Kategoria BISAC: Science >> Life Sciences - Zoology - Mammals

Praise for the first edition:

"Rarely does one encounter scientific writing that is at the same time authoritative, full of well-documented data, and yet as readable as this book. It is good literature as well as good science. Readers almost feel as though they are looking over the shoulder of the observer, feeling his discomfort at the cold and rain, his excitement when something new and unexpected happens, and sharing in the sadness over the demise or misfortune of an animal that had long ago become a friend." Quarterly Review of Biology

"The...

Evolutionary maternal effects occur whenever a mother s phenotypic traits directly affect her offspring s phenotype, independent of the offspring s genotype. Some of the phenotypic traits that result in maternal effects have a genetic basis, whereas others are environmentally determined. For example, the size of a litter produced by a mammalian mother a trait with a strong genetic basis can affect the growth rate of her offspring, while a mother s dominance rank an environmentally determined trait can affect the dominance rank of her offspring.

The first volume published on the subject...

With over half of the world's human population now living in cities, human-carnivore interaction in urban areas is a growing area of concern and research for wildlife managers, conservationists, urban planners, and the public at large. This volume brings together leading international carnivore researchers to explore the unique biological and ecological issues associated with mammalian carnivores in urban landscapes.

Carnivores in urban areas are fascinating from an ecological standpoint. They elicit great passions--positive and negative--among humans and present difficult challenges...

Along with reproduction, balancing energy expenditure with the limits of resource acquisition is essential for both a species and a population to survive. But energy is a limited resource, as we know well, so birds and mammals the most energy-intensive fauna on the planet must reduce energy expenditures to maintain this balance, some taking small steps, and others extreme measures.
Here Brian K. McNab draws on his over sixty years in the field to provide a comprehensive account of the energetics of birds and mammals, one fully integrated with their natural history. McNab begins with an...