Raymond Pierotti
Associate Professor
Vertebrate Evolutionary Ecology
Ph.D., Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Phone: (785) 864-4326
Fax: (785) 864-5860
Area of Interest and Research
The general theme of my research involves the investigation of the evolutionary biology of vertebrates that show the presence of male parental care and socially monogamous breeding systems. This requires that I collect data on individual variation in behavioral and ecological aspects of parental care. My primary question is how an individual organism becomes successful at reproduction and contributes to future generations. My research focuses on two genera of monogamous vertebrates: the avian genus Larus (gulls), and the mammalian genus Canis (wolves, coyotes, dogs).
Representative Publications
Pierotti, R. Indigenous Knowledge, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, New York and London. 264 pp.
Pierotti, R. 2011. Animal Diseases. Berkshire Encyclopedia of World History, W.H. McNeil, editor. Berkshire Publishing Group, Great Barrington, MA
Pierotti, R. (in press). The World According to Is'a: Combining Empiricism and Spiritual Understanding in Indigenous Ways of Knowing. In Ethnobiology, E.A. Anderson and N. Turner, eds. Wiley Interscience.
Pierotti, R. et al. Native American Science Curriculum. Online website accessible at http://nativeamericanscience.org
Pierotti, R. 2010. Sustainability of Natural Populations: Lessons from Indigenous Knowledge. Human Dimensions of Wildlife 15(4):274-287
Annett, C.A. and R. Pierotti. 1999. Longterm reproductive output and recruitment in western gulls: consequences of alternate foraging tactics. Ecology 80:288-297.
Annett, C.A., R. Pierotti and J.R. Baylis. 1999. Male and female parental roles in a biparental cichlid, Tilapia mariae . Environmental Biology of Fishes 54:283-293.
Pierotti, R. 1999. Foraging for survival. Quarterly Review of Biology 74:367.
Pierotti, R. and D. Wildcat. 1999. Connectedness of predators and prey: Native Americans and fisheries management. Fisheries 24(4):22-23.
Pierotti, R. and D. Wildcat. 1999. Traditional knowledge, culturally based world-views and Western science. Pp. 192-199 in D. Posey (ed.), Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity . United Nations Environment Programme. Intermediate Technology Publications, London.
Schweiger, E.W., R. Holt, R. Pierotti and J. Diffendorfer. 1999. The relative importance of small-scale and landscape-level heterogeneity in structuring small mammal distributions. Pp. 175-207 in G. Barrett and J. Peles (eds.), Landscape Ecology of Small Mammals. Springer-Verlag, New York.
Pierotti, R. and D. Wildcat, 1997. Evolution, creation and Native American traditions. Winds of Change. American Indian Science and Engineering Society, 12: 70-73.
Pierotti, R., 1996. Recruiting Native Americans: adjusting for cultural differences. Fisheries. American Fisheries Society. 21: 16-18.
Pierotti, R., C.A. Annett and J.L. Hand, 1996. Male and female perceptions of pair-bond dynamics: monogamy in the western gull. pp. 261-275 In Feminism and Evolutionary Biology, P.A. Gowaty, ed. Chapman and Hall Press.
Pierotti, R. and C.A. Annett, 1993. Hybridization and male parental care in birds. Condor, 95: 670-679.
Pierotti, R., 1991. Adoption vs. infanticide: an intergenerational conflict in birds and mammals. American Naturalist, 138: 1140-1158.
Pierotti, R. and C.A. Annett, 1991. Diet choice in the herring gull: effects of constraints imposed by reproduction and ecology. Ecology, 72: 319-328