Ulteriori informazioni
Through a mix of accessible, highly readable prose and cutting-edge science, the authors weave a riveting scientific story of the lives of these intriguing creatures, highlighting the broader insights into mammalian behaviour, ecology, epidemiology, evolutionary biology, and conservation by using badgers as a model system.
Sommario
- Foreword
- Preface
- 1: Setting the Scene: Births and Beginnings
- 2: It's Tough at the Bottom
- 3: Apprenticeships for Badger Society
- 4: Setts, Society and Super-groups: The Geology of Social Behaviour
- 5: The Sum of the Parts: Knowing One's Place in Badger Society
- 6: Social Odours: The Perfume of Society
- 7: Sex: How and Why, and with Whom?
- 8: Social Behaviour in an Uncooperative Society
- 9: Who Goes There: Friend or Foe?
- 10: The Ecological Foundations to Badger Group-Living
- 11: The Economics of Survival: Population Size, and Crashing through the Ceiling
- 12: Weather: Actuarial Insights
- 13: Weather: Behaviour at the Worm Front
- 14: The Game of Life
- 15: In Sickness and in Health
- 16: The Story of Badgers and TB: Perturbation and Beyond
- 17: Genetic Mate Choice: Quality Matters
- 18: Senescence, Telomeres, and Life-History Trade-Offs
- 19: Of the Same Stripe, or Not: Exceptions that Prove Rules
Info autore
Professor David Macdonald CBE has been Director of the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford University since founding it in 1986, and is also Senior Research Fellow in Wildlife Conservation at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. He began research in Wytham Woods in 1972, and has been studying badgers since then. In 1986 he began the routine annual sampling of badgers which is the foundation of this book. A recent survey by BBC Wildlife magazine listed him amongst the ten most influential living conservationists, and he has twice been awarded the Natural History Author of the Year.
Chris Newman joined the Wildlife Conservation Unit at Oxford University in 1991, spending 15 years living on-site in the heart of Wytham Woods which gave him unprecedented access to the 300 badgers that shared his garden. In 2019 he moved to Novia Scotia to work as an independent ecological consultant.
Riassunto
Through a mix of accessible, highly readable prose and cutting-edge science, the authors weave a riveting scientific story of the lives of these intriguing creatures, highlighting the broader insights into mammalian behaviour, ecology, epidemiology, evolutionary biology, and conservation by using badgers as a model system.
Testo aggiuntivo
This book is the product of 50 years of David's and 30 years of Chris's study of badgers in an Oxfordshire wood. You can find anything you want to know about badgers in this book, and it is written in a way that wealth of detail is not intimidating.
