What does it mean to be female? Sarah Blaffer Hrdy--a sociobiologist and a feminist--believes that evolutionary biology can provide some surprising answers. Surprising to those feminists who mistakenly think that biology can only work against women. And surprising to those biologists who incorrectly believe that natural selection operates only on males. In The Woman That Never Evolved we are introduced to our nearest female relatives competitive, independent, sexually assertive primates who have every bit as much at stake in the evolutionary game as their male counterparts do. These females compete among themselves for rank and resources, but will bond together for mutual defense. They risk their lives to protect their young, yet consort with the very male who murdered their offspring when successful reproduction depends upon it. They tolerate other breeding females if food is plentiful, but chase them away when monogamy is the optimal strategy. When "promiscuity" is an advantage, female primates--like their human cousins--exhibit a sexual appetite that ensures a range of breeding partners. From case after case we are led to the conclusion that the sexually passive, noncompetitive, all-nurturing woman of prevailing myth never could have evolved within the primate order. Yet males are almost universally dominant over females in primate species, and Homo sapiens is no exception. As we see from this book, women are in some ways the most oppressed of all female primates. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy is convinced that to redress sexual inequality in human societies, we must first understand its evolutionary origins. We cannot travel back in time to meet our own remote ancestors, but we can study those surrogates we have--the other living primates. If women --and not biology--are to control their own destiny, they must understand the past and, as this book shows us, the biological legacy they have inherited.

There are roughly 6,600 wild dogs left in Africa yet they have cast such a spell on top wildlife photographer and naturalist Jocelin Kagan that she is determined to help save them. If left to their own devices, they are more than capable of thriving, as this sumptuous photographic natural history shows. Jocelin has called in world experts to add their latest findings about these resourceful, graceful and highly skilled family groups. Nomadic predators whose territories range thousands of kilometres, they hunt co-operatively, preying on small herbivores. Non-confrontational, they form complex bonds as this book reveals. Now restricted to small populations and threatened by some shoot-to-kill policies, habitat fragmentation, diseases from domestic dogs, climate change and snares, as well as natural predation from hyenas and lions, Africa's wild dogs will be supported by all the royalties from this book.

Sexual combat is not a monopoly of the human species. As Sarah Blaffer Hrdy argues in this spellbinding book, war between male and female animals has deep roots in evolutionary history. Her account of family life among hanuman langurs--the black-faced, gray monkeys inhabiting much of the Indian subcontinent--is written with force, wit, and at times, sorrow. Male hanumans, in pursuit of genetic success, routinely kill babies sired by their competitors. The mothers of endangered infants counter with various strategems to deceive the males and prevent destruction of their own offspring. Competition and selfishness are dominant themes of langur society. Competition among males for access to females, competition among females for access to food resources, and disregard by one female for the well-being of another's infant--these are some very common examples. Yet there are also moments of heroic self-sacrifice, as when an elderly female rushes to defend her troop and its babies from an invading, infancticidal male. The Langurs of Abu is the first book to analyze behavior of wild primates from the standpoint of both sexes. It is also a poignant and sophisticated exploration of primate behavior patterns from a feminist point of view. This book may inspire controversy; it will certainly be read with pleasure by anyone interested in animal behavior. Richly illustrated with photographs, seven in full color.

Social Behavior of Female Vertebrates focuses on the evolution of reproductive behavior in female vertebrates ranging from fish to birds and humans, including issues of mate choice and other factors underlying female attitudes toward males. It also looks at the evolution of mating systems; the co-evolution of the sexes; sex-role reversal; reproductive competition between females; maternal behavior; and how females enhance the investment received by their offspring from others. It also considers other social behaviors that influence the nature of affiliative associations between females. Organized into three parts encompassing 13 chapters, this volume begins with an overview of behavioral biology and sources of variation in female reproductive success. It then discusses the establishment and maintenance of sex biases, sex differences mediated by sexual selection, constraints on female choice in the mottled sculpin, mate choice by females in sexual selection of bird song, and female manipulation of male avoidance of cuckoldry behavior in the ring dove. The reader is also introduced to the evolution of polyandry in shorebirds; reproductive strategies in human females; social and health-seeking behaviors of Taiwanese women; female roles in cooperatively breeding acorn woodpeckers; altruism in coati bands; cooperation and reproductive competition among female African elephants; mate choice in matrilineal macaque groups; and reproductive competition and cooperation among female yellow baboons. This book is a valuable resource for scientists and behavioral biologists, as well as lay people whose interests span a variety of fields.