Hugh Drummond¹ & Judy Stamps²

1Instituto de Ecologia, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, A.P. 70-275, 04510 D.F. Mexico, e-mail hugh@servidor.dgsca.unam.mx; ²Section of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA, e-mail jastamps@ucdavis.edu

Drummond, H. & Stamps, J. 1999. Behavioural dominance in birds. In: Adams, N.J. & Slotow, R.H. (eds) Proc. 22 Int. Ornithol. Congr., Durban: 1579. Johannesburg: BirdLife South Africa.

Behavioural dominance is extremely widespread in animal species and its particular manifestations are diverse. Despite some objections that concepts of dominance or dominance hierarchy are flawed, the term continues to be used to cover quite disparate phenomena of bird behaviour, including interactions between adult mates, adult territorial neighbours, adult flock members, and nestlings. This symposium samples from these diverse current applications of the concept, and offers analyses of the proximate mechanisms, functional significance, and endocrinoligical correlates of dominance, as well as a theoretical exploration of the dynamics and evolution of dominance among group members.