American Pronghorn : Social Adaptations and the Ghosts of Predators Past
Editorial Reviews
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The pronghorn antelope (Antilocapra americana) evolved, it would seem, to feed a host of predators, ranging from coyotes and wolves to the long-disappeared saber-toothed tiger and American cheetah. (Cheetahs, John A. Byers writes, were probably "the principal agents of selection that prompted the evolution of astounding running speed in pronghorn"--a speed that has been clocked at 100 kilometers an hour.) Lacking many of those predators, today the pronghorn population has grown throughout the American West, making the animals a common sight for ecotourists and residents alike. Among other things considered in this thorough survey of pronghorn biology, Byers looks at "ghost behavior"--patterns of action determined by ecological conditions that long ago changed. Horses, for instance, remain herd-based social animals as a protective mechanism against predators, although, as he writes, "predator-driven selection has been relaxed."
Book Description
Pronghorn antelope are the fastest runners in North America, clocked at speeds of up to 100 kilometers per hour. Yet none of their current predators can come close to running this fast. Pronghorn also gather in groups, a behavior commonly viewed as a "safety in numbers" defense. But again, none of their living predators are fearsome enough to merit such a response.
In this elegantly written book, John A. Byers argues that these mystifying behaviors evolved in response to the dangerous predators with whom pronghorn shared their grassland home for nearly four million years: among them fleet hyenas, lions, and cheetahs. Although these predators died out ten thousand years ago, pronghorn still behave as if they were present--as if they were living with the ghosts of predators past.
Byers's provocative hypothesis will stimulate behavioral ecologists and mammalogists to consider whether other species' adaptations are also haunted by selective pressures from predators past. The book will also find a ready audience among evolutionary biologists and paleontologists.
American Pronghorn: Social Adaptations and the Ghosts of Predators Past,John A. Byers,University Of Chicago Press,0226086992,Adaptation,Animals,Behavior,Evolution,General,Mammals,Nature,Pronghorn antelope,Science/Mathematics,Social behavior in animals,Animal behaviour,North America,Pets / General
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