How the zebra got its stripes : and other Darwinian just so stories / Léo Grasset ; translated by Barbara Mellor.

Author
Grasset, Léo, 1989- [Browse]
Uniform title
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
London : Profile Books Ltd, 2016.
Description
154 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations ; 21 cm

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks QL336 .G7313 2016 Browse related items Request

    Details

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    Library of Congress genre(s)
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    Summary note
    Why do giraffes have such long necks? Why are zebras striped? Why are buffalo herds broadly democratic while elephants prefer dictatorships? What explains the architectural brilliance of the termite mound or the complications of the hyena's sex life? And why have honey-badgers evolved to be one of nature's most efficient agents of mass destruction? Deploying the latest scientific research and his own extensive observations on the African savannah, Léo Grasset offers some answers to these and many other intriguing questions. Having shown that natural phenomena are rarely simple and that often they get more complex the more you look at them, he brings to bear a mix of evolutionary biology and lateral thinking to explain the mysteries of animal behaviour in terms that are simple but never simplifying. He ends by considering how our origins in the savannah and evolution as the hybrid of several species can shapes our habits. Léo Grasset is one of France's brightest young natural scientists. Prepare to be fascinated, delighted, surprised, shocked and, above all, entertained by his brilliantly original Darwinian Just So stories.
    Notes
    Includes index.
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references (pages 125-143) and index.
    Language note
    Translated from the French.
    Contents
    • Pt. I Evolution in its Guises
    • 1. Female Hyena's Penis
    • 2. Giraffe's Long Neck
    • 3. Random Flight of the Gazelle
    • 4. How the Zebra Got its Stripes
    • pt. II Mysteries of Animal Behaviour
    • 5. Air-Conditioning of the Termite Mound
    • 6. Impala's Mexican Waves
    • 7. Elephant Dictatorship vs Buffalo Democracy
    • 8. Antelope Art of Sexual Manipulation
    • pt. III Extraordinary Creatures
    • 9. Dung Beetle Navigation
    • 10. Seismic Signalling in the Elephants' Sound-World
    • 11. Honey Badger
    • Weapon of Mass Destruction
    • 12. Truth about the Lion King
    • pt. IV Human Factor
    • 13. How to Turn a Lion into a Cub-Killer
    • 14. Catastrophic Change
    • 15. Human Evolution and its Impact.
    ISBN
    • 1781256284 ((hardcover))
    • 9781781256282 ((hardcover))
    OCLC
    964291350
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