Amotz Zahavi ( he, אמוץ זהבי) (August 14, 1928 – May 12, 2017) was an Israeli evolutionary biologist, a Professor in the Department of Zoology at Tel Aviv University, and one of the founders of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel. His main work concerned the evolution of signals, particularly those signals that are indicative of fitness, and their selection for "honesty".

Biography

Amotz Zahavi was influenced to study zoology by the director of the zoo at Tel Aviv, Heinrich Mendelssohn. He received his

Ph.D A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

. from Tel Aviv University in 1970. He was married to Avishag Zahavi, a biologist and a co-investigator. He died in Tel Aviv, Israel on May 12, 2017, aged 88.

Scientific career

Amotz Zahavi with wild Arabian babblers at Hatzeva

Zahavi is best known for his work on the

handicap principle The handicap principle is a hypothesis proposed by the biologist Amotz Zahavi to explain how evolution may lead to "honest" or reliable Signalling theory, signalling between animals which have an obvious motivation to bluff or deceive each other. ...

, which explains the evolution of characteristics, behaviors or structures that appear contrary to the principles of Darwinian evolution in that they appear to reduce fitness and endanger individual organisms. Evolved by

sexual selection Sexual selection is a mode of natural selection in which members of one biological sex choose mates of the other sex to mate with (intersexual selection), and compete with members of the same sex for access to members of the opposite sex (int ...

, these act as signals of the status of the organism, functioning to e. g. attract mates. He expanded it with theories on

honest signalling Within evolutionary biology, signalling theory is a body of theoretical work examining communication between individuals, both within species and across species. The central question is when organisms with conflicting interests, such as in sex ...

and the idea that selection would favour signals that impose a higher cost, those that are not easily cheated on. He worked in particular on the

Arabian babbler The Arabian babbler (''Argya squamiceps'') is a passerine bird until recently placed in the genus '' Turdoides''. It is a communally nesting resident bird of arid scrub in the Middle East which lives together in relatively stable groups with stri ...

, a long-lived and social bird with altruistic behaviour among unrelated individuals, not explainable by kin selection. Zahavi reinterpreted these behaviours according to his signal theory and its correlative, the handicap principle. The altruistic act is costly to the donor, but may improve attractiveness to potential mates, a form of competitive altruism.Zahavi, Amotz (1990). "Arabian Babblers: The quest for social status in a cooperative Breeder", pp. 105–130 in ''Cooperative Breeding in Birds'', P. B. Stacey and W. D. Koenig (eds.), Cambridge University Press Zahavi is credited with co-developing the

information centre hypothesis The information centre hypothesis (ICH) is a theory that states bird species live in communal roosts primarily for the advantage of gaining information from others in the community regarding the location of unevenly distributed food resources. This ...

in 1973 with Peter Ward. The information centre hypothesis states that birds live in communal roosts primarily to gain information on food resource locations from other roost individuals. Towards the end of his life he attempted to apply his theory at the molecular scale and sought to examine for example whether the neuro-transmitter acetylcholine was selected due to its toxicity.

Awards

In 1980, The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, Zahavi and two other colleagues, were awarded the Israel Prize for SPNI's special contribution to society and the State, for the environment. In 2011, Zahavi received the Fyssen Foundation's International Prize for the evolution of social communication. In 2016, Zahavi received a prize for lifetime achievement from the Israel Society of Ecology and Environmental Sciences.

Published works

* * *Zahavi, A. and Zahavi, A. (1997). ''The handicap principle: a missing piece of Darwin's puzzle''. Oxford University Press. Oxford.

References

External links