Byers Lab: Publications

Byers | Byers - Books | Carling

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Dr. John A. Byers

Recent Articles

Byers, J. A. 2003. Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) In: Wild Mammals of North America (G. Feldhammer, Bruce Thompson, and Joseph Chapman, eds.), Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.

Carling, M. D., Wiseman, P. A. and Byers, J. A. 2003 (in press). Microsatellite analysis reveals multiple paternity in a wild pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) population. Journal of Mammalogy.

Carling, M. D., Passavant, C. W., Byers, J. A. 2003 (in press). DNA microsatellites of pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) Molecular Ecology Notes.

Byers, J. A. 2002. The ungulate mind. In: The Cognitive Animal (M. Bekoff, G. Burghardt, & C. Allen, eds.), pp. 35-39, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Byers, J. A. 1999. Play's the thing. Natural History July, 40-45.

Byers, J. A. 1999. The distribution of play behaviour among Australian marsupials. J. Zool. 247, 349-356.

Byers, J. A. 1998. The biology of human play. Child Development 69, 599-600.

Animal Play

Another of my interests is the evolutionary origin and adaptive significance of animal play. In the course of two trips to Australia, I surveyed the distribution of play in the major groups of marsupials. The results supported the hypothesis that play is involved in brain development.

Some Articles on Play

Byers, J. A. 1999. The distribution of play behaviour among Australian marsupials. J. Zool. 247, 349-356.

Byers, J. A. 1999. Play's the thing. Natural History July, 40-45.

Byers, J. A. 1998. The biology of human play. Child Development 69, 599-600.

Byers, J. A. 1998. Biological effects of locomotor play: general or specific? In: Animal play: evolutionary, comparative, and ecological perspectives (M. Bekoff and J. A. Byers, eds.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Miller, M. N. and Byers, J. A. 1998. Sparring as play in young pronghorn males. In: Animal play: evolutionary, comparative, and ecological perspectives (M. Bekoff and J. A. Byers, eds.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Byers, J. A., and Walker, C. B. 1995. Refining the motor training hypothesis for the evolution of play. Am. Nat., 146, 25 - 40.

Books

Built for Speed by John A. Byers
	The National Bison Range in western Montana, established in 1908 to snatch bison from the brink of extinction, also inadvertently rescued the largest known remnant of Palouse Prairie. It is within this grassland habitat—home to meadowlarks, rattlesnakes, bighorn sheep, coyotes, elk, snipe, and a panoply of wildflowers—that Byers observes the pronghorn’s life from birth to death (a life often as brief as four days, sometimes as long as fifteen years) and from season to season. Readers will also experience the vicarious pleasures of a biologist who is eager to race a pronghorn in his truck, scrutinize bison dung through binoculars, and peer through the gathering dusk of a rainy evening to count the display dives of snipe. A vivid and memorable tale of a first-rate scientist’s twenty-year encounter with a magnificent animal, the story of the pronghorn is also a reminder of the crucial role we can play in preserving the fleeting life of the native American grassland. 2003, Harvard University Press
North America’s fastest mammal, the pronghorn can accelerate explosively from a standing start to a top speed of 60 miles per hour—but it can also cruise at 45 miles per hour for many miles. What accounts for the speed of this extraordinary animal, a denizen of the American outback, and what can be observed of this creature’s way of life? And what is it like to be a field biologist dedicating twenty years to studying this species? In Built for Speed, John A. Byers answers these questions as he draws an intimate portrait of the most charismatic resident of the American Great Plains.

Animal Play
by Marc Bekoff and John A. Byers

Why do animals play? Play has been described in animals as diverse as reptiles, birds and mammals, so what benefits does it provide and how did it evolve? Careful, quantitative studies of social, locomotor and object play are now beginning to shed light on many aspects of both animal and human behavior.

This unique interdisciplinary volume brings together the major findings about play in a wide range of species including humans. Topics include the evolutionary history of play, play structure, function and development, and sex and individual differences. Animal Play is destined to become the benchmark volume in this subject for many years to come, and will provide a source of inspiration and understanding for students and researchers in behavioral biology, neurobiology, psychology, anthropology and behavioral medicine.

1998, Cambridge University Press

American Pronghorn: Social Adaptations & the Ghosts of Predators Past by John A. Byers
	Pronghorn were fortunate survivors, and inherited a world essentially free of danger. In the ensuing 5,000 generations, they changed little. In his account of a typical year in the life of North America's fastest mammal, Byers shows that much of pronghorn social behavior and life history, like anatomy and consequent running speed, are designed for life with those former dangerous predators. Effects of selection imposed by predators lingers today in patterns of maternal behavior, sex allocation, grouping tendencies, competition for social rank within pronghorn society, and selection of mates by females. Byers' study is the most complete account to date of the social behavior and life history of this remarkable North American species. The long term data provide unique information on survivorship, lifetime reproductive success, behavioral development and the far-reaching effects of early social experience, patterns of reproductive expenditure, and the dynamics of female mate selection in an intense, fluid mating system. 1997, University of Chicago Press, Chicago Wildlife Society 1998 Book of the Year Award
The running speed of pronghorn is exceeded only by that of cheetahs. In his account of his 14-year study of North America's fastest mammal, Dr. Byers first reveals the reason for such speed. For most of their evolutionary history over the past four million years, pronghorn shared a grassland habitat with many dangerous predators, including fleet hyenas, a large lion, and at least two species of cheetahs. Then, at the end-Pleistocene extinctions 10,000 years ago, most mammals of the North American savanna fauna, including all of the truly dangerous predators, disappeared.
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Matt Carling

Carling, M. D., Passavant, C. W., Byers, J. A. 2003 (in press) DNA microsatellites of pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) Molecular Ecology Notes.

Carling, M. D., Wiseman, P. A. and Byers, J. A. 2003 Microsatellite analysis reveals multiple paternity in a wild pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) population. In Press, Journal of Mammalogy.