Meerkat Manor author and leading academic at Heffers tonight

Professor Tim Clutton-Brock, Prince Philip Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Cambridge, has spent the last several decades researching the evolution of animal breeding systems.

In 1993, Professor Clutton-Brock started the Kalahari Meerkat Project where his contributions to our understanding of animals are based on patient, long-term observations and experiments using recognisable individuals.

He and his team have learned to recognise large numbers of individuals and have monitored their behaviour and reproductive success throughout their lives. This has led to a unique understanding of the complex social organisation of the meerkat colony and the responses of individuals to changing environmental conditions.

More recently, the Kalahari Meerkat project has been brought to the world's attention by the television show Meerkat Manor, which documents the trials and tribulations of one group (of the 20 total) studied by the team. The new book follows the life of Flower, one of the ‘stars' of the TV show, from her birth and adolescence, through becoming the group's matriarch, to her eventual death. Professor Clutton-Brock uses Flower's story to explain the evolution of cooperative and competitive behaviour in meerkats, and by analogy, in other animal societies.

Professor Clutton-Brock also runs long term studies on populations of red deer on the Isle of Rum and of Soay sheep on the island of St Kilda. His studies have provided insight into the workings of society and the evolution of co-operative versus competitive behaviour of other species.

Professor Clutton-Brock will be at Heffers on Wednesday 21 November at 6.30.