Waubonsee Community College

How the zebra got its stripes, Darwinian stories told through evolutionary biology, Léo Grasset ; [translation by Barbara Mellor]

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 125-143) and index

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index present

non fiction

How the zebra got its stripes

bibliography

959872376

Léo Grasset ; [translation by Barbara Mellor]

Darwinian stories told through evolutionary biology

"A bright young scientist explains the intricacies of the animal kingdom through the lens of evolutionary biology. Why do giraffes have such long necks? Why are zebras striped? Why does a gazelle evade a hungry cheetah by leaping and bounding along a random path? Deploying the latest scientific research and his own extensive observations in Africa, Léo Grasset offers answers to these questions and many more in a book of post-Darwinian Just So Stories (the classic tales by Rudyard Kipling that offered fanciful accounts of how the features of assorted fauna came to be). Complex natural phenomena are explained in simple and at times comic terms, as Grasset turns evolutionary biology to the burning questions of the animal kingdom, from why elephants prefer dictators and buffaloes democracies, to whether the lion really is king. The human is, of course, just another animal, and the author's exploration of two million years of human evolution illustrates how it not only informs our current habits and behavior, but also reveals that we are hybrids of several different species. Prepare to be fascinated, shocked, and delighted--as well as reliably advised. By the end, you will know, for example, to never hug the beautiful, cuddly honey badger, and what explains its almost psychotic nastiness. This is serious science at its entertaining best."--Jacket

Part I: Evolution in its guises. The female hyena's penis ; The giraffe's long neck ; The random flight of the gazelle ; How the zebra got its stripes -- Part II: The mysteries of animal behaviour. The air-conditioning of the termite mound ; The impala's Mexican waves ; Elephant dictatorship vs buffalo democracy ; The antelope art of sexual manipulation -- Part III: Extraordinary creatures. Dung beetle navigation ; Seismic signalling in the elephants' sound-world ; Honey badger : weapon of mass destruction ; The truth about The lion king -- Part IV: The human factor. How to turn a lion into a cub-killer ; Catastrophic change ; Human evolution and its impact -- Epilogue: The zebras and me