Antipredator Defenses in Birds and Mammals (Interspecific Interactions) - Softcover

Caro, Tim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226094367 ISBN 13: 9780226094366

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2005

Synopsis

In nature, the ability to defend against predators is fundamental to an animal's survival. From the giraffes that rely on their spotted coats to blend into the patchy light of their woodland habitats to the South American sea lions that pile themselves in heaps to ward off the killer whales that prey on them in the shallow surf, defense strategies in the animal kingdom are seemingly innumerable.

In Antipredator Defenses in Birds and Mammals, Tim Caro ambitiously synthesizes predator defenses in birds and mammals and integrates all functional and evolutionary perspectives on antipredator defenses that have developed over the last century. Structured chronologically along a hypothetical sequence of predation—Caro evokes a gazelle fawn desperate to survive a cheetah attack to illustrate the continuum of the evolution of antipredator defenses—Antipredator Defenses in Birds and Mammals considers the defenses that prey use to avoid detection by predators; the benefits of living in groups; morphological and behavioral defenses in individuals and groups; and, finally, flight and adaptations of last resort.

Antipredator Defenses in Birds and Mammals will be of interest to both specialists and general readers interested in ecological issues.

About this title

About the Author

Tim Caro is professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology at the University of California, Davis. He is also the author of Cheetahs of the Serengeti Plains: Group Living in an Asocial Species, also published by the University of Chicago Press.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0226094367
• ISBN 13: 9780226094366
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Girling Sheila
• Number of pages: 592