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Chargement... Cuckoo: Cheating by Nature (original 2015; édition 2016)par Nick Davies (Auteur)
Information sur l'oeuvreCuckoo: Cheating by Nature par Nicholas B. Davies (2015)
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Simply brilliant. I heard Nick Davies talking about cuckoos at Niddfest (a wonderful literary festival based in Nidderdale celebrating nature in writing), and this is where I bought the book. I'm not a scientist, but the story of how observers and scientists of various kinds have pieced together the story of the cuckoo is a fascinating one. So is the account of how cuckoos, their offsprings' inadvertent nurse-maids, and various other creatures who assume similar behaviour patterns, play out their lives. I was left with a great respect not only for the poor duped hosts, but for the cuckoo itself: its lifestyle, its long annual journey to and from Africa is hardly easy. I've learned a huge amount since the day when my interest was sparked by watching an enormous, though only half-grown cuckoo, being fed by its foster-mother, a rather small meadow pipit. ( ) aucune critique | ajouter une critique
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How does the cuckoo get away with laying its eggs in the nests of other birds and tricking them into raising young cuckoos rather than their own offspring? Early observers who noticed a little warbler feeding a monstrously large cuckoo chick concluded the cuckoo's lack of parental care was the result of faulty design by the Creator, and that the hosts chose to help the poor cuckoo. These quaint views of bad design and benevolence were banished after Charles Darwin proposed that the cuckoo tricks the hosts in an evolutionary battle, where hosts evolve better defenses against cuckoos and cuckoos, in turn, evolve better trickery to outwit the hosts. For the last three decades, Davies has employed observation and field experiments to unravel the details of this evolutionary "arms race" between cuckoos and their hosts. Like a detective, Davies and his colleagues studied adult cuckoo behavior, cuckoo egg markings, and cuckoo chick begging calls to discover exactly how cuckoos trick their hosts. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)598.74Natural sciences and mathematics Zoology Birds Scansores, climbers Cuckoos, RoadrunnersClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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