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

By: Contributor(s): Material type: TextTextLanguage: English Original language: French Publisher: New York : Pegasus Books, 2017Copyright date: ©2017Edition: First Pegasus Books hardcover editionDescription: 154 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 22 cmContent type:
  • text
  • still image
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9781681774145
  • 1681774143
Uniform titles:
  • Coup de la girafe. English
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Part I. Evolution in its guises. 1. The female hyena's penis ; 2. The giraffe's long neck ; 3. The random flight of the gazelle ; 4. How the zebra got its stripes -- Part II. The mysteries of animal behaviour. 5. The air-conditioning of the termite mound ; 6. The impala's Mexican waves ; 7. Elephant dictatorship vs buffalo democracy ; 8. The antelope art of sexual manipulation -- Part III. Extraordinary creatures. 9. Dung beetle navigation ; 10. Seismic signalling in the elephants' sound-world ; 11. Honey badger : weapon of mass destruction ; 12. The truth about The lion king -- Part IV. The human factor. 13. How to turn a lion into a cub-killer ; 14. Catastrophic change ; 15. Human evolution and its impact -- Epilogue: The zebras and me.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 591.748 G768 Available 33111008776367
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

France's brightest young scientist lucidly explains the intricacies of the animal kingdom through the lens of evolutionary biology.

Why do giraffes have such long necks? Why are zebras striped? And why does the clitoris of the female hyena exactly resemble and in most respects function like the male's penis?

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. 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 shows how it not only informs our current habits and behavior, but 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 to never hug the beautiful, cuddly honey badger, and what explains its almost psychotic nastiness.

This is serious science at its entertaining best.

Translation of: Le coup de la girafe : des savants dans la savane. 2015.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 125-143) and index.

Part I. Evolution in its guises. 1. The female hyena's penis ; 2. The giraffe's long neck ; 3. The random flight of the gazelle ; 4. How the zebra got its stripes -- Part II. The mysteries of animal behaviour. 5. The air-conditioning of the termite mound ; 6. The impala's Mexican waves ; 7. Elephant dictatorship vs buffalo democracy ; 8. The antelope art of sexual manipulation -- Part III. Extraordinary creatures. 9. Dung beetle navigation ; 10. Seismic signalling in the elephants' sound-world ; 11. Honey badger : weapon of mass destruction ; 12. The truth about The lion king -- Part IV. The human factor. 13. How to turn a lion into a cub-killer ; 14. Catastrophic change ; 15. Human evolution and its impact -- Epilogue: The zebras and me.

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