= Andrew B. Taber
{c}
= A. B. Taber
{c}
{synonym}
<Andrew B. Taber> is a researcher whose field work includes the behavioral ecology of <Dolichotis patagonum>, the mara. His institution-hosted curriculum vitae gives his full name and identifies the Patagonian mara study as his Oxford doctoral project, linking the researcher to the A. B. Taber byline.<Andrew B. Taber curriculum vitae>[Title page; page 4, mara field study and Oxford doctoral project]{ref}
Taber was first author of the 1992 paper with <David W. Macdonald> on <communal breeding> in maras. The observations connected shared breeding warrens with juvenile survival and adult behavior. Larger communal groups had greater pup survival in the studied setting.<Communal breeding in the mara, Dolichotis patagonum by A. B. Taber and D. W. Macdonald>[Abstract, communal warrens and pup survival]{ref}
A constructed comparison illustrates why survival fractions matter. Suppose eight of ten young survive in one setting and twelve of twenty survive in another. The second setting has more survivors, but the survival fractions are $8/10=0.80$ and $12/20=0.60$. Counting survivors without the original numbers at risk would reverse the apparent comparison. These are invented data, not the paper's measurements.
Even correctly calculated fractions do not by themselves establish a causal effect of group size. Food availability, shelter quality or <predation> could differ between sites and influence both membership and survival. A field association motivates explanations that can be tested; it is not equivalent to randomly assigning animals to otherwise identical breeding conditions.
The contribution of Taber and collaborators was to connect a distinctive social organization to observations about behavior and outcomes. Shared space, shared care and survival are different aspects of <communal breeding>, and measuring them separately makes the proposed ecological explanations more informative.
Back to article page
