Marsupial Nutrition

ISBN-13: 9780521595551 / Angielski / Miękka / 1999 / 450 str.

Ian D. Hume; Aan D. Hume

Opis

Marsupial Nutrition describes the food resources used by marsupials from small insectivores to large folivores. It discusses the ways in which these animals' digestive systems and metabolism are designed to cope with foods as different as nectar and fungus, tree sap and tough perennial grasses, and insects and eucalypt foliage. Although the subject species are marsupials, the general principles of nutritional ecology and digestive strategies that are introduced at the beginning of the chapters are applicable to all mammals. Advanced undergraduates and graduate students in the areas of vertebrate zoology, nutrition, ecology, and digestive physiology will find Marsupial Nutrition particularly instructive, and wildlife biologists, veterinarians, and nutritionists will also find much of interest.

Recenzje

'Marsupial Nutrition is an excellent monograph on an active topic. It is destined to be the major reference on the subject for many years, and will surely stimulate much new work in the discipline.' Hugh Tyndale-Biscoe, Australian Zoologist

Spis treści

Preface; 1. Metabolic rates and nutrient requirements; 2. Carnivorous marsupials; 3. Omnivorous marsupials; 4. Hindgut fermenters - the wombats; 5. Hindgut fermenters - the arboreal folivores; 6. Foregut fermenters - kangaroos and wallabies; 7. Nutritional ecology of kangaroos and wallabies; 8. Foregut fermenters - the rat-kangaroos; 9. Evolution of marsupials and of digestive systems; 10. Future directions; Appendix; References.