Megaherbivores: The Influence of Very Large Body Size on Ecology

About this book

Existing megaherbivores (elephants, rhinos, hippos and giraffes) are placed in the context of the more numerous species which occurred worldwide until the end of the last Ice Age. Knowledge of the ecology of surviving species is used to analyse the cause of the extinctions. The information and ideas contained in this book are of crucial importance to all concerned with halting the rapidly worsening conservation status of remaining elephant and rhinoceros species, and carries a wider message for those concerned with the effects of man on ecosystem processes.

Contents

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.

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