Marmots

Download or read book Marmots written by David P. Barash and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1989 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, based on over twenty years of study around the world, the author summarizes and synthesizes virtually everything that is known of the social behaviour and ecology of marmots. The organizing principle of the author's approach is evolution by natural selection - and thus, the degree to which the social behaviour of free-living animals can be interpreted as representing adaptations to particular environmental conditions. This book is essentially a single, widespread genus (genus Marmota comprising fourteen species found in North America and Eurasia. As such, it represents a productive union of theoretical insights from Darwinism and modern sociobiology, accompanied by a wealth of empirical data. Marmots are notable in that they constitute a relatively homogeneous group, made up of numerous species which greatly resemble each other. However, they occupy widely varying habitats - from temperate, lowland elevations to (more often) alpine meadows - and theory would predict behavioural adaptations to match their habitats.