Nocturnal Animals

by Clive Roots

Overview

We share the earth with a wide variety of animal species, each of which brings something special to the diversity of the planet. By knowing more about how animals behave and live, we gain a greater understanding of how life evolved and the importance of biodiversity. This book is about the animals that rise when the sun sets and are active throughout the night. Nocturnal Animals examines how such animals live and explains their highly developed senses that enable them to survive in the dark, as well as their behavior and adaptations to avoid sunlight and predators during the day. The book provides a thorough guide, perfect for research papers in biology classes, for understanding the behavior and biodiversity of a fascinating and unusual group of animals.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313083952
Publisher:	Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated
Publication date:	09/30/2006
Series:	Greenwood Guides to the Animal World
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Clive Roots has been a zoo director for many years. He has traveled the world collecting live animals for zoo conservation programs. Roots has acted as a masterplanning and design consultant for numerous zoological gardens and related projects around the world, and has written many books on zoo and natural history subjects.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
1. Darkness and Life
2. Life in the Shadows
3. The Scent Tasters
4. Birds of the Night
5. The First Nocturbanal Mammals
6. The Sound Navigators
7. The Insect-Eaters and Their Allies
8. Nocturbanal Chisellers
9. The Night Hunters
10. Fair Game
11. Primitive Primates
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

This title has been reviewed jointly with Nocturbanal Animals and Hibernation, both by Clive Roots…..These three titles fill a niche. Most available books on flightless birds, nocturbanal animals, and hibernation are for a juvenile audience, or they focus narrowly on particular animals (e.g., penguins) rather than giving a broad overview. Undergraduates in zoology will find these books useful. Recommended. Lower-/upper-level undergraduates, two-year technical program students, and general readers.” —Choice

“Editor's Choice Information on nocturbanal animals is relatively limited, especially when it is written for general adult audiences, and not advanced-degree students or scientists and researchers. Root's purpose is to summarize for the reader the unique and necessary adaptations these animals have developed that allow them to successfully live their lives in darkness, just as we do in daylight. These adaptations are not only physical, but behavioral as well. The text is clearly written and well organized….This book is very well done and serves as a solid introduction to nocturbanal animals; it would be suitable for high school readers and older in both public school and academic libraries.” —SB&F

“They include Hog Badgers, whose snouts do most of the hunting for them, Philippine Tarsiers, for whom a single eyeball is larger than its brain, and of course bat after bat after bat. Zoo director and consultant Roots provides a wealth of photographs of the critters that go bump in the night along with a very accessible text, describing how moderate as well as extreme environments create the nocturbanal urge in everything from salamanders to the big cats. He covers sensory oddities, night birds, the first nocturbanal mammals, the sound navigators, eaters of night-time insects, dark hunters and their game, and primates who just cannot get to bed early. There are many starling facts here: those of us perpetually low on our kangaroo supply will find they are nocturbanal, as are porcupines and a number of wild cats, and warthogs have gone nocturbanal due to excessive persecution, much to their further decimation.” —SciTech Book News

From the Publisher