From their largely descriptive beginnings about a half century ago, studies on the ecology of small mammals have mushroomed in number, scope, content and complexity. Yet strangely, or perhaps not so strangely if one considers the extent and complexity of ecological interactions, the main problems for which the early workers sought answers still defy complete analysis, and basic hypotheses remain untested if not even untestable. The same holds true for so many branches of animal ecology that it seems to be the complexity of the concepts that frustrates efforts rather than the subject species....
From their largely descriptive beginnings about a half century ago, studies on the ecology of small mammals have mushroomed in number, scope, content ...
Scientists not infrequently succumb to the frustration they feel when they have to garner often quite fundamental information about an undeveloped field from scattered publications covering many disciplines by writing their own review of the field in question. This is an invaluable exercise, particularly for those in the business of stimulating students to grapple with unfamiliar ideas and concepts, since it makes the introduction to that literature much less painful. To some extent I, too, have succumbed to this frustration by writing this book, but I have also, much more importantly, tried...
Scientists not infrequently succumb to the frustration they feel when they have to garner often quite fundamental information about an undeveloped fie...
