Living in a Seasonal World
Living in a Seasonal World

Author: Thomas Ruf

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-04-23

Total Pages: 549

ISBN-13: 364228678X

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This book summarises the newest information on seasonal adaptation in animals. Topics include animal hibernation, daily torpor, thermoregulation, heat production, metabolic depression, biochemical adaptations, neurophysiology and energy balance. The contributors to this book present interdisciplinary research at multiple levels ranging from the molecular to the ecophysiological, as well as evolutionary approaches. The chapters of this book provide original data not published elsewhere, which makes it the most up-to-date, comprehensive source of information on these fields. The book’s subchapters correspond to presentations given at the 14th International Hibernation Symposium in August 2012 in Austria. This is a very successful series of symposia (held every four years since 1959) that attracts leading researchers in the field. Like the past symposia, this meeting – and consequently the book – is aimed not only at hibernation but at covering the full range of animal adaptations to seasonal environments. For the next four years, this book will serve as the cutting-edge reference work for graduate students and scientists active in this field of physiology and ecology. .

Strategies in Cold
Strategies in Cold

Author: Lawrence C.H. Wang

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2012-12-02

Total Pages: 730

ISBN-13: 0323141684

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Strategies in Cold: Natural Torpidity and Thermogenesis is a collection of review papers presented at the Fifth International Symposium on Mammalian Hibernation, held at Jasper Park Lodge, Alberta, Canada on October 3-8, 1977. The book is organized into four sections encompassing 20 chapters that cover the advances made since the 1971 symposium in the areas of molecular, biochemical, and cellular adaptations of natural torpidity and the role of the central nervous system in regulation of natural torpidity. The opening section discusses the possible ways of generating circannual cycle in constant condition and the historical progress in understanding the mechanism of shallow, daily torpor and its distribution in various families predominantly from the marsupial, insectivore, and rodent orders. The application of simple economic models to biological systems to illustrate the principles of torpor in non-mammalian organisms and temperature regulation is also described in this text. Section II examines the central nervous structures involved in thermoregulation in hibernators and compares these data with the results of corresponding experiments in non-hibernators. Topics on the influence of serotonergic pathways in the brain on hypothalamic hormonal factor release and the maintenance and regulation of hibernation through a parasympathetic response are discussed in this section. Section III deals with the cellular and biochemical adaptations in natural torpidity, with an emphasis on the metabolic and endocrine changes in hibernation. Section IV tackles postulated mechanisms for nonshivering thermogenesis and the neurohumoral factors regulating these mechanisms in mammals exposed to short-term as well as to prolonged periods of cold. A discussion on significance and possible central mechanisms of thermoregulatory threshold deviations in the course of thermal adaptation is also provided.

Animal Social Networks
Animal Social Networks

Author: Dr. Jens Krause

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 0199679045

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The scientific study of networks - computer, social, and biological - has received an enormous amount of interest in recent years. However, the network approach has been applied to the field of animal behaviour relatively late compared to many other biological disciplines. Understanding social network structure is of great importance for biologists since the structural characteristics of any network will affect its constituent members and influence a range of diverse behaviours. These include finding and choosing a sexual partner, developing and maintaining cooperative relationships, and engaging in foraging and anti-predator behavior. This novel text provides an overview of the insights that network analysis has provided into major biological processes, and how it has enhanced our understanding of the social organisation of several important taxonomic groups. It brings together researchers from a wide range of disciplines with the aim of providing both an overview of the power of the network approach for understanding patterns and process in animal populations, as well as outlining how current methodological constraints and challenges can be overcome. Animal Social Networks is principally aimed at graduate level students and researchers in the fields of ecology, zoology, animal behaviour, and evolutionary biology but will also be of interest to social scientists.

Squirrels of the World
Squirrels of the World

Author: Richard W. Thorington, Jr.

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2012-08-03

Total Pages: 470

ISBN-13: 1421404699

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Squirrels of the World, written by scientists with more than 100 years of collective experience studying these popular mammals, is the first comprehensive examination of all 285 species of squirrels worldwide. The authors reveal virtually every detail of the family Sciuridae, which includes ground squirrels, tree squirrels, flying squirrels, prairie dogs, and chipmunks. Each species—from the familiar gray squirrel of American backyards to the exotic and endangered woolly flying squirrel of Pakistan—is described in a detailed account that includes distinguishing characteristics, ecology, natural history, conservation status, and current threats to its existence. Squirrels of the World includes • stunning color photographs that document rare and unusual squirrels as well as common varieties• evolution, morphology, ecology, and conservation status• colorful range maps marking species distribution• images of the skull of each genus of squirrel• extensive references -- Lawrence Heaney, Curator and Head of the Division of Mammals, The Field Museum (Chicago)

Reproductive Biology of Bats
Reproductive Biology of Bats

Author: Elizabeth G. Crichton

Publisher: Academic Press

Published: 2000-06-12

Total Pages: 523

ISBN-13: 0080540538

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The Reproductive Biology of Bats presents the first comprehensive, in-depth review of the current knowledge and supporting literature concerning the behavior, anatomy, physiology and reproductive strategies of bats. These mammals, which occur world-wide and comprise a vast assemblage of species, have evolved unique and successful reproductive strategies through varied anatomical and physiological specialization. These are accompanied by individual and/or group behavioral interactions, usually in response to environmental mechanisms essential to their reproductive success. - Is the first book devoted to the reproductive biology of bats - Contains in-depth reviews of the literature concerned with bat reproduction - Contributors are widely recognized specialists - Provides a powerful database for future research

Ecosystem Dynamics of the Boreal Forest
Ecosystem Dynamics of the Boreal Forest

Author: Charles J. Krebs

Publisher: Oxford University Press on Demand

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 511

ISBN-13: 9780195133936

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The boreal forest is one of the world's great ecosystems, stretching across North America and Eurasia in an unbroken band and containing about 25% of the world's closed canopy forests. The Kluane Boreal Forest Ecosystem Project was a 10-year study by nine of Canada's leading ecologists to unravel the impact of the snowshoe hare cycle on the plants and the other vertebrate species in the boreal forest. In much of the boreal forest, the snowshoe hare acts as a keystone herbivore, fluctuating in 9-10 year cycles, and dragging along secondary cycles in predators such as lynx and great-horned owls. By manipulating the ecosystem on a large scale from the bottom via fertilizer additions and from the top by predator exclosures, they have traced the plant-herbivore relationships and the predator-prey relationships in this ecosystem to try to answer the question of what drives small mammal population cycles. This study is unique in being large scale and experimental on a relatively simple ecosystem, with the overall goal of defining what determines community structure in the boreal forest. Ecosystem Dynamics of the Boreal Forest: The Kluane Project summarizes these findings, weaving new discoveries of the role of herbivores-turned-predators, compensatory plant growth, and predators-eating-predators with an ecological story rich in details and clear in its findings of a community where predation plays a key role in determining the fate of individuals and populations. The study of the Kluane boreal forest raises key questions about the scale of conservation required for boreal forest communities and the many mammals and birds that live there.