American Bison - A Natural History

1. Auflage 2002
ISBN: 978-0-520-24062-9
Verlag: University of California Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 6, 245 Seiten, Trade Paperback, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 230 mm, Gewicht: 413 g

Reihe: Organisms and Environments

American Bison combines the latest scientific information and one man's personal experience in an homage to one of the most magnificent animals to have roamed America's vast, vanished grasslands. Dale F. Lott, a distinguished behavioral ecologist who was born on the National Bison Range and has studied the buffalo for many years, relates what is known about this iconic animal's life in the wild and its troubled history with humans. Written with unusual grace and verve, American Bison takes us on a journey into the bison's past and shares a compelling vision for its future, offering along the way a valuable introduction to North American prairie ecology.

We become Lott's companions in the field as he acquaints us with the social life and physiology of the bison, sharing stories about its impressive physical prowess and fascinating relationships. Describing the entire grassland community in which the bison live, he writes about the wolves, pronghorn, prairie dogs, grizzly bears, and other animals and plants, detailing the interdependent relationships among these inhabitants of a lost landscape. Lott also traces the long and dramatic relationship between the bison and Native Americans, and gives a surprising look at the history of the hide hunts that delivered the coup de grâce to the already dwindling bison population in a few short years.

This book gives us a peek at the rich and unique ways of life that evolved in the heart of America. Lott also dismantles many of the myths we have created about these ways of life, and about the bison in particular, to reveal the animal itself: ruminating, reproducing, and rutting in its full glory. His portrait of the bison ultimately becomes a plea to conserve its wildness and an eloquent meditation on the importance of the wild in our lives.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Lott, Dale F.

Weitere Mitwirkende

Greene, Harry W.

Fachgebiete

• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Naturschutzbiologie, Biodiversität
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Biowissenschaften Neurobiologie, Verhaltensbiologie
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Tierkunde / Zoologie Wirbeltiere (Vertebrata) Säugetiere (Mammalia) Meeres- und Süßwassersäuger
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Tierkunde / Zoologie Wirbeltiere (Vertebrata) Säugetiere (Mammalia) Beuteltiere (Monotremen)
• Naturwissenschaften Biowissenschaften Tierkunde / Zoologie Wirbeltiere (Vertebrata) Säugetiere (Mammalia) Primaten
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Regionalwissenschaften, Regionalstudien
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Biodiversität

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations
Foreword
Preface

Part One. Relationships, Relationships
1. Bull to Bull and Cow to Bull
2. Cow to Cow
3. Cow to Calf

Part Two. The Machinery of a Bison’s Life
4. Bison Athletics
5. Digestion: Grass to Gas and Chips
6. Temperature Control

Part Three. Whence They Came Forth, and How Much They Multiplied
7. Ancestors and Relatives
8. How Many? Bison Population in Primitive America

Part Four. The Bison’s Neighborhood
9. The Central Grassland: Where Buffalo Roam When They’re at Home

Part Five. The Bison’s Neighbors
10. Wolves and Bison: Myths and Realities
11. Buffalo Birds
12. Diseases and Parasites
13. Pronghorn
14. Prairie Dogs
15. Badgers
16. Coyotes
17. Grizzlies
18. Ferrets

Part Six. Human and Buffalo
19. Close Encounters of the Buffalo Kind
20. To Kill a Bison
21. Bison Numbers before the Great Slaughter
22. Where Have All the Bison Gone?
23. Attitudes
24. Conservation: Then and Now
25. A Great Plains Park

Notes
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Dale F. Lott (1934-2004) was Professor Emeritus of Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology at the University of California, Davis. He is the author of Intraspecific Variation in the Social Systems of Wild Vertebrates (1991).