Megaherbivores

An account of the limitations and advantages conferred by large body size.

Klappentext

This book is an account of the general ecology of the largest land mammals, emphasizing the constraints imposed by a very large body size.

Zusammenfassung
Owen-Smith's account of the ecology of the largest land mammals (elephants, rhinos, hippos and giraffes) emphasises the constraints resulting from their body size. Many important questions are raised. For example, why have these once abundant and widely distributed animals all but gone extinct?

Inhalt

Prologue; 1. Morphology, evolutionary history and recent distribution; 2. Food and other habitat resources; 3. Space-time patterns of habitat use; 4. Body size and nutritional physiology; 5. Body size and feeding ecology; 6. Social organisation and behaviour; 7. Life history; 8. Body size and sociobiology; 9. Body size and reproductive patterns; 10. Demography; 11. Community interactions; 12. Body size and population regulation; 13. Body size and ecosystem processes; 14. Late Pleistocene extinctions; 15. Conservation; Epilogue: the megaherbivore syndrome; Appendixes; References; Index.