pape Møller; 3. Mate guarding and the evolution of social monogamy in mammals Peter N. M. Brotherton and Petr E. Komers; 4. The evolution of social monogamy in primates Carel P. van Schaik and Peter M. Kappeler; 5. The evolution of social and reproductive monogamy in Peromyscus David O. Ribble; Part II. Reproductive Strategies of Socially Monogamous Males and Females: 6. Social functions of copulation in the socially monogamous razorbill (Alca torda) Richard H. Wagner; 7. Social and reproductive monogamy in rodents: the case of the Malagasy Giant Jumping Rat (Hypogeomys antimena) Simone Sommer; 8. Social polyandry and promiscuous mating in a primate-like carnivore, the kinkajou (Potos flavus) Roland Kays; 9. Monogamy correlates, socioecological factors and mating systems in beavers Lixing Sun; 10. Social monogamy and social polygyny in a solitary ungulate, the Japanese serow (Capricornis crispus) Ryosuke Kishimoto; Part III. Reproductive Strategies of Human and Non-human Primates: 11. Ecological and social complexities in human monogamy Bobbi S. Low; 12. Social monogamy in a human society: marriage and reproductive success among the Dogon Beverly I. Strassmann; 13. Social monogamy in gibbons: the male perspective Ulrich H. Riechard; 14. Pair living and mating strategies in the fat-tailed dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus medius) Joanna Fietz; 15. Social monogamy and its variations in callitrichids: do these relate to the costs of infant care? Anne W. Goldizen; 16. Monogamy in New World primates: what can patterns of olfactory communication tell us? Eckhard W. Heymann.