Kangaroos: Biology of the Largest Marsupials

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Cornell University Press, 1995 - Nature - 162 pages

Kangaroos may be the strangest of mammals - not so much because they keep their babies in pouches and lok like a cross between a giant rat and a deer - but because they alone among the large vertebrates can hop. This appealing natural history by an internationally known expert is the only up-to-date book on these unique animals. Illustrating his account with color photos and black-and-white drawings, Terence J. Dawson makes recent research on the biology, locomotion, behavior, and ecology of large kangaroos accessible to readers from tourists to specialists.The six species and four subspecies of red and gray kangaroos occupy habitats across most of Australia, and are distinguished mainly by size from their smaller relatives the wallabies. The largest marsupials, kangaroos belong to the Superfamily Macropodoidae, or "big foots", and are further characterized by complex stomachs and specialized teeth for grazing.Dawson considers the evolution of kangaroos, as well as their energetics, grazing habits, and classification. For each species, he details social organization, habitat, patterns of activity, population structure, reproductive biology and bheavior, feeding characteristics, and environmental physiology. The author documents as well the uneven history of coexistence between kangaroos and their human neighbors - both aboriginal and European. In addition to comparing cultural attitudes towards kangaroos, he explores such issues as hunting habits, conservation efforts, the problem of kangaroos as agricultural pests, and the economics of kangaroo ranching.Terence J. Dawson is Professor of Zoology at the School of Biological Science, University of New South Wales, Sydney.

 

Contents

PREFACE
1
Fossil history and evolution of kangaroos 6 The significance of hopping
7
Grey kangaroos eastern grey western grey 12 Red kangaroo
17
Wallarooeuro group 19 Antilopine kangaroo
25
Group organisation 27 Homerange habitat use and activity patterns
35
POPULATION STRUCTURE DISPERSAL AND MORTALITY
46
red kangaroos 47 Patterns of dispersal
53
REPRODUCTIVE BIOLOGY AND BEHAVIOUR
60
Care of the young and their early life 79 Social aspects of the life
89
LIVING IN THE ENVIRONMENT FEEDING
97
Gut structure 102 Feed intake 104 Diets and diet preferences 107 Overlap
109
Temperature regulationphysiological thermoregulation 117 Water relations
121
Giant kangaroos and the megafauna 126 The current significance of kangaroos
132
KANGAROOS AND HUMANS EUROPEANS
139
First encounters 139 Attitudes to kangaroos then and now 140 Are kangaroos pests
150
INDEX
159

Reproductive anatomy female marsupials 61 Female
73
LIFE HISTORY
77

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