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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
Coup de la giraffe.
English
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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
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Details
Subject(s)
Savanna animals
—
Africa
—
Miscellanea
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Translator
Mellor, Barbara
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Library of Congress genre(s)
Trivia and miscellanea
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Getty AAT genre
miscellanies
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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.
Show 17 more Contents items
ISBN
1781256284 ((hardcover))
9781781256282 ((hardcover))
OCLC
964291350
Statement on language in description
Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage.
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