1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910789265703321

Autore

Estes Richard

Titolo

The gnu's world : Serengeti wildebeest ecology and life history / / Richard D. Estes

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, California ; ; Los Angeles, California ; ; London, England : , : University of California Press, , 2014

©2014

ISBN

0-520-95819-5

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (369 p.)

Classificazione

WS 9200

Disciplina

599.64/59

Soggetti

Gnus - Tanzania - Serengeti Plain

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 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 in Small Herds and on Calving Grounds -- 12. Serengeti Shall Not Die? Africa's Most Iconic World Heritage Site under Siege -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

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.