Megaherbivores: The Influence of Very Large Body Size on EcologyCambridge University Press, 1988 - 369 páginas The largest land mammals are constrained in their activities by their large body size, a theme that is emphasized in this account of their general ecology. The book begins by raising the question as to why these once abundant and widely distributed 'megaherbivores' - elephants, rhinos, hippos and giraffes - have all but gone extinct, and ends by considering the implications of the answer for the conservation of the remaining populations. Existing megaherbivores are placed in the context of the more numerous species which occurred worldwide until the end of the last Ice Age, and knowledge of the ecology of surviving species is used to analyse the cause of the extinctions. The information and ideas contained in this book are of crucial importance to all concerned with halting the rapidly worsening conservation status of remaining elephant and rhinoceros species, and carries a wider message for those concerned with the ramifying effects of man on ecosystem processes. Graduate students and research scientists in ecology, conservation biology and wildlife management will find this book of value. |
Contenido
Prologue | 1 |
Morphology evolutionary history and recent distribution | 6 |
Evolutionary origins and relationships | 16 |
Paleontological diversity | 20 |
Distribution of extant species | 21 |
Food and other habitat resources | 30 |
Water and other habitat needs | 45 |
Comparisons with smaller ungulates | 50 |
Offspring sex ratio | 195 |
Summary | 198 |
Demography | 200 |
Population growth | 212 |
Population density and biomass | 221 |
Comparisons with smaller ungulates | 225 |
Community Interactions | 226 |
Effects on other large herbivores | 239 |
Spacetime patterns of habitat use | 53 |
Utilization of space | 61 |
Comparisons with smaller ungulates | 67 |
Body size and nutritional physiology | 69 |
Metabolic requirements | 70 |
Gut anatomy | 71 |
Food intake and digestion | 72 |
Body size and feeding ecology | 82 |
Foraging time | 87 |
Home range extent | 95 |
summary | 98 |
Social organization and behavior | 101 |
Male dominance relations | 109 |
Courtship and mating | 116 |
Responses to predators | 124 |
Comparisons with smaller ungulates | 131 |
Life history | 133 |
Adolescence and puberty | 138 |
Reproduction by females | 144 |
Reproduction by males | 150 |
Mortality and lifespan | 152 |
Comparisons with smaller ungulates | 158 |
Body size and sociobiology | 160 |
Male dominance systems | 167 |
Female mate choice | 177 |
Summary | 179 |
Body size and reproductive patterns | 181 |
Seasonality of reproduction | 183 |
Age at first conception | 185 |
Birth intervals | 186 |
Maternal investment in reproduction | 190 |
Comparisons with smaller ungulates | 245 |
Body size and population regulation | 246 |
Demographic models | 248 |
Interactions with vegetation | 257 |
Dispersal | 260 |
Summary | 264 |
Body size and ecosystem processes | 265 |
Energy flux | 274 |
Nutrient cycling | 277 |
Ecosystem stability and disturbance | 278 |
Late Pleistocene extinctions | 280 |
Pattern of extinctions | 281 |
Climatic change | 284 |
Human predation | 289 |
The role of megaherbivores | 292 |
Summary | 296 |
Conservation | 297 |
Conservation objectives | 298 |
Problems of overabundance | 299 |
Problems of overexploitation | 307 |
Summary | 308 |
Epilogue the megaherbivore syndrome | 309 |
Social and life history patterns | 312 |
Demographic patterns | 313 |
Community and ecosystem patterns | 314 |
Appendix I | 317 |
Appendix II | 325 |
331 | |
364 | |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
Megaherbivores: The Influence of Very Large Body Size on Ecology R. Norman Owen-Smith Sin vista previa disponible - 1988 |
Términos y frases comunes
100 females adult females adult males African buffalo African elephants animals annum antelope Asian elephants biomass biomass levels birth interval black rhinos browsers browsing calf culling density diet digestive dispersal dominant bull drought dry season ecology ecosystem estimated estrus extinctions favored feeding food intake foraging giraffe grassland grazing habitat Hall-Martin hindgut fermenters Hluhluwe home ranges human Indian rhinos Kenya kg km-2 km² Kruger Park large herbivores late Pleistocene Leuthold Luangwa Madlozi mating mean medium-sized ungulates megaherbivores metabolic mortality musth natality National Park occurred offspring Owen-Smith Park in South pattern period predation proportion rainfall recorded region relation reproductive restricted rhinos and hippos ruminants savanna SE(b Serengeti sex ratio short grass smaller ungulates South Africa species study area subadults subordinate bull survival Tanzania tend territory tion trees Uganda Umfolozi Game Reserve ungulates vacuum zones vegetation wet season white rhino population White rhinoceros white rhinos wildebeest woodland Zimbabwe