The cheetah, the fastest terrestrial animal, has widespread appeal amongst wildlife biologists and enthusiasts alike. However, like all all large carnivores, it is increasingly threatened by habitat loss and its status is now classified as 'Vulnerable' by the IUCN. This is the first comprehensive study of cheetah biology in an arid environment, a major component of its current distribution range. The book brings together results from an intensive six year study of the cheetah by the authors in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park in South Africa and Botswana. It documents a wealth of detailed and direct observations of cheetah population biology and behavioural ecology, adopting an evolutionary approach and providing a conceptual framework for future research and applied management in the context of global environmental change. Kalahari Cheetahs covers topics such as optimal foraging theory, hunting strategies and predator prey relations, mating systems and reproductive strategies and success, inter-specific competition, demography, social organisation, and population limitation. Comparisons with previous cheetah studies reveal the variability of ecological determinants on behaviour, and the behavioural flexibility and ability of these carnivores to adapt to different environments. This advanced textbook is suitable for graduate level students as well as professional researchers in felid behavioural ecology and conservation biology. It will also be of relevance and use to conservationists, wildlife managers, and African wildlife enthusiasts.

What does it mean to be a horse? The definitive and bestselling book explaining the mysteries of the horse using insights of modern science. What makes a winning racehorse? How intelligent are horses? What are horses trying to tell us when they stamp their hooves and snort? Do horses talk to each other? The horse, long symbol of beauty and athletic prowess, has made and lost fortunes and transformed human history and culture, and yet has retained mysteries that baffle even those who work with them every day. There has recently been an explosion of scientific research on the horse. In this book Stephen Budiansky brings the insights of modern science to a wider audience of horse enthusiasts and animal-lovers.

A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS PLACING THE HUMAN-WOLF RELATIONSHIP IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVEInternational in range and chronological in organisation, this volume aims to grasp the maincurrents of thought about interactions with the wolf in modern history. It focuses on perceptions, interactions and dependencies, and includes cultural and social analyses as well as biological aspects. Wolves have been feared and admired, hunted and cared for. At the same historical moment, different cultural and social groups have upheld widely diverging ideas about the wolf. Fundamental dichotomies in modern history, between nature and culture, wilderness and civilisation and danger and security, have been portrayed in terms of wolf-human relationships. The wolf has been part of aesthetic, economic, political, psychological and cultural reasoning albeit it is nowadays mainly addressed as an object of wildlife management. There has been a major shift in perception from dangerous predator to endangered species, but the big bad fairytale wolf remains a cultural icon. This volume roots study of human-wolf relationships coherently within the disciplines of environmental and animal history for the first time.

Mammalian Toxicology surveys chemical agents and examines how such chemicals impact on human health, emphasizing the importance in minimizing environmental exposure to chemical and physical hazards in our homes, communities and workplaces through such media as contaminated water, soil and air. Starting with the basic principles on a wide range of toxic agents, this textbook describes how they enter the body, their mechanisms of action once inside, and strategies for diagnosis, prevention and treatment. Topics covered include: *General principles of toxicology: pharmacological and toxicological principles underpinning the study of toxicology, risk assessments and mechanisms of cell death *Disposition: routes of chemical exposures, entry into the body and various tissues, storage, metabolic biotransformation and elimination, with examples from various toxicants. *Toxic agents: the occurrences, disposition in the body, health effects, toxic mechanisms, antidotes and treatments of a range of agents including pesticides, metals, solvents, gases, nanomaterials, food components and additives, pharmaceuticals, drugs of abuse, natural toxins, endocrine disruptors, radiation, and warfare weapons. *Toxic effects: including neurotoxicity, developmental toxicity, immunotoxicity, teratogenecity, male and female reproductive toxicity, mutagenecity, carcinogenicity, pulmonary toxicity, cardiovascular toxicity, hepatotoxicity, gastrointestinal toxicity and cardiovascular toxicity *Toxicology and society: epidemiological studies of chemical-induced diseases in human populations, and a vision for toxicology in the 21st century. Mammalian Toxicology is an essential primer for students of toxicology, biochemistry, biology, medicine and chemistry. It is also appropriate for professional toxicologists in research or regulatory affairs, and anyone who needs to understand the adverse effects of toxic agents on the human body.

If ever there was a contender for "giant dwarfs" or "the world's biggest dwarf," pygmy elephants are it. Even a five-foot at the shoulder pygmy elephant would still be a massive beast. I wanted to call this work Slightly Smaller Elephants - Possibly but I was persuaded that Pygmy Elephants had a better ring to it. There have in the past - millions to hundreds of thousands of years ago - been smaller species of elephants, well-documented in the fossil record, some of whom we will meet shortly. And there have been claims made for the existence of living pygmy elephants in various remote and not-so-remote parts of the world today.

Travelers and traders taking the Santa Fe Trail's routes from Missouri to New Mexico wrote vivid eyewitness accounts of the diverse and abundant wildlife encountered as they crossed arid plains, high desert, and rugged mountains. Most astonishing to these observers were the incredible numbers of animals, many they had not seen before - buffalo, antelope (pronghorn), prairie dogs, roadrunners, mustangs, grizzlies, and others. They also wrote about the domesticated animals they brought with them, including oxen, mules, horses, and dogs. Their letters, diaries, and memoirs open a window onto an animal world on the plains seen by few people other than the Plains Indians who had lived there for thousands of years. Phyllis S. Morgan has gleaned accounts from numerous primary sources and assembled them into a delightfully informative narrative. She has also explored the lives of the various species, and in this book tells about their behaviors and characteristics, the social relations within and between species, their relationships with humans, and their contributions to the environment and humankind. With skillful prose and a keen eye for a priceless tale, Morgan reanimates the story of life on the Santa Fe Trail's well-worn routes, and its sometimes violent intersection with human life. She provides a stirring view of the land and of the animals visible ""as far as the eye could reach,"" as more than one memoirist described. She also champions the many contributions animals made to the Trail's success and to the opening of the American West.