• Animal behavior primarily interested in behavioral development, play, sexual selection and female mate choice

Books

• Byers, J.A. 2012 (in press) . Animal Behavior.  A Beginner’s Guide.  One World Press.
• Byers, J. A. 2003.  Built for Speed.  A Year in the Life of Pronghorn. Harvard University Press.
• Bekoff, M. and Byers, J. A. (eds.) 1998. Animal play: evolutionary, comparative, and ecological perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
• Byers, J. A. 1998. American pronghorn: social adaptations and the ghosts of predators past. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Refereed Journal Publications (2006 to Present)

• Byers, J. and Dunn, S. 2012. Bateman in Nature: Predation on Offspring Reduces the Potential for Sexual Selection. Science, in press.
• Dunn, S.J., Clancey, E. Waits, L. P. & Byers, J.A. 2012. Genetic evidence of inbreeding avoidance in pronghorn.  Journal of Zoology, 1-8. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.2012.00932.x
• Clancey, E., Dunn, S.J. & Byers, J.A. 2012. Do single point condition measurements predict fitness in
  female pronghorn (Antilocapra americana)? Canadian Journal of Zoology 90, 729-735.
• Dunn, S. J., Waits, L. P. & Byers, J. A. 2012.  Genetic versus behavioral estimators of the opportunity for sexual selection in the wild. American Naturalist 179, 451-462.
• Dunn, S. J., Clancey, E., Waits, L. P. & Byers, J.A. 2011. Inbreeding depression in pronghorn (Antilocapra amaericana) fawns. Molecular Ecology 20, 4889-4898.
• Barnowe-Meyer, K.K. White, P. J. & Byers, J. A. 2011. Maternal investment by Yellowstone pronghorn following winter habitat deterioration. Western North American Naturalist 71, 222-233.
• Byers, J. A. 2011. Antilocapridae.  In: Handbook of Mammals of the World (ed. by D. Wilson). Lynx Publishers.
• Byers, J.A. 2010.  The Genial Gene. Deconstructing Darwinian Selfishness.  Joan Roughgarden. Integrative and Comparative Biology   49, 718-720.
• Byers, J. A., Hebets, E., & Podos, J. 2010. Female mate choice based upon male motor performance. Animal Behaviour 79, 771-778
• Dunn, S.J., Barnowe-Meyer, K.K., Gebhardt, K. J., Balkenhol, N., Waits, L. P. & Byers, J. A. 2010. Ten polymorphic microsatellite markers for pronghorn (Antilocapra americana).  Conservation Genetics Resources  DOI 10.1007/s12686-009-9166-9
• Barnowe-Meyer, K.K. White, P. J., Davis, T. L., Smith, D. W., Crabtree, R. L. & Byers, J. A. 2010. Influences of wolves and high-elevation dispersion on reproductive success of pronghorn (Antilocapra americana).  Journal of Mammalogy 91, 712-721.
• Barnowe-Meyer, K.K. White, P. J., Davis, T. L. & Byers, J. A. 2009. Predator-specific mortality of pronghorn on Yellowstone’s northern range. Western North American Naturalist 69, 186-194.
• Dunn, S. J & Byers, J.A. 2008. Determinants of survival and fecundity through a population bottleneck in pronghorn (Antilocapra americana). Journal of Mammalogy 89, 1124-1129.
• Byers, J. A. and Waits, L. 2006. Good genes sexual selection in nature. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 103: 16343-16345.
• Byers, J. A. 2006.  Is pronghorn fecundity affected by habitat quality?  Proceedings of the 22^nd Pronghorn Workshop, 22: 27-39.

My research centers on a closed population of pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) on the National Bison Range in Northwestern Montana. Using an eight generation deep pedigree of the entire population, I am evaluating the hypothesis that female choice for good genes in a mate involves choosing those males with the smallest genetic loads for small effect deleterious mutations.

• American Society of Mammalogists
• Animal Behavior Society
• Sigma Xi

• 2008: Named Exemplar by the Animal Behavior Society
• 2007: University of Idaho Annual Award for Research Excellence
• 2001: Elected a Fellow of the Animal Behavior Society 
• 1998: The Wildlife Society Book of the Year Award
• 1991: University of Idaho Annual Award for Teaching Excellence
• 1990: Alumni Award for Faculty Excellence University of Idaho Alumni Association
• 1989: Burlington Northern Foundation Faculty Achievement Award
• 1988: Distinguished Faculty Award, University of Idaho Alumni Association and University of Idaho Chapter of the honor society Phi Kappa Phi
• 1988: Outstanding Faculty Award Associated Students University of Idaho
• 1976: Brookfield Zoo Fellowship for summer research in Animal Behavior