Dennis Chitty

Dennis Hubert Chitty FRSC (18 September 1912 – 3 February 2010), was a professor of zoology at the University of British Columbia. In 1969, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.[1]

Dennis Hubert Chitty
Born	(1912-09-18)September 18, 1912 Bristol, England
Died	February 3, 2010(2010-02-03) (aged 97) Vancouver, British Columbia
Alma mater	University of Toronto University of Oxford
Known for	Chitty Hypothesis of Population Regulation
Scientific career
Fields	Vertebrate zoology Ecology
Institutions	University of Oxford University of British Columbia
Thesis	Factors controlling the density of wild populations, with special reference to fluctuations in the vole (Microtus) and the snowshoe rabbit (Lepus americanus) (1949)
Doctoral advisor	Charles Sutherland Elton
Doctoral students	Charles Krebs

The Chitty Hypothesis of Population Regulation states that population density is limited by spacing behaviour, which has genetic underpinnings and rapidly responds to natural selection.[2] Because of the controversial nature of this idea at the time, David Lack attempted to veto Chitty's dissertation, though it was eventually accepted because of the intervention of Peter Medawar.[3]

References

1. Obituary
2. Krebs, Charles J. (1978). "A review of the Chitty Hypothesis of population regulation". Canadian Journal of Zoology. 56 (12): 2463–2480. doi:10.1139/z78-335.
3. Was the Chitty Hypothesis of Population Regulation a ‘Big Idea’ in Ecology and was it successful?