The Bengal Monitor
Merchant: Oxfam
Merchant's Category: Media> Books
"The most thorough and exhaustive study of a single reptile species ever carried out. [It] will become a classic."--Henry Fitch, University of Kansas. "An unparalleled accomplishment in herpetology."--John L. Behler, Curator, Department of Herpetology, New York Zoological Society. The Bengal Monitor, the most comprehensive study ever done on a single reptile species anywhere in the world, completes Walter Auffenberg's monumental trilogy on the behavioural ecology of monitor lizards. Together the books provide baseline ecological principles and behavioural descriptions that scientists will use to frame all future theoretical models of the genus Varanus. The group consists of about fifty species, all found in the Old World, many of which are considered endangered. Unlike the lizard species emphasized in the first two books, the Bengal monitor inhabits a huge range, extending from Java to the Iran and Afghanistan borders, including many different habitats. To unravel the biological elements of this lizard's survival strategies, Auffenberg concentrates on the diet and foraging behaviour of the Bengal monitor, studying its prey base--mainly small insects--in remarkable detail. Because most monitors are mainly insectivorous, this book reflects the more usual pattern in which these lizards compete with other predatory birds and mammals in the local environment. The descriptions of complex ecological relationships assure the book's use by parasitologists, entomologists, mammalogists, and ecologists generally. To study the lizards (which measure about five feet from nose to tail), Auffenberg captured them with techniques that depended on his location and often on local good will: licensed hide hunters shot specimens out of trees in Malaysia; trained dogs trapped them in Myanmar; in the marshy lakes of the Indus Valley he hired tribal Jogi "snake charmers" to flush them from cover and catch them by hand. During a twenty-year period, his research for The Bengal Monitor took him to museums, laboratories, and field sites throughout southern Asia and then home to Florida, where he observed a colony of monitors that he transplanted to greenhouses in his backyard. Walter Auffenberg is Distinguished Research Curator Emeritus at the Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville. He chaired the Department of Natural Science from 1963 to 1973 and served as curator of herpetology from 1963 until he retired in 1991. He is the author of Gray's Monitor Lizard (UPF, 1988) and The Behavioural Ecology of the Komodo Monitor (UPF, 1981), for which he received the Wildlife Society's Best Wildlife Book Award. Hardback - new sealed condition. Green clothbound cover with gilt lettering and illustration.
More details from Oxfam
Follow Oxfam to get news updates and products on your homepage.
Oxfam is being followed by 0 people.
Follow Oxfam
Delivery Details
Specific details for this product: No specific details given.General Delivery details for Oxfam:
Oxfam delivers only to the UK
�3.95 flat fee and free returns.
UK Delivery only- Free returns
UK Delivery only
No review added yet - be the first!
Reviews and Comments
If you own this product already, please write a quick review to help others:
Current Special Offer at Oxfam:
Comments and Feedback
This is an experimental quick comments form. Please use it to point out a mistake, tell us about a closed shop or a quick comment about the page you are on. Any comment/feedback left here may be added to the page if it is helpful.
Oxfam
Read more about Oxfam
Shop at Oxfam online! There are the usual Oxfam goodies as well as a huge selection of second hand and vintage clothes, music, dvds, books and homewares. Also find wedding favours, rare books, ceramics, stamps and coins.