Zoology and animal sciences Books

Book SynopsisThe natural world is full of awesome surprises, and the animal kingdom is no exception. As The Secret Lives of Animals reveals, it seems that the more we discover about the unusual species that populate our planet, the more we understand just how ingenious, resourceful and downright creative they can be!Did you know that red pandas are not only incredibly cute, but also master escape artists able to flee their enclosures in high security zoos all over the world with alarming frequency? Or that beautiful manta rays have not only been observed recognizing their own reflection in mirrors, but are also able to identify friendly divers and ask for their help when they’re in a bit of a jam? Or that elephants, as well as having famously impressive memories, are also sophisticated communicators who send signals to each other using a wide range of body language? Or that parrots, as well as being amazing mimics, are able to learn dance moves? YouTube star Snowball, the dancing cockatoo, has a very entertaining fourteen-move repertoire.With charming and humorous illustrations from BAFTA-award-winning artist Greg McLeod (half of The Brothers McLeod), The Secret Lives of Animals is a window into some of the most complex and impressive minds of the animal kingdom, revealing the little-known skills and natural intuition that have allowed them to survive – and often have a little fun along the way.

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Book SynopsisThis book provides updated information on this intriguing and exciting group of insects: Neotropical Social Wasps. These insects have a particular biology and their colonies are formed by a few cooperative females living in either small or massive, structured nests where stinging individuals organize their activities and defend their offspring. Topics include evolutionary aspects, biogeography, post-embryonic development, community behavior and ecology, economic importance, and research methods. Table of ContentsA Brief Review Of Studies On Social Wasps In Brazil.- The Evolution of Swarm Founding in the Wasps: Possible Scenarios.- The foraging behaviour of neotropical social wasps.- The choice of sexual partner in social wasps.- Nesting Habits of Neotropical Social Wasps.- Castes and polymorphisms in neotropical social wasps.- The biology of swarm-founding epiponine wasp, Polybia paulsita.- Causes and consequences of reproductive conflicts in wasp societies.- Post-embryonic Development in Brazilian Social Wasps.- Evolution and adaptation of the wings and mandibles of neotropical social wasps.- Cuticular hydrocarbon studies in Neotropical Social Wasps.- Biogeographic hypotheses for the Neotropical Social Wasps.- Chromosome diversity and evolution in Neotropical social wasps.- Phylogeny and classification of the Neotropical social wasps.- List of species of social wasps from Brazil.- The Old-World versus New-World social wasps: Similarities, differences and threats.- Key to the genera of social wasps (Polistinae) occurring in Brazil.- Research techniques used in the study of social wasps.- Community ecology of social wasps in Brazil: Forty years of studies.- lnteractions between wasps and other animals: associations and natural enemies.- Interactions of social wasps with microorganisms.- Artificial Environments for Studying Eusocial Wasps.- Economic importance of Neotropical Social Wasps.

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Book SynopsisThis textbook provides the first overview of plant-animal interactions for twenty years focused on the needs of students and professors. It discusses a range of topics from the basic structures of plant-animal interactions to their evolutionary implications in producing and maintaining biodiversity. It also highlights innovative aspects of plant-animal interactions that can represent highly productive research avenues, making it a valuable resource for anyone interested in a future career in ecology. Written by leading experts, and employing a variety of didactic tools, the book is useful for students and teachers involved in advanced undergraduate and graduate courses addressing areas such as herbivory, trophic relationships, plant defense, pollination and biodiversity. Table of ContentsChapter 1 - Introduction.- Chapter 2 - Plant chemistry and their impacts on biotic interactions.- Chapter 3 - Herbivory and Plant defenses – antagonist interactions.- Chapter 4 - The molecular genetic basis in plant-animal interactions.- Chapter 5 - Biotic defenses against herbivory.- Chapter 6 - Pollination – from antagonistic to mutualistic interactions.- Chapter 7 - Dispersal – frugivory and seed dispersal.- Chapter 8 - Plant phenology: effects seasonality in biotic interactions.- Chapter 9 - Plant-mediated above-belowground interactions.- Chapter 10 - Ecosystem Engineers – how plant-animal interactions modify the environment.- Chapter 11 - Ecological networks in plant-animal interactions.- Chapter 12 - The evolution of facilitation and mutualism in plant-animal interactions.- Chapter 13 - Evolutionary conflicts in coevolved mutualisms.- Chapter 14 - Plant-Animal Interactions: and the origin of biodiversity.- Chapter 15 - Plant-Animal Interactions in the Anthropocene era.

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Book SynopsisThis is the first book focusing on the animal’s perspective and best practices to ensure the welfare of both therapy animals and their human counterparts in animal-assisted interventions. Written by leading scientists, it summarizes the scientific evidence available concerning the impacts on animals in these settings, including companion species, horses, marine mammals and other animals used in therapy.There has been a dramatic increase in the range of animal-assisted interventions used in medical and allied health environments in recent years, and the field is now entering an era with a greater interest in defining the underlying mechanisms of the human-animal bond as well as the therapeutic benefits of these interactions. Animal-assisted interventions, as with other uses of animals by humans, impose a unique set of stresses on the animals, which the community has only recently begun to acknowledge. For the field to continue to flourish, more evidence is needed to shed light on the implications for the animals and what guidelines need to be put into practice to ensure welfare.With the ultimate goal of improving the impact that we have on the animals under our care, the book provides a roadmap for researchers and clinicians as they attempt to safely and humanely incorporate various species of animals into therapeutic settings. The authors also offer instructions and suggestions for areas that need to be studied more robustly over the next decade to continue to ensure the safe and proper use of animals in therapy sessions.This is an informative, thought-provoking and instructive resource for practitioners and researchers in the field of medicine and clinical psychology using animal-assisted interventions, as well as for veterinarians and welfare scientists.Table of ContentsSee the attachment

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Book SynopsisPart I: Polarization Sensitivity and Vision.- Polarization Sensitivity in the Vinegar Fly, Drosophila melanogaster.- Polarization Sensitivity in Bees (Apoidea).- Polarization Vision and Orientation in Ball-rolling Dung Beetles.- Polarization Sensitivity in Desert Locusts, Schistocerca gregaria.- Polarization Sensitivity in Butterflies.- Polarization Sensitivity in Tabanid Flies.- Horsefly Polarotaxis.- Circular Polarization Insensitivity in Scarab Beetles with Circularly Polarizing Exocuticle.- Polarization Sensitivity and Polarotaxis in Springtails (Collembola).- Polarization Sensitivity, Polarotaxis and Polarization-elicited Optomotor Response in Yellow Fever Mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti).- Polarotaxis in Mayflies.- Polarization Sensitivity and Polarotaxis in Odonates (Dragonflies and Damselflies).- Polarization Vision of Crustaceans.- Polarization Sensitivity in Cephalopods - Cuttlefish as Model Animals.- Polarization Sensitivity in Fishes.- Polarization Sensitivity in Amphibians: An Update.- Polarization Sensitivity in Reptiles: An Update.- Polarization Vision in Birds.- Polarization Sensitivity and Insensitivity in Bats.- Polarization Insensitivity in Harbour Seals (Phoca vitulina).- Human Polarization Sensitivity: An Update.- Vision of Trilobites and Polarized Light.- Part II: Environmental Polarization with Implications to Polarization Sensitivity and Vision.- Polarization Signals in Crustaceans and Insects.- Reflection-polarization Characteristics of Water Surfaces.- Polarized Light Pollution and Ecological/Evolutionary Traps Induced by It for Polarotactic Aquatic Insects.- Part III: Celestial Viking Navigation.- Sky-polarimetric Viking Navigation: An Extended Update.- Part IV: Astronomical Polarization.- Polarization of Sunlit and Moonlit Skies, Eclipse Skies, Solar Coronas and Kordylewski Dust Clouds.- Astronomical Polarization, Polarization-sensitive Cameras and Telescopes.

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Book SynopsisIntroduction.- Part I Impacts of anthropogenic pressure and climate change in the responses of Amazonian aquatic organisms.- 1 Anthropogenic climate change is a present and future stressor for fish communities in the Amazon Basin.- 2 Genetics, toxicological background, and environmental adaptation processes of disease- vector mosquitoes in the Amazon.- 3 Dissolved Organic Carbon (DOC) of the Rio Negro, Amazonia: Importance, Processes and Potential Anthropogenic Impacts.- 4 Impacts of climate change and local disturbance on stream fish assemblages in the Amazon.- 5 Amazonian aquatic insects in a changing world.- 6 Aquatic herbaceous plants of the Amazonian Wetlands: key species under pressure.- 7 The fate of floodplain forests in a changing Amazon.- 8 Amazonian aquatic food webs, their variation and vulnerability in regard to climate change.- Part II Ecotoxicology: fish and amphibian sensitivity.- 9 A double threat to Amazonian frogs: toxic contaminants and their interaction with global climate change.- 10 Toxicological impacts of pesticides and heavy metals on Amazon fish: trends and future perspectives.- 11 Impact of organic pollution on the genome of native Amazonian fish species: highlights for the cytogenomics and gene expression.- Part III Phenotypic plasticity and adaptive mechanisms: change to survive.- 12 Amazonian fish and their bacterial symbionts: An intricate co-dependence relationship in a changing environment.- 13 Environmental nucleic acids: A toolkit for monitoring diversity, conservation and environmental/population health.- 14 Air-breathing fish in the Amazon facing elevated temperatures.- Part IV - Physiological and biochemical responses.- 15 AMAZONIAN CRUSTACEANS: Macrobrachium amazonicum (Decapoda, Palaemonidae).- 16 Is electron transport system activity assay useful for aerobic scope estimation of thermal metabolic stress in fish? A case study with fish from different climatic zones..- 17 Limited thermal capacity of Amazonian fishes to survive in a warming world.- Part V Aquaculture as a tool to ensure food security in the Amazon.- 18 The future of the value chain of the Pirarucu in the Brazilian Amazon.- 19 Impacts of Climate Change on the Parasite-Host Relationship in Freshwater Aquaculture.- 20 Conclusion and Perspectives.

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Book Synopsis1.- Introduction.2.- Effects of Extreme Temperatures on Living Tissues.3.- Whole-body Models.4.- Regional Models— Skin and Deep Tissues.5.- Hyperthermia.6.- Cryomedicine.7.- Thermal Ablation in Silico.8.- Conclusions..- Index.

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Book SynopsisPrologue.- The Andes: the physical setting.- Beyond species richness: a behavioural perspective of the anuran diversity in the Andes of Colombia.- Functional diversity of amphibians and reptiles in tropical dry forest remnants and anthropogenic cover types in the Lower Bogotá River sub-basin (Department of Cundinamarca, Colombia).- Biogeographic patterns of richness and endemism in Liolaemidae: identifying hotspots for the most diverse Andean reptile radiation.- The climatic niche evolution of South American squamates (Reptilia: Squamata).- The shared evolutionary history of South America’s mountain biotas: Genetic evidence from amphibians and reptiles.- Anurans of the Patagonian Andes: a little-known variety of reproductive and developmental strategies.- Unveiling Patagonian Lizards: A Three-Decade Journey through Ecology, Evolution, and Adaptation in a Changing World.- Drivers of physiological responses and range distribution in the context of Rapaport’s rule. The case of East Andean Liolaemidae lizard species.- Physiological ecology of Andean amphibians associated with freezing temperatures.- Thermal biology of squamate reptiles in the high mountains of the Northern Andes.- Thermal Adaptations in Tropical Andean Amphibians: Exploring Spatial Variability and Global Change Impacts.- Emerging infectious diseases of amphibians in the Andean region: An analysis pointing out the limits of current knowledge and underscored topics in which additional research is necessary.- Diversity and extinction risk of Colombian Andean amphibians across life regions.- Experiences in conservation planning for amphibians in the Andean region.- Andean snakes: understanding biodiversity knowledge shortfalls.- Herpetofauna of the Andes: A critical synthesis.

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