{{Short description|Canadian zoologist (1912–2010)}} {{Infobox scientist | name = Dennis Hubert Chitty | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_date = {{birth date|1912|09|18}} | birth_place = Bristol, England | death_date = {{death date and age|2010|2|3|1912|09|18}} | death_place = Vancouver, British Columbia | death_cause = | residence = | citizenship = | nationality = | field = {{ublist|Vertebrate zoology|Ecology}} | alma_mater = {{ublist|University of Toronto|University of Oxford}} | doctoral_advisor = Charles Sutherland Elton | academic_advisors = | workplaces = {{ublist|University of Oxford|University of British Columbia}} | doctoral_students = Charles Krebs | notable_students = | thesis_title = Factors controlling the density of wild populations, with special reference to fluctuations in the vole (''Microtus'') and the snowshoe rabbit (''Lepus americanus'') | thesis_url = http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/OXVU1:LSCOP_OX:oxfaleph013214545 | thesis_year = 1949 | website = | known_for = Chitty Hypothesis of Population Regulation | spouse = | children = | influenced = }}
'''Dennis Hubert Chitty''' {{post-nominals|country=CAN|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.<ref>[https://rsc-src.ca/civicrm/file?reset=1&id=157&eid=730 Obituary]</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Krebs|first1=Charles J.|title=A review of the Chitty Hypothesis of population regulation|journal=Canadian Journal of Zoology|date=1978|volume=56|issue=12|pages=2463–2480|doi=10.1139/z78-335 |bibcode=1978CaJZ...56.2463K }}</ref> 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.<ref>[https://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~krebs/ecological_rants/?p=1261 Was the Chitty Hypothesis of Population Regulation a ‘Big Idea’ in Ecology and was it successful?]</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Chitty, Dennis}} Category:1912 births Category:2010 deaths Category:Canadian zoologists Category:Canadian ecologists Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Category:Academic staff of the University of British Columbia Category:University of Toronto alumni Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford Category:British emigrants to Canada
{{Canada-scientist-stub}}