Introduction
Life history traits are age- and state-specific characteristics that affect the life table of an organism. These traits are the result and the cause of variation within life cycles. Each of these life history traits is linked to the timing of events that make up the life of an animal and are investments in growth, reproduction, and survivorship of the individual or species (Gittleman 1986, 1993; Stearns 1976). Life history characteristics help to explain how an organism’s anatomy, behavior, life span, reproductive development and behavior, and post-reproductive behavior are all influenced and shaped by natural selection and thus include various survival and reproductive strategies (Gittleman 1986, 1993). Therefore, these life history tactics can be thought of as a set of coadapted traits designed via natural selection to solve specific...
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Rivet, D. (2018). Bear Life History. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1762-1
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