The Gnu's World (eBook)

Serengeti Wildebeest Ecology and Life History

Richard D. Estes (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2014
368 Seiten
University of California Press (Verlag)
978-0-520-95819-7 (ISBN)

Infos

This is the first scholarly book on the antelope that dominates the savanna ecosystems of eastern and southern Africa. It presents a synthesis of research conducted over a span of fifty years, mainly on the wildebeest in the Ngorongoro and Serengeti ecosystems, where eighty percent of the world’s wildebeest population lives. Wildebeest and other grazing mammals drive the ecology and evolution of the savanna ecosystem. Richard D. Estes describes this process and also details the wildebeest’s life history, focusing on its social organization and unique reproductive system, which are adapted to the animal’s epic annual migrations. He also examines conservation issues that affect wildebeest, including range-wide population declines.

Inhalt

Introduction: The Author’s Fifty-Year History of Wildebeest Research

1. Africa: The Real Home Where Antelopes Roam
2. African Savannas: Understanding the Tropical Climate, Vegetation, and the Gnu’s Ecological Niche
3. Introducing the Wildebeest’s Tribe: Similarities and Differences among the Four Genera and Seven Species
4. The Four Wildebeest Subspecies and the Status of Migratory Populations
5. Increase and Protection of the Serengeti Wildebeest Population
6. Serengeti Grasslands and the Wildebeest Migration
7. Social Organization: Comparison of Migratory and Resident Populations
8. Male and Female Life Histories
9. Cooperation and Competition among Twenty-Seven Ungulates That Coexist with the Wildebeest
10. The Amazing Migration and Rut of the Serengeti Wildebeest
11. The Calving Season: Birth and Survival on Calving Grounds and in Small Herds
12. Serengeti Shall Not Die? Africa’s Most Iconic World Heritage Site under Siege

Bibliography
Index

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 12.4.2014
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik ► Natur / Ökologie
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Ökologie / Naturschutz
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Zoologie
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Schlagworte: Africa • African Animals • african conservation efforts • animals • Antelope • biological science of mammals • Biology • connochaetes • conservation • Eastern Africa • Ecology • Evolution • GNU • grazing mammals • Life history • mammals • Migration • Ngorongoro • range wide population declines • Reproductive system • Savanna • Savanna Ecosystem • Serengeti • Social organization • Southern Africa • Wildebeest • wildebeest population • Wilderness • wildlife
• ISBN-10: 0-520-95819-5 / 0520958195
• ISBN-13: 978-0-520-95819-7 / 9780520958197